Second Layer Spotlight, Edition #4: Energy and CleanTech
Finding new ways to empower the next wave of advanced technology is essential - here are a few early-stage startups helping bring innovative, clean energy solutions to life.
I saw on the news recently that for the first time in the country’s history, solar power has officially passed coal as the third largest source of energy in the United States at 12.8%, behind only natural gas and nuclear (Ember, 2026).
This milestone is indicative of a much more significant trend: accelerated adoption of clean energy resources. This comes as data centers demand extensive usage of power, with estimates signalling US data center electricity consumption is going to triple from 2021 to 2030, and could consume 9-17% of all US electricity by 2030, up from just 4-5% today (Electric Power Research Institute, 2026; International Energy Agency, 2025). A shift towards cleaner energy solutions will help us meet this demand.
There has been a lot of media attention around this as well. As many lobby against the construction of data centers, energy consumption is often a priority concern for Americans in nearby towns. Undoubtedly, there’s been a significant push for the creation, enablement, and implementation of environmentally-friendly energy solutions to help satisfy a rapidly growing demand.
Nonetheless, what most Americans (and investors) don’t realize is the widening gap between clean energy solutions and their deployment - put another way, the clean energy industry has an infrastructure problem.
Extensive permitting, site selection, and interconnection failures have prevented the mobilization of new technologies into the American energy supply - it’s not a lack of technology, but the solutions to enable its integration. In fact, according to a whitepaper from Paces (featured later!), 70-90% of renewable energy projects stall or fail before construction begins (Paces, 2024).
Turns out, the complications lie in the planning, infrastructure, and rollout - not in the technology, which is why for this week’s Second Layer Spotlight, I’m focusing on companies addressing what I believe truly matters.
Here are three Second Layer-aligned companies helping make clean energy technologies a reality.
1. Paces
$12.9M, Series A. Brooklyn, NY. Investors include Navitas Capital, Suffolk Technologies, MCJ Collective, and Resolute Ventures.
Paces is an AI-powered software platform that helps clean energy and data center developers locate the best sites for new projects. Paces integrates zoning, interconnection, environmental, and permitting data on individual land parcels. It also provides a Permitting Predictor, using zoning and regulatory data to forecast permitting risk across different jurisdictions.
This helps compress months of manual due diligence into just minutes - it’s significant diligence hurdles that prevent and delay essential projects from taking off in the first place. Paces is enabling faster decision-making at a time when accelerating energy demand calls for it.
Led by James McWalter, employee #1 at a Google-acquired AI startup, as well as Charles Bai, who led AI efficiency and sustainability at Meta, the team boasts engineers from Meta AI, DeepMind, Tesla, TotalEnergies, Con Edison, and GE - a great balance between leading tech and energy companies.
Some areas that stand out about Paces:
Timing & Competition: IRA-driven renewable acceleration, the data center boom creating new grid demand, and the failure of legacy due diligence tools to scale have created exactly the kind of compounding tailwind that defines a Second Layer opportunity.
Founder-Market Fit: Two technical founders with frontier AI backgrounds at Google and Meta. The broader team adds direct utility and energy operational experience, which is very impressive for an early-stage startup.
Product-Market Fit: Customers include EDF Renewables, AES, and Third Pillar Solar, which are three of the most credible developers in US renewable energy. Customers span solar, storage, EV charging, data center, and carbon sequestration developers, demonstrating traction across a variety of hyper-growth customer segments.
2. Reunion Infrastructure
Seed Stage (exact funding undisclosed). San Francisco, CA. Investors include Segue Sustainable Infrastructure and a dozen renewable energy entrepreneurs and CEOs.
Reunion Infrastructure is a marketplace and compliance platform for transferable clean energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Reunion became the first company to build a digital marketplace for the trade of clean energy tax credits.
Financing has long been a challenge for renewable energy projects, including solar, battery storage, and geothermal energy. By supporting every step of the transaction process, from identifying opportunities to providing market data and contract negotiation, Reunion helps renewable energy projects get done.
