A comprehensive roundup: Top 20 agricultural technology investment and financing deals of 2023

9. Loam Bio (Australia) — Agreena, an agricultural soil carbon startup, raised €46 million (US$50 million) in Series B funding led by Germany’s HV Capital, with participation from AENU, Anthemis, Gullspång Re:food, Kinnevik, and the Danish Export and Investment Fund, to scale its soil carbon program—which provides financial incentives to farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture practices. 10. SAEL (India) — SAEL, a company converting agricultural waste into renewable energy, secured a US$60 million investment from Norfund’s Norwegian Climate Investment Fund. This funding is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by over 2.8 million tons by curbing open-field straw burning. 11. Bluepha (China) — Biomaterials company Bluepha raised US$58 million in Series B funding led by Zhongping Capital. The company is developing a suite of natural biopolymers to support downstream enterprises. 12. Halter (New Zealand) — Halter secured NZ$85 million (US$53.3 million) in Series C funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and co-invested by Blackbird Ventures. Halter focuses on developing solar-powered smart cattle collars and other livestock management technologies. 13. Ecorobotix (Switzerland) — Agri-robotics startup Ecorobotix raised US$52 million in Series B funding co-led by Aqton PE and Cibus Capital. The funds will support development of autonomous, precision-spraying robots for row crops and pastureland. 14. Agreena (Denmark) — Agreena’s soil carbon program raised €46 million (US$50 million) in Series B funding led by Germany’s HV Capital, offering financial incentives to farmers adopting regenerative agriculture practices. 15. Aemetis Biogas (USA) — Aemetis Biogas, a subsidiary of biofuel company Aemetis, secured US$50 million in debt financing. Backed by a loan guarantee commitment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP), the funds will finance construction of dairy biogas digesters. 16. Green Genius (Lithuania) — Renewable energy company Green Genius secured US$50 million in financing from Poland’s mBank to build a 69-megawatt solar power plant in Poland—the largest deal Green Genius has closed in the country to date; the company also has other solar projects under construction there. 17. Bio-Engine (China) — In May this year, Bio-Engine—a company manufacturing serum-free cell culture media for human and animal cells—raised over RMB 300 million (approx. US$41 million) in Series C funding led by Newerli Capital.

California’s renewable energy challenges

Step 1: Load the day’s data and integrate natural gas electricity output. These data are recorded at five-minute intervals, but to simplify analysis, we downsample them to hourly resolution. Paris—we assume our new grid will include a stable natural gas baseload of 4,220 MW. This implies a 10% reduction in natural gas consumption for that day, or a 1.7% drop relative to total daily energy use. Ideally, I believe California would use nuclear power to meet this baseload—but that seems unlikely. Last year, regulators voted to shut down Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear power plant. Now, we can clearly see how much energy storage capacity we need. The battery capacity must exceed our baseload. To calculate required battery capacity (in MWh), we simply compute the area under this curve. This amounts to approximately 11.2 million MWh of storage. Tesla’s 129-MWh battery storage facility for Hornsdale in Australia cost US$56 million. Scaling up linearly, a 11.2-million-MWh battery system would cost roughly US$4.86 billion. Over time, as batteries become more widespread, their costs may decline. Given the consistent downward price trend, this figure is not unreasonable. The Diablo Canyon power plant generates about five times this daily output—and its construction cost was US$1.38 billion. Crucially, remember that batteries themselves do not generate energy. For this effort to be worthwhile, renewables must produce surplus electricity during daylight hours to charge the batteries—and California is already doing exactly that. California routinely curtails massive amounts of otherwise usable renewable energy, and this amount continues to rise. In April 2019, a record 190,000 MWh was curtailed; on May 7 this month, an astonishing 8,000 MWh (369 MWh) was curtailed—nearly enough to fully charge our massive battery. It is precisely this low-cost, surplus energy that Moss Landing’s battery farm seeks to purchase—and then resell for profit. Yet, as of May 15, only 193 MWh had been curtailed. Even in summer, our renewable generation remains highly volatile and unreliable. Without alternative sources like natural gas or nuclear power to fill gaps, we face serious risk. Still, let’s proceed assuming—like California politicians appear to be doing—that we’ll rely solely on solar. That would require spending billions of dollars building redundant generation capacity to cover shortfalls when needed. This problem is especially acute in January. By December, even in sunny California, our generation plummets sharply. Let’s examine the Daggett Solar Farm to gauge the scale of the challenge we face. To ensure solar power delivers reliable electricity, we must size it to meet our energy needs even during winter months.

Aemetis Starts Two New Dairy Digesters as California RNG Network Expands

5 days ago

Aemetis launched two new dairy biogas digesters in California, increasing its total to 14 facilities to produce 600,000 MMBtu of renewable natural gas annually. The company plans to open a fueling station soon to sell RNG to truck fleets.

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