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Helping Entrepreneurs and Innovators Bring Their Clean Tech Ideas to Life Since 2005

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Latest Blogs

Dive into the dynamic landscape of clean tech, exploring ideas and success stories.

Small Scale, Big Vision: Forager Fuels and the Future of Forest Waste

California's forests generate an enormous amount of biowaste — material that too often becomes wildfire fuel or simply goes unused. At CleanStart's latest Perspective webinar, John Azevedo, Founder & CEO of Forager Fuels, shared how he's turning that problem into...

Homing In on Reliability: How Data Pigeon Is Fixing EV Charging Before It Breaks

Every EV driver knows the feeling: you pull up to a charger, and it's dead. As I reminded our audience at last week's Featured Founder webinar, one in five public charging sessions fails today — not because the cars don't work, but because stations fail silently, and...

Forager Fuels and EcoPress Win Circular Economy Prizes

The fourth annual Circular Economy Innovation Competition brought together researchers, startups, and entrepreneurs working to transform waste into economic opportunity. Held May 13 at the Roseville Venture Lab, the competition featured 