FOAK Climate Tech Projects Monitor — March 2026

March brought a mix of real construction milestones, big financing closes, and the usual parade of announcements that may or may not lead anywhere. Let's sort the signal from the noise.

 The Good News

Stegra (H2 Green Steel) delivered the headline of the month: all electrolyser modules are now installed at their 740 MW green hydrogen plant in Boden, Sweden. That's a real, physical milestone on what is arguably the most important green steel FOAK in the world. The financial picture is messier — they need to raise over €2 billion more to finish construction, and investors are reportedly haggling over control — but modules in the ground matter.

ATOME Villeta closed $420 million in debt financing for their $650 million green fertiliser plant in Paraguay, with backing from IFC and up to $95 million from the European Investment Bank. They also claim 100% offtake secured. Hat off to the team! For a project most people haven't heard of, this is a textbook FOAK financing milestone: multilateral lenders, full offtake, definitive documents signed. Watch this one. 

Net Zero Teesside continues to grind forward. The East Coast CCUS Cluster has now awarded over £1.5 billion in sub-contracts to UK suppliers, with construction accelerating. Commercial operations still targeted for 2028. The political noise around Chinese steel sourcing is annoying but irrelevant to execution — what matters is that contracts are being let and work is happening on site.

Form Energy keeps stacking commercial deals. After the 30 GWh Google/Xcel project in Minnesota, they signed a 12 GWh supply agreement with Crusoe for AI data centers, plus announced their first international deal (Ireland). The demand signal from hyperscalers is unmistakable. The real test remains: can the Weirton factory produce at scale and on spec?

ACME Group Odisha signed a massive 10-year green ammonia offtake with SECI for 370,000 tpa. That's a significant commercial agreement — but the Odisha plant still needs to get built.

ElevenEs didn't make the news this month, with construction underway, and nothing major to report. Still, Nemanja Mikać, ElevenEs CEO, published an interesting post on why they decided to skip turn-key solution for their mega factory - read it here. 

 The Bad News and Warning Signs 

Stegra's financing gap deserves a second mention — on the warning side. Needing €2 billion+ on top of what's already been raised, with investors fighting over governance, is not a comfortable place for any FOAK. The Koç Group partnership helps, but this project is not yet fully funded (and if I know anything about working with Turkish investors, this is going to be a tough one!). Electrolyser installation is great; running out of money before the first steel is not. 

Brevik CCS (Heidelberg Materials) had no project-specific construction news this month. Heidelberg reaffirmed its CCS strategy while simultaneously closing plants to cut costs. Strategy reaffirmation updates while closing plants is definitely a warning signal.

 The Noise

NEOM Green Hydrogen Company — another month of market reports, stock commentary, and geopolitical positioning pieces. Zero construction updates. This project can't shake its reputation as a market research PDF generator. 

Kairos Power appeared in Senate hearings, policy discussions, and investment articles. No construction or commissioning news for the Hermes reactor. Policy momentum is not the same as pouring concrete, and might actually work against you. 

Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced a strategic partnership with Realta Fusion on magnetic mirror technology. Interesting scientifically, irrelevant to construction progress. 

There was also a lot of noise from a pastry company posing as a battery company, but I forgot the name or why it should matter. Sorry. 

 Key Takeaways

- Stegra installing all 740 MW of electrolysers is the most significant physical FOAK milestone this month — but the €2B+ funding gap means the project is in a race between construction progress and capital markets patience.

- ATOME Villeta is a FOAK financing case study worth studying: multilateral debt, full offtake, manageable scale ($650M). Not every project needs to be a megaproject to matter.

- AI data center demand is now the dominant commercial pull for long-duration storage and clean power FOAKs. Form Energy is the clearest beneficiary, but this trend will reshape project economics across the board.

Overall FOAKs I monitor seem so far either insulated from the unfolding global crisis or even benefiting from it, like ATOME and ElevenEs.

Next month: expecting Stegra financing resolution news (hopefully), potential Form Energy factory production updates, and we'll check in on whether Kairos Hermes has anything physical to show. See you in May!