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Articles by Buff Lopez
America Once Fed the World, Now It’s Feeding Its Competitors
The U.S. was once the dominant exporter of crops like soybeans, corn, wheat, and cotton. That leading position is fast eroding. Brazil has overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest soybean exporter and, in doing so, captured China — historically America’s most important agricultural customer — in the process. Argentinian beef made headlines last year for undercutting U.S. beef on cost.
The Resource Crisis Big Tech Created Is Cleantech’s Next Best Bet
In the U.S., data centers are scaling faster than current infrastructure can support. There is no time to wait for policymakers to act — the negative impacts are already being felt across the country. The gap between the harm being done and the solutions available is exactly where private equity belongs. It is a narrow window of opportunity to address bottlenecks in the market before damage becomes irreversible.
Recycling Is to Textiles What Carbon Capture Is to Oil & Gas
Innovation is buzzing in textiles recycling, particularly in the EU where Extended Producer Responsibility laws require hitting specific recycled content percentages. France and the Netherlands lead with mature collection and sorting schemes. California’s first textiles EPR law moves into implementation this summer. But a gap remains between regions, with European brands adapting while US companies are still entering.
The Greenest Red State: A Texas-Sized Cleantech Transformation
The Lone Star State, a long-known global energy hub, is emerging as a cleantech capital. A wave of innovation has rolled in, positioning Texas to the front of the energy transition. Already leaders in wind and solar, making use of the scorching hot sun, the Texas cleantech scene is getting even hotter. Cleantech Group’s Members Hub features over 900 Texas-based cleantech innovators, with a majority concentrated in Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.
Let’s Get Critical
Chances are, you’re reading or watching this blog from the comfort of your smartphone or laptop—devices powered by rechargeable batteries, connected through a vast and evolving network of grid infrastructure. What do all these technologies have in common? They depend on critical minerals and metals—essential materials at the heart of every link in the energy and power value chain.
The Next Wave of Advanced Chip Packaging Innovation
Digitalization is rapidly expanding, driven by growth in AI and data centers. The IEA’s recently published report, Energy and AI, sounds the alarm on dramatic increases in energy demand. What you need to know is, forecasts for electricity consumption by data centers are highly uncertain, with some estimates far exceeding current unprecedented demands. The U.S. is poised to lead globally in data center electricity consumption due to AI by 2030.
The $3 Trillion Race: Investing in Semiconductors for an AI-Powered Future
By now, we’ve all heard about the Artificial Intelligence (AI) surge that is going to demand unprecedented amounts of energy. Even the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report on Energy and AI recently. The advanced energy materials that are the foundation of these digital solutions are semiconductors.
Speeding up Earth’s Natural CO2 Mineralization Cycle Can Recover All of the CO2 from Fossil Fuels
Cleantech Insights, Materials & Chemicals | 25 February 2025 We’ve got all these great solutions capturing carbon, typically from air or industrial emitters. But capture is only half of the problem. What do we do with all that captured carbon? The duration of carbon storage is critical to assessing the life cycle of CO2-derived products and storage capabilities. Synthetic fuels derived from captured CO2 are typically recombusted within one year of being captured.
Record $371.9M Raised for Low-Carbon Cement in 2024, But $20B Needed by 2030
Cleantech Insights, Materials & Chemicals | 28 January 2025 Second only to water, concrete is the most consumed material on Earth with an annual production of approximately 4 billion tons. The industry is responsible for 7% — 8% of global anthropogenic emissions and over 3% of the total global energy production. Ninety percent of concrete’s emissions come from its primary ingredient, cement, that produces 1 ton of CO2 per ton of cement.
Recent Deals - 22 October 2024
Agriculture & Food, Cleantech Insights, Energy & Power, Materials & Chemicals, Resources & Environmental Management, Transportation & Logistics, Waste & Recycling | 22 October 2024 Laser-powered weeding devices, long-duration iron-air batteries, and carbon negative construction materials derived from captured CO2: Recent Deals worth looking at Carbon Robotics (2018) develops automated laser-powered weeding devices.
Point Source Capture: Is it a Silver Bullet for Industrial Emitters?
Point Source Capture (PSC) technologies capture at the point of emission from industrial sources. These hard-to-abate sectors include natural gas, blue hydrogen, power generation, refineries, cement, iron and steel, chemicals, steam methane reforming, fermentation, and syngas producers. In 2022, these emitters produced 36 GtCO2 or 68% of total emissions.
Digital Tools Accelerate Materials Discovery
Cleantech Insights, Materials & Chemicals | 15 August 2024 We have the privilege of overabundance of data and big data from a combination of research institutions, company projects, field experiments, etc. The challenge now: how do we process and translate this data into real-world applications to discover new materials? We can’t expect to find the next-generation of materials the way we discovered penicillin—by chance. In 2022, the total revenue of the global chemicals industry topped $5.72T.
Innovate or Stagnate: Cleaning Up the Manufacturing Sector
Industrial cleaning of manufacturing and process equipment typically employs the use of hydrocarbon solvents, caustic solutions and heated chemicals. These solutions are effective, however, pose a significant barrier to decarbonization strategies for many manufacturers. Cleaning products rely heavily on fossil fuels for everything from formulation to packaging, whether it’s for domestic, commercial or industrial applications.
Cell-Free Biomanufacturing: Decentralized Approach for Fuels & Chemicals Synthesis
Cleantech Insights, Materials & Chemicals | 20 June 2024 Chemicals manufacturing consumes approximately 10% of fossil fuels produced globally and expensive heavy metal or rare earth catalysts, the latter known to be increasingly expensive due to limited supply availability. While chemicals production via fossil fuels is successful, over 935 Mt were produced globally in 2022 or approximately 1.3 tons of CO2 produced per ton of primary chemicals, e.g., ethylene, (IEA 2023).
