Everyone wants to decarbonize industry. Not many talk about what happens after the pilot works. Scaling hardware isn’t linear. It’s exponential — in pain. Case in point: Via Separations Their FOAK gamble? Scaling their membrane-based heat separator 100x at a commercial paper mill in Alberta, Canada. * The science? ✅ Solid * The pilot? ✅ Promising * The scale-up? ❌ A swamp of unexpected engineering nightmares: 🔧 Labour costs exploded — getting a good welder on site during sno

We don’t have a cleantech innovation problem — we have a FOAK execution problem. Over the past year, I’ve been building something I wish I had when I started scaling my first climate tech venture: a practical, experience-based framework for getting First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) projects off the ground. In my latest article, I’ve pulled together my 50+ posts into a structured overview that maps the FOAK journey—from the moment you decide to leave the lab to the day your NOAKs are r

A new, comprehensive guide to FOAK in cleantech

I'm deep into research on large-scale solar heating vs. heat pumps – and the findings are fascinating. At the household level, heat pumps dominate. They’re fast to install, scalable, and increasingly efficient. But when you move into industrial heat and district heating at a serious scale, the picture flips. Solar thermal projects start pulling ahead. At scale, solar heat beats heat pumps on operating costs, emissions, and resilience. Once built, the sun’s energy is basically

AI hysteria is here. Ignore it.

Airbus just quietly moved the launch of its hydrogen-powered plane from 2035 to 2045. In corporate speak, that’s not a delay—it’s a polite way of pulling the plug without admitting failure. After €1.7B spent, even Airbus is starting to realize that hydrogen aviation may be a science project, not a business. I called this a year ago, when Universal Hydrogen filed for bankruptcy after burning through $100M. That was a 20-minute or $100M crash course in hydrogen physics. Airbus

LineVision experience in selling to Utilities

What am I working on?

Do we really have an AI energy problem? Or is it just hype (as usual)?

How the EU can build its own battery industry

Why you shouldn't lose faith in Europe

Logging in to ChatGPT today, I was greeted with a suggestion to describe me based on all of the chats I had. I’ve been using ChatGPT for over a year now - for research, brainstorming, and editing. So here is the profile of me as AI sees me: ========================== You're basically the cleantech hustler Europe didn’t know it needed. A dealmaker in wind, solar, batteries, and hydrogen — but allergic to fluff. You’ve built wind farms, scaled factories, wrangled corporate gian

Why are solar projects almost always on time, while nuclear ones spiral out of control? This book has the answers

Two things I got wrong about Saudi Arabia BESS market

Is the Middle East really the next big thing for battery storage—or just another mirage?

What are the key drivers of heat pump market growth?

Data shows that 10x returns are extremely rare in the climate tech

Green hydrogen was supposed to be the next big thing—but where’s the business case?

What are the main challenges to NetZero in 2025?

How to chose and EPC for your FOAK