Prime Coalition Announces Trellis Climate to Accelerate Deployment of First-of-a-Kind Climate Projects Through Catalytic Capital
18 April 2024 - 9:00PM
Business Wire
The program will address commercialization
barriers for startups building high-impact climate infrastructure
solutions that are critical to reaching net zero
Prime Coalition, a nonprofit on a mission to unlock catalytic
capital and change the future of climate finance, today announced
Trellis Climate (formerly called “Early Climate Infrastructure”),
an impact-first catalytic capital program that invests in
first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate infrastructure projects. Trellis
Climate is focused on projects with significant climate impact
potential, a clear path to scale and a high dependence on catalytic
capital for success.
Many climate solutions that are critical for addressing the
climate crisis struggle to reach commercial scale due to financial
barriers. Specifically, FOAK and early climate infrastructure
projects are often viewed as too risky, too capital intensive, or
both by commercial investors. As a result, many of these projects
are struggling to find financing, and in some cases, developers are
reducing project sizes or pivoting in ways that will dramatically
slow the scaling journey. Trellis Climate will contribute to
closing this funding gap by leveraging risk-tolerant, catalytic
capital to expedite the scaling of climate technologies that are
necessary to achieve net-zero targets by 2050.
“Climate technologies that are currently in demonstration and
prototype stages will contribute 35% of emissions reductions in
2050, but many of them get stuck in the commercialization valley of
death,” said Lara Pierpoint, Director of Trellis Climate. “In many
cases, building a first commercial plant will cost tens to hundreds
of millions of dollars. Trellis Climate addresses the challenge by
adding catalytic funds to the capital stack for a FOAK project,
enabling more projects to go forward, faster, than would otherwise
be the case.”
In addition to reducing financial barriers through direct
investment, Trellis Climate will provide complementary funding to
address systemic barriers that impact project deployment. This
could include helping companies navigate nascent markets, establish
industry standards, and form partnerships with the communities
where FOAK projects will be located. Trellis Climate will share
replicable learnings from these initiatives with investors,
communities, policymakers and other key stakeholders to increase
impact.
“Trellis Climate is building on Prime’s unique track record in
facilitating catalytic investing of charitable capital into
for-profit companies and projects,” Sarah Kearney, Founder and
Executive Director of Prime Coalition. “The program will play a
critical role in scaling high-impact climate technology that is
required to protect our planet and communities.”
Novel solutions that are looking to fundraise for their first
commercial-scale project over the next few years range from green
industrial heat and storage to carbon dioxide removal and
sustainable aviation fuels.
Trellis Climate has made two initial investments in a highly
related space, providing development capital for two companies to
date. Early investments include Ample Carbon, a company that
converts retired coal plants to bioenergy with carbon capture and
storage while developing local biomass supply chains, and Ebb
Carbon, a marine carbon dioxide removal company that is employing a
novel electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement process to draw
down atmospheric carbon. Funding will be used by Ebb Carbon to
conduct engineering studies on a portfolio of sites and by Ample
Carbon to support a feasibility study for its project.
About Trellis Climate Trellis Climate is an impact-first
catalytic capital program enabling novel climate infrastructure
solutions to achieve commercial scale at speed. Committed to
accelerating the deployment of first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate
projects, Trellis Climate focuses on opportunities with significant
climate impact potential, a clear path to scale, and a need for
catalytic capital. Trellis Climate addresses both financial and
systemic barriers by offering risk-tolerant investment capital and
sector transformation programming. By innovating new financial
structures with diverse stakeholders, leveraging philanthropy to
crowd in as much commercial capital as possible, Trellis Climate
aims to expedite the scaling of climate technologies to achieve
net-zero targets by 2050.
About Prime Coalition Prime Coalition is a non-profit
organization on a mission to unlock catalytic capital and change
the future of climate finance. Since 2015, Prime has mobilized over
$300MM in catalytic capital in partnership with over 270
philanthropic partners to back 32 early-stage ventures. Through its
steering capital strategy, including Prime Impact Fund, Azolla
Ventures and Trellis Climate, Prime builds and implements
impact-first investing teams toward acute gaps in climate finance
that commercial capital cannot fill. With its influencing capital
strategy, Prime offers a range of field-building resources,
including Project Frame, the open-source CRANE tool, and the
Catalytic Capital Intermediation Resources Library. For more
information, visit: www.primecoalition.org
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primecoalition@berlinrosen.com