FOAK Climate Tech Monthly — April 2026

April was a month of lifelines and groundbreakings. Some projects got exactly the rescue they needed; others got exactly the ceremony they needed. Let's sort the real from the theatrical.

The Good News

Kairos Power broke ground on Hermes 2 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee — a 50 MW salt-cooled Gen IV reactor that will be the first power-producing Gen IV plant permitted in the US. Google data centres in Tennessee and Alabama are the offtakers. It seems that the Senate hearings over the last month were not an obstacle to putting shovels in the ground. This is how you build credibility in advanced nuclear: get Hermes 1 permitted, learn from it, then scale. Textbook FOAK sequencing.

Stegra secured €1.4 billion in new financing led by the Wallenberg family to complete its green steel mill in Boden, Sweden, including a 740 MW renewable hydrogen plant. Let's be clear: this was a rescue, not a victory lap. The project was in serious financial trouble, and the Northvolt ghost was hovering in the background. But the money is in, the path to completion is now fully funded, and construction should accelerate. Europe's most important industrial decarbonization FOAK lives to see another day. Total required financing is north of €2 billion, so they are not out of the woods yet.

ATOME reached Final Investment Decision on its $665 million Villeta green fertiliser plant in Paraguay — the world's first industrial-scale green fertiliser facility. That's on the back of $420M in debt, secured last month. Subsidy-free, 145 MW electrolyser, 60,000 tonnes per annum. FID is not construction completion; for a project of this type and scale in Paraguay, without subsidies, this is a genuine milestone. Hats off to Olivier Mussat and the team! If you want to lear more, you can watch my interview with Olivier here.

Net Zero Teesside continues advancing toward its 2028 launch, with construction on the 742 MW gas power + CCS facility ongoing since mid-2025. Meanwhile, BP announced it will sell stakes in the project to bring in new partners. It could be a pragmatic move to share risk as construction ramps up.

The Bad News and Warning Signs

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries stated publicly that green hydrogen-based direct reduced iron is "not economically viable" in Europe today. This isn't news to anyone watching the space closely, but having a major industrial player say it on the record puts pressure on every H2-DRI project on the continent — Stegra included. The €1.4B buys time and steel but doesn't fix the underlying economics.

Microsoft may be stepping back from carbon removal purchases, according to MIT Technology Review. This is a serious demand signal problem for the entire CDR sector. Climeworks signed a new offtake deal with NTT Data — despite zero info on whether their tech can actually sequester any meaningful amounts of carbon. Anyway, one Japanese data centre firm does not replace the industry's largest buyer, getting cold feet.

The Noise

Lyten's Northvolt acquisition continues generating impressive press releases about a "$5 billion battery empire" built on lithium-sulfur technology. What we have so far: acquired assets from a bankrupt company and ambitions. No production data, no cells shipped at scale (ok, might be a bit too early for that). I'll track it, but this is still a PowerPoint at an industrial site.

NEOM green hydrogen offered reassurances that construction "has not been affected" by the US-Iran conflict. Noted. But the broader green hydrogen narrative continues to erode — costs remain high, infrastructure gaps are real, and timelines are slipping globally.

Eavor-Loop Geretsried got some favourable coverage about its closed-loop geothermal system in Bavaria. The technology is genuinely interesting, but the April news was features and op-eds, not utilisation updates.

Key Takeaways

• Rescue ≠ validation. Stegra's €1.4B is essential, but the Mitsubishi H2-DRI viability warning on the same continent in the same month should keep everyone sober. Funding secured; unit economics not yet proven.

• Kairos is showing how FOAK sequencing should work. Build small, learn, get permitted, then break ground on the next one. Other advanced nuclear developers should be taking notes.

• CDR demand is fragile. If Microsoft wobbles, the entire voluntary carbon removal market feels it. Climeworks and others need to diversify buyers fast. Or save everyone some time and forget that CDR will ever work.

Next month: I'll be watching for Stegra construction acceleration in Boden, Hermes 2 early construction progress, and whether the Microsoft-CDR story gets worse. See you in June!