Emin Askerov
Cleantech FOAK Advisor

I spent Wednesday evening at a roundtable in Valencia on European battery sovereignty. The discussion was sharp, honest, and at times uncomfortable. I left with a clearer sense of both the problem and a path forward that doesn't require waiting for Brussels to fix the IAA, renegotiate the Korea FTA, or launch another battery alliance. This is my attempt to pull the threads together. The question that matters most European battery policy has been trapped in a cycle of ambitiou

Over the past twelve to eighteen months, the automotive industry has behaved in a way that commentators find deeply unsettling: it has cancelled things. Depending on one’s accounting preferences, somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five EV programmes have been scrapped, postponed, or politely redefined across 2025 and early 2026. For some observers, this was sufficient to declare that EV demand had finally met its limits. And yet, 2025 recorded more than 20 million EV s

Choosing the wrong geography can kill a FOAK, but being forced to choose too early almost certainly will. Lyten is moving manufacturing from the US to Sweden and Poland, while trying to keep its FOAK in Nevada. Freyr started in Norway, shifted to the US, and eventually walked away from batteries altogether. In today’s increasingly fragmented world, choosing a location for your FOAK can be central to survival. And too many founders are being pushed to make that choice before t

My friend Jean Gravellier once drove me around the Dunkirk area. I’ve seen the ArcelorMittal steel plant, the nuclear power station, and locations for future battery gigafactories. “Why there?” I thought. So many polluting industries, all in one place? There are many reasons, but one is permitting - businesses with a higher environmental footprint go where it is easier to get approval from local governments. There is a reason that many battery companies in Europe are in Hunga

The lessons of Natron Energy collapse

In the end, it had to be a political decision. After half a year of sifting through more than twenty locations and countless meetings with local officials, our future 8 GWh factory came down to two options. Tatarstan: a highly industrialised region east of Moscow, with a strong industrial park, permits ready, and—most importantly—right next to our main customer, Kamaz. Kaliningrad: a Russian exclave in Europe, wedged between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea, on the unfini

Alternative business model for a battery factory

How can you hype up, raise investments, burn the money, and do it all again? I have no idea, but life proves that it is possible, again and again.

This year, the mood at the Smarter E Europe expo in Munich is different. With many EU battery startups going under, the only way to survive is to find the right partner from Asia.

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

What will be the next phase for the battery industry: boom, or bust?

Your First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) project is where your climate tech startup is a startup no more. Investors, customers, and even your own team won’t fully believe in your technology until they see it in action at scale. So, how do you get it right? 𝟭. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 Murphy’s Law is real. FOAK projects never go as planned - delays, supplier failures, site issues, regulatory holdups. How do you prepare? • Use real-world data: Look at similar completed proj

What to do wıth Europe's auto industry?

Investor's pressure to go big might have had a hand in it.

A 3-step framework for scaling-up to FOAK

Why do you need a Chief Production Officer in your startup?

Main FOAK risks

You have to choose between your ego and your fees. This was a phrase I heard while listening to the Redefining Energy podcast episode “Northvolt - Epitaph.” It sums up perfectly the choice Europe is facing in the battery industry. Here is why.  This year, I’ve actively traveled around Europe, meeting with battery industry players. I was representing my client, a Korean company specializing in the most difficult part of battery manufacturing - making anode and cathode electrod

As 2024 wraps up, it’s time to reflect on a year that was anything but dull for the climate tech world. A buzzword dominated this year— FOAK (First-of-a-Kind).  It symbolizes the growing realization that proving your tech in a lab is one thing, but scaling it to a factory is a different beast. Many startups found themselves stuck in the dreaded Valley of Death  between proving a pilot and scaling up. I’ve written a few epitaphs on those who didn’t make it this year ( here , h

This week, I listened to two excellent podcasts dissecting the saga of Northvolt