Meet the climate innovators of tomorrow

→ For example, I am interested in efforts to use recycled materials, including recycled cobalt, in batteries. (MIT Technology Review)

Thermal battery startup Antora has just launched its first commercial-scale system. The company’s technology could help power industrial plants requiring high heat and constant power. (Bloomberg)

→ Here’s why thermal batteries are the hottest new climate technology (get it?). (MIT Technology Review)

Even for a senior government official, road trips in an electric vehicle still present some challenges. During a trip this summer, the U.S. energy secretary and her entourage encountered problems when several electric vehicles attempted to stop at a fast-charging station outside Augusta, Georgia. (NPR)

Should cow droppings make hydrogen clean? The fight for a new hydrogen tax credit rages on, with new concerns that shoddy accounting will make the credit worthless for reducing emissions if “renewable natural gas” projects are included. (Canary Media)

If the world was graded on progress on climate change, we probably wouldn’t do well. The UN has released a climate “report card” and while action has been taken, things need to speed up soon to meet international climate goals. (The edge)

There’s a lot of big news in the steel sector this week. H2 Green Steel has raised $1.6 billion in equity capital to help build its proposed green steel plant in Sweden. (Canary Media) And Boston Metal, a startup working to electrify the production of one of the world’s most widely used and polluting materials, has raised $262 million in funding. (Bloomberg)

New research could help reduce contrails (the contrails that form behind planes during their flight), which represent a significant part of the climate impacts of aviation. The key is to avoid certain parts of the atmosphere where long-lasting clouds form. (Quartz)

Grid batteries could help smooth the supply of electricity from wind and solar power, and also provide a backup solution in the event of a power outage. But some people are understandably nervous about the potential fire safety issues that large battery installations could present. (Wired)