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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

New installment of The Sun Has Won: Working Paper: The Impact of Renewable Electricity Generation on Grid Stability This one is technical and wonky. TL;DR There is no evidence that increases in renewable generation cause grid instability. 🔌💡 PDF grouper-sponge-bsht.squarespace.com/s/The-Sun-Ha...

grouper-sponge-bsht.squarespace.com

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Reposted by Planetary Technologies

Rob Carlson @robcarlson.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

I wrote about how capital efficiency will drive the inevitable shift from fossil to renewables here: #energysky bsky.app/profile/plan...

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Rob Carlson @robcarlson.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

"Capital deployed to build renewables rather than spent on fossil fuels is more efficiently used, produces an equivalent or better return, and carries a lower total cost. Continuing to burn fossil fuels will become a symbol of backwards thinking and poor planning." #energysky

Continued investment in fossil fuels, whether by public or private entities, will be investment in capital-inefficient,
uncompetitive energy production. To put that another way, most organizations that continue to build and operate gas-
or coal-fired power plants after 2025 will not be making decisions based on rational energy economics, nor on
purported calculations related to grid stability. In most cases, a dollar, yuan, or euro spent on fossil fuels already
delivers substantially less useful energy to the end user than the same amount spent on renewable energy.
…
States that rapidly adopt renewables will enable more capital-efficient economic activity,
thereby freeing up funds for other investments, and will therefore have a greater competitive edge in global markets
than those nation states that continue to burn fossil fuels.

The advantage for renewables exists regardless of the volume of domestic fossil fuel energy production or
consumption, and that advantage is growing; there are ever fewer locations in which mining and combustion are
better means to produce either work or heat than renewable electricity.
...
Continuing to burn fossil fuels thereby carries a significant economic cost, and constitutes a self-imposed financial
penalty. This combustion penalty applies to every year in which a nation chooses to burn fossil fuels rather than
install renewables, and ultimately degrades that nation's long-term global competitiveness. The penalty is also
cumulative, because capital deployed to build renewables rather than spent on fossil fuels is more efficiently used,
produces an equivalent or better return, and carries a lower total cost. Continuing to burn fossil fuels will become a
symbol of backwards thinking and poor planning.

https://www.planetarytech.earth/s/The_Sun_Has_Won_Rob_Carlson_July2022.pdf

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Reposted by Planetary Technologies

Rob Carlson @robcarlson.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

In review: Watch what bankers do. They don't like to lose money. bsky.app/profile/plan...

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

One reason that Trainsmission makes sense is that very little engineering and infrastructure change is necessary to roll it out. And it can roll today. In the US and Europe, freight rail already goes everywhere that needs more power. In many cases, Trainsmission is cheaper than new transmission.

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Congratulations to Cyclic Materials on raising a $75M Series C round to "Fast-Track Local and Resilient Rare Earths Supply at Global Scale". We are pleased to welcome T. Rowe Price and the Canadian Growth Fund as investors. www.wsj.com/business/can...

wsj.com

Exclusive | Can Old Lime Bikes and Hard Disks Counter China’s Rare-Earth Chokehold?

Cyclic Materials, which just raised $75 million from investors, plans to open an Arizona recycling facility to mine expired electronic equipment for valuable commodities.

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

New blog post: Where data is available, it is clear that renewable generation supports grid stability. Claims otherwise are not supported by data. 🔌💡 High Renewable Electricity Generation is Correlated with Increased Grid Stability www.planetarytech.earth/posts/high-r...

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Production of fuel requires capital. Incineration of the fuel is incineration of that capital.

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Nice coverage in the FT of Solvay's shift to using recycled rare earth elements in partnership with portfolio company Cyclic Materials cyclicmaterials.earth. #REE #recycling #criticalmaterials www.ft.com/content/db79...

ft.com

Solvay expands rare earths production as Chinese export curbs highlight risks to Europe

Belgian company hopes La Rochelle plant will help it meet 30% of European demand by 2030

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Portfolio company Cyclic Materials today announced a $20M investment in its first full scale rare earth recycling facility in Arizona. Investors now include Microsoft, Hitachi Ventures, BMW iVentures, ArcTern, Fifth Wall, and Amazon. cyclicmaterials.earth www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...

businesswire.com

Cyclic Materials to Invest Over USD $20M in its First Commercial Facility in the United States

Cyclic Materials, the advanced recycling company creating a circular supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials, today announce...

