Editor's note: As of October 28, 2024, Cohort 4 welcomed our innovators from Southeast Asia, and now includes 28 innovators from five countries who are leading 16 climate technology projects.
This week, we proudly launched the Fourth Cohort of Breakthrough Energy Fellows, a group of innovators who are not just dreaming of a clean energy future, but actively building it. The Fellows program - part of Breakthrough Energy’s Discovery platform - provides technical support, funding, and business resources to innovators working on technologies in industries that are notoriously hard to decarbonize. This in-depth, hands-on support allows our Fellows to quickly move their climate technology breakthroughs from the lab to the market, bridging the gap between innovation and implementation.
Our latest Cohort brings together 25 extraordinary innovators from four countries, who are leading 14 groundbreaking projects aimed at tackling the world’s most pressing climate challenges. And this is just the beginning—Cohort 4 will expand further this October as we welcome the inaugural teams from Breakthrough Energy Fellows – Southeast Asia (BE Fellows – SEA) into the global Cohort. BE Fellows – SEA is the Fellows program's first regional hub, established alongside our partners Temasek and Enterprise Singapore.
Cohort 4 is already hard at work developing innovative approaches to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. For example:
Europe-based HyperHeat, led by Lars Amsbeck and Frederick Lessmann, is developing a novel, industrial heater using oxide ceramics that can reach temperatures up to 2000°C with nearly 100% efficiency, overcoming the degradation issues of current high-temperature electric heaters. This solution has the potential to be a drop-in replacement for natural gas burners, which could help decarbonize industries like steel, cement, and chemicals.
Standard Potential Co. co-founders Andrew Wang and Richard May bring extensive battery and electrochemistry experience to the program. Wang and May are rethinking the way we make batteries; they aim to scale their sodium-ion technology to solve bottlenecks in large-scale battery manufacturing and lower the capital and mineral demands of clean energy storage.
In addition to our open call for applications, this cycle of recruitment included a request for, and emphasis on innovative hydrogen solutions across the value chain. Innovators like Anthony Ku and Jimmy Li of Clear Skies Hydrogen are a great example of innovation in this space. Their work on a rapidly deployable liquid hydrogen refueling system could enable hydrogen fuel to be delivered at a cost and convenience comparable to diesel. During their fellowship, Ku and Li will focus on building and field-testing a prototype to prove commercial viability.
As the Fellows program continues to grow and scale, Cohort 4 marks a big milestone—we will welcome our 100th (and 101st!) Innovators - both from the team at Rarefied. Angela Feldhaus and Ben Schafer are developing a novel propulsion mechanism that allows lightweight platforms to stay aloft in the mesosphere (30-100 km altitudes) using only sunlight. This technology can collect data, and has exciting potential applications for global weather monitoring, disaster preparedness, and climate research as a low-carbon alternative to traditional satellites and aircrafts.
To see a complete list of the Cohort 4 Breakthrough Energy Fellows and projects, please visit our website.
Since 2021, the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program has offered funding, personalized mentorship, comprehensive education, and access to an unparalleled network of industry leaders. Alumni of the program continue to achieve milestones in their industries. Most recently, Cohort 2 team Holocene announced a groundbreaking direct air capture (DAC) purchase agreement with Google at $100 per tonne, This decade-long commitment includes delivering 100,000 carbon removal credits by the early 2030s and is Google's first large-scale DAC agreement, reinforcing its leadership in climate innovation. During their time in the fellowship, Holocene has designed and built a 10 ton/year CO2 removal pilot facility, sold their first carbon removals, and grown their team of scientists and engineers.
The application to apply for Cohort 5 of the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program is officially open! If you, or someone you know, is working on a breakthrough climate technology and would like to join the next Cohort of high-impactful climate innovators, please apply. Nominations and applications are accepted here. Cohort 5 will be selected in the first half of 2025 and begin the program in September / October 2025.
