FOAK vs Reality: February 2026
- Emin Askerov
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Welcome to the second edition of my monthly check-in on the 19 FOAK climate tech projects I said I’d track publicly in 2026! Yes, it was 23 projects, but I’ve decided there are too many CCS projects that haven’t been seen in the news for a long time, so they aren’t worth tracking, and I’ve added one.
February was a good month for climate FOAKs, so let’s start with the food news!
The good news
Form Energy Iron-Air Battery are the headliner of good FOAK news this month, thanks to signing a $1B deal with Google to provide their AI datacenters with long-duration storage. Bravo!
Linglong One (ACP100 SMR) installed first reactor core module in February, after completing a successful non-nuclear steam-run test in late December. The project seems on track to its planned start in the first half of 2026. That’s some Chinese speed!
H2 Green Steel (now Stegra) appointed a new CFO at the beginning of February, as it is seeking to raise another $1.1B, in addition to approximately $8B that have been spent so far. The really good news is that EPC Bellman Group renewed work at the site, after being paused before Christmas. Seems like Stegra is slowly finding a way out of the woods.
HYBRIT DRI Demo, another project in Sweden, had its temporary building permit extended to 2031 for its underground hydrogen storage facility.
ArcelorMittal Hamburg DRI demo project for making iron with hydrogen received another $55M of funding from the European Commission.
Kairos Power continues its positive news streak by signing a $27M agreement with the DOE.
Commonwealth Fusion is in the good news section this month, but by no fault of theirs. A new NRC regulatory proposal in February could significantly reduce regulatory barriers by treating fusion plants not as nuclear energy facilities but as more research facilities and storage. This should shave off years of regulatory approval, if the proposal is enacted.
LanzaJet raised $47M in new funding and announced plans to build a SAF hub in UK.
Lyten’s Northvolt saga continues, with Lyten completing the acquisition of 16 GWh facility in Skelleftea.
ElevenEs, the first fully European LFP battery startup, announced the closing of its funding round and the start of the construction of its first 1GWh factory in Serbia. I’m adding them to my list!
The bad news and warning signs
My table inhabitants didn’t see any direct bad news in February. Looking outside of the table, I would mention the decision by ACC to abandon gigafactories in Germany and Spain, and focus exclusively on its factory in France. This demonstrates again that trying to build several gigafactories at the same time, without getting at least one right first, is doomed to fail.
The noise – companies stirring up news, but making little progress
DAC’s have been making a lot of noise in February.
Occidental/1Komma5 STRATOS DAC is planned for opening in the 2nd quarter of this year, with no real update on what is going on at the construction site.
Climeworks made a series of announcements about partnerships around the world and opening its HQ in Canada. https://climeworks.com/press-release/rcjy-climeworks-deepen-partnership-to-scale-dac-in-saudi-arabia
In the European battery scene Donut Lab continued its viral marketing campaign, releasing 2 videos of tests of its (in)famous “solid-state” cell to a general confusion of industry experts. I’m not putting any links here, as Doughnut Lab marketing is much, much better than that of any serious battery company, and if you don’t have anything to do with your time, you will easily find many hours of video and text on this.
February key takeaways
Three results stand out. First, Linglong One, again making it to my good news list with the installation of a nuclear core – no mean feat! Second, is the $1B contract with Form Energy – this is a remarkable achievement for LDES! Third, is the close of B-series round by ElevenEs, showing that despite the headwinds in the European battery industry, such as ACC cancelling two major projects, there is still hope!
I’ll keep tracking these projects every month:
what changes,
what slips,
and what gets renamed to sound like progress.
Just tracking FOAKs meeting reality.
March update coming first week of April!