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Congratulations to portfolio company Tandem PV @tandempv.bsky.social on raising $50M to commercialize tandem perovskite modules manufactured in the U.S. Current module efficiencies are at 28% and are expected to reach 30% by late 2025. www.tandempv.com/news/tandem-...

tandempv.com

Tandem PV Raises $50M to Take Back U.S. Leadership With New Perovskite Solar Manufacturing | Tandem PV

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

There is a new installment of The Sun Has Won out today. 🔌💡 Research Note: Historical and Planned U.S. Electricity Generation www.planetarytech.earth/posts/the-su...

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

New publication examining scenarios for global PV installations out to 2050. The Sun Has Won Research Note: Discerning Trends in PV Installation Data www.planetarytech.earth/posts/the-su...

planetarytech.earth

Planetary Technologies is an investment fund with the mission to find scalable technologies that can help the world mature beyond fossil fuels at the pace necessary to avoid unsustainable warming. Pla...

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 30/05/2024

Here's a nice column in the @financialtimes.com on our portfolio company SunTrain and #Trainsmission, shipping electrons in batteries by rail. We can connect generation and customers 5-10 years faster by rail than by building new wires. Let's roll. #energysky www.ft.com/content/e7ba...

ft.com

How to ship sunlight

[FREE TO READ] Repurposing railways for solar energy transportation is one way to address the energy challenge

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 18/03/2024

#German wholesale electricity prices have now fallen most of the way to their pre-war level, and appear to be on a trajectory to continue falling. Compared to peer European economies, German wholesale electricity prices are trending to the lower end of the distribution.

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 18/03/2024

The rise in renewable generation is contemporaneous with 1) an increase in stability of the #German grid, 2) an increase in GDP, and 3) a reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions.

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 18/03/2024

The #German #electricity #grid became more stable between 2006 and 2023, while the share of renewable electricity generated across the grid grew from 6% to 55%

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 18/03/2024

Published today: The Sun Has Won Research Note: German Renewables Growth and Economic Impacts #Germany continues its progress toward a cleaner, greener, more efficient economy. www.planetarytech.earth/posts/the-su...

planetarytech.earth

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 27/02/2024

Here is a new Research Note in series The Sun Has Won: China Solar PV Installation Trends And Implications Full PDF here: www.planetarytech.earth/posts/the-su...

PV installation in China is dominating global trends. Top Panel: Absolute annual PV installation inside China and outside China. Middle Panel: Annual percentage growth in installed PV. The ex-China percentage growth is calculated with respect to ex-China installation, not with respect to global installation (which would include China). Bottom Panel: China's contribution to annual global installation. Data as of January, 2024. (Source: BloombergNEF, Planetary Technologies)

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 19/10/2023

Previously: "We are now in an era in which every dollar spent on new PV displaces higher cost fossil-fueled electricity production." The Sun Has Won, Part 1: Market Inevitabilities In Electricity Production www.planetarytech.earth/posts/the-su...

planetarytech.earth

Planetary Technologies is an investment fund with the mission to find scalable technologies that can...

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 17/10/2023

LMN-201 is the most complex biologic ever developed, composed of three antibodies that neutralize separate domains on the same protein, along with a lysin that specifically targets C. dificile. This complexity is only possible due to Lumen Bio's vast economic advantage. www.lumen.bio/news/lumen-b...

lumen.bio

Lumen Bioscience awarded $16.2 million in DoD funding to advance LMN-201 through late-stage trials ...

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

Congratulations to portfolio company @LumenBio for winning the inaugural Wilkes Climate Prize! Lumen beat 77 international teams with their proposal to drastically reduce methane emissions from dairy and beef cattle by targeting methanogens using proteins grown in Spirulina.

wilkescenter.utah.edu

Climate Prize - The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy

Lumen Bioscience wins historic $1.5M Wilkes Center Climate Prize Lumen Bioscience is the inaugural winner of the $1.5 million Wilkes Center Climate Prize at the…

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Planetary Technologies @planetaryops.bsky.social · 14/09/2023

Congratulations to portfolio company Industrial Microbes @iMicrobesInc on securing a grant to scale up production of a process that turns waste (ethanol, methanol, and CO2) into widely used plastics! Another step towards displacing petrochemicals using biology. www.biomade.org/news/new-pro...

biomade.org

BioMADE Announces Nine Projects, $18.7 Million to Advance Domestic Bioindustrial Manufacturing and D...

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