Emin Askerov
Cleantech FOAK Advisor

This post is about how Duke went from idea to operational factory in under 9 months—and what practical lessons it offers for cleantech scale-ups.

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

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)?

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

What are the main challenges to NetZero in 2025?

How to chose and EPC for your FOAK

In 2020, I was scrambling to get chips for our battery modules . Lead times had jumped from 2-3 months to over 9 months . Chipmakers prioritized gaming consoles and automotive giants, leaving cleantech startups like ours at the back of the line. That experience taught me just how fragile and unpredictable supply chains can be —and how they can make or break a scale-up. I was reminded of this while listening to The Green Blueprint  podcast episode, How Supply Chain Chaos Sank

Review of Breakthrough Energy and Cleantech for Europe report on the state of European manufacturing competitiveness

Do acquisitions of climate tech startups by Big Oil help or hinder energy transition?

The 4-step Framework for Building a Demo Project: Your Critical Step Between Pilot and FOAK

Battery startup descriptions don't make sense!

The stationary energy storage market tripled in 2023. But with the sector maturing fast, not every corner is ripe for VC-backed disruption

A 3-step framework for scaling-up to FOAK

De-icing a frozen water tower in the middle of nowhere is not on anyone’s job description. However, this is a reality that you can come up against when you are scaling up your climate tech and building your FOAK.  Most climate podcasts focus on finance, policy, or shiny new tech. But real stories of scaling climate hardware? Rare. That’s why The Green Blueprint episode, “𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱’𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗔𝗖 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆,” caught my attention. Host L

Venture investors watch the world burn and seek refuge in virtual worlds

A year ago, I launched ETR , a startup aimed at disrupting sustainable heating and cooling. Today, I’m closing it. This wasn’t an easy decision, but in hindsight, it was inevitable. What went wrong? Let me break it down. 👨🏼‍💻👷🏻‍♂️ Losing a Co-Founder = Losing Momentum My engineer co-founder, who was critical to our core idea, left the project. I tried to find a replacement, but I couldn’t. VCs always stress the importance of the team—and now I fully understand why.  Take