Reunion has overseen the exchange of over $7 billion in tax credit transfers (100+ deals) since 2024, with an average close time of under 45 days from term sheet to signing. Over 95% of signed term sheet deals close on the platform.
With an impressive team led by Andy Moon and Billy Lee, both who have spent careers in solar tax equity and project finance before starting Reunion, they have a ton of experience raising capital to fund global solar projects.
Reunion Infrastructure stands out across a few key areas:
Founder-Market Fit: Two co-founders who spent their entire careers in solar tax equity and project finance before the IRA’s transferability provisions made tax credits freely tradable for the first time. The team’s collective network across major banks and Fortune 500 tax departments is a significant moat.
Product-Market Fit: $7B+ in tax credit transactions facilitated since 2024, across 100+ deals. Buyers include Mercantile Bank and Fortune 500 corporations. Q3 2025 was Reunion’s highest-ever transaction volume.
Capital Efficiency: Profitable. Reached $7B+ in transactions, 100+ deals, and 20 employees on an undisclosed seed round. One of the strongest capital efficiency profiles in clean energy software, a direct parallel to other category-leading bootstrapped energy infrastructure plays.
3. Voltpost
~$10 million, Series A. New York, NY. Investors include RWE Energy Transition Investments, Twynam, Exelon Foundation, and Climate Capital, with a strategic partnership from AT&T.
Voltpost is revolutionizing EV charging stations, retrofitting existing city-owned lamp posts into curbside EV charging stations. Their modular unit attaches to a lamp post’s existing electrical supply without new trenching, new conduits, or new permits for underground work.
The charger can be accessed across public/private lamp posts via an intuitive mobile app, which provides nearby Voltpost chargers, lets you track charging sessions, and lets you manage payments easily.
Cities have millions of lamp posts already connected to the grid, unused for 10-12 hours every night. Voltpost provides a use for these lamp posts while addressing the EV charger supply shortage that has not kept up with EV demand.
Despite their early stage, they have established partnerships with a multitude of notable companies, including AT&T, Eversource, Zipcar, and ComEd.
Despite performing well on all criteria, here’s what particularly stands out about Voltpost:
Market Size: Approximately 115 million lamp posts in the US, and every urban municipality with EV adoption mandates is a potential customer. EV mandates in California, New York, and across Europe create structural demand drivers that compound annually. 40-50% of US urban households have no driveway and no home charging option.
Timing & Competition: Federal NEVI funding ($7.5B) is largely directed at highway corridors, creating a curbside funding gap that Voltpost fills. DC fast chargers cost $50K–$150K per unit and require grid upgrades; Voltpost units deploy in hours using existing electrical supply at a fraction of the cost.
Investor Signal: RWE Energy Transition Investments (the venture arm of one of Europe’s largest renewable energy utilities) led the seed round, signaling sector-specific validation rare for a hardware-first startup. The AT&T partnership (November 2024) confirms operational scale through a Fortune 500 connectivity provider.
Closing Thoughts
Clean energy is the future of energy - but the only way to bring clean energy to life is through more effective planning, better financial infrastructure to fund them, and solutions that integrate effectively into existing systems/grids. Solely focusing on the technology is shortsighted - building the infrastructure to enable new technologies and projects from taking place is where investors should be looking.
Note: The views expressed in this article are my own and are intended for informational purposes only. Nothing here constitutes financial or investment advice. Venture capital involves significant risk, and all investment decisions should be made in consultation with a qualified financial professional.
References
Electric Power Research Institute. (2026). Powering intelligence 2026: Analyzing data center load growth and grid impacts. EPRI. https://powering-intelligence.epri.com/load-growth.html
Ember. (2026, June 10). Solar overtakes coal in US electricity for the first month on record. https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/solar-overtakes-coal-in-us-electricity-for-the-first-month-on-record/
International Energy Agency. (2025). Energy and AI. IEA. https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai
Paces. (2024, July 24). Paces raises $11 million in Series A funding to accelerate renewable energy projects. Paces. https://www.paces.com/news/paces-raises-11-million-to-accelerate-clean-energy-development
Relevant Links
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