Innovation Diversity: Celebrating Cleantech Pride
Cleantech Insights, Corporates in Cleantech | 10 June 2024 The future of cleantech has been fueled by inclusive innovation. Cleantech Group is proud to honor the many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and more (LGBTQ+) leaders in cleantech in celebration of June Pride month and throughout the year and we will continue to feature some of the innovators and investors that stand out.
Cleantech Trends in APAC: A Look Back at 2023 and Forward to 2024
Our annual APAC Cleantech 25 was released on April 18th, 2024 – this is always a great opportunity to zoom in on the region and reflect on its importance in the global cleantech ecosystem. This year’s list demonstrates a deepening of trends observed a year ago – where the region was shifting heavily toward an emphasis on new energy and associated materials, electric mobility, and technologies for circularity.
Gas Purification Systems Will Need to Grow Alongside Hydrogen Production
Cleantech Insights, Hydrogen, Materials & Chemicals | 14 May 2024 Hydrogen is commonly used in industry as a fuel or as an input in chemicals production. Its demand is growing as its popularity for fuel and energy storage continues to increase, however, constraints on supply chains and markets are known. Corrosion, leakage, performance, and monitoring accuracy are a handful of the issues the existing value chain has today. Innovators are largely taking on each issue individually.
How Industrial Waste is Enabling Carbon Mineralization
There’s a lot of buzz around high-quality carbon capture technologies, but it seems like they’re always 10-20 years away from commercial scale. So, for now, we’ve had no choice but to rely on lower-quality and nature-based carbon capturing solutions. While these solutions are great options, they generally have some kind of impermanence associated with them. For example, planting a tree is a good solution, but when that tree dies or is burned, its stored carbon is released back into the environment.
Biodegradable Bioplastics: Decarbonizing a “Throw-Away Economy” Built on Cheap and Durable Plastics
The global utilization of plastics in our everyday lives has made it seemingly impossible to imagine life without it. A majority of plastics are used in packaging, especially single use, but also in automotive, textiles, and engineering and industrial applications. Plastics gained widespread popularity due to their durability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
Innovation Diversity: Heralding Emerging Champions in Cleantech
Cleantech Group celebrates diverse innovation by highlighting fresh perspectives needed right now in cleantech. In 2022, less than 2% of total U.S. VC funds raised went to women-owned startups; 1% and 1.5% to Black and Latino founders, respectively. Unfortunately, in 2023, these figures decreased to embarrassingly low numbers. Fortunately, we know that the cleantech ecosystem fosters and embraces innovation across a wide range of voices.
Valorizing Agrifood Waste Streams into Biochar
Biochar is a carbon-rich powdered or granular substance produced by burning organic biomass in a low-oxygen environment; a process called pyrolysis. Biochar can be used as a soil amendment or fertilizer additive, boosting soil’s nutrient and water retention capacity, and in turn enhancing crop resilience and yield. The feedstock for biochar production is organic biomass such as crop and forestry residues, which can be readily sourced from farmers and landowners seeking to valorize waste streams.
Hydrogen: A Fuel Carrier for Heavy-Duty Commercial Land, Maritime and Aviation Vehicles, and Energy Storage
Cleantech Insights, Energy & Power, Hydrogen | 09 November 2023 In 2021, 98% of hydrogen was produced from fossil fuels—global emissions reached over 900 Mt of carbon dioxide amounting to 2.5% of all energy-related CO2 emissions. This heavy carbon-emitting industry is driven largely by the need for better working solutions for grid storage, steel and fertilizer production, and EVs, namely commercial heavy-duty, maritime vehicles and aviation.
Recent Deals - 13 June 2023
Bio-oils for carbon sequestration; advanced compostable materials to replace plastic; and an ESG platform keeping the real estate sector accountable– Recent deals worth looking at: Agriculture & Food Uncommon (2017), previously known as Higher Steaks, is an alternative protein company creating cell-based meat products from cultivated pork.
Holly Stower and Buff Lopez | Cleantech Group
Skip to content Expert perspectives on the business topics and trends catalyzing opportunities for sustainable growth powered by innovation. Browse by category All Agriculture & Food Cross-sector Trends Enabling Technologies Energy & Power Materials & Chemicals Recent Deals Resources & Environment Transportation & Logistics Our Perspectives
Silicon Anodes Can Improve EV Battery Density and Extend Range Without Cost Increase
Recent developments have optimized silicon by controlling expansion and increasing its conductivity. Well-designed void spaces by means of reliable, scalable processes that are compatible with current manufacturing processes (drop-in solutions) are now available. When processed into micro/nanometer-sized particles, silicon can be carefully fine-tuned with polymer and metal coatings that allow expansion in a controlled manner.
3D-Printed Homes: A Sustainable Construction Method on the Rise
This innovation by Mighty Buildings is by no means premature and comes on the heels of the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supply chain issues that were exaggerated by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to cause significant increases in home building prices while negatively impacting the quality of homes and construction timelines.
Battery and Energy Materials Innovation Underpin Historic Highs in Cleantech Investments in Asia Pacific
In last year’s APAC Cleantech 25 report (launched August 31, 2022) we noted that, while venture and growth investments in Asia-Pacific cleantech were continuing at the same pace as in 2021, they lagged the growth rates seen in Europe and the U.S. This dynamic has reversed in recent months as APAC saw a Q1 2023 that outpaced the entire second half of 2022 (download our APAC Cleantech 25 report, published in April 2023).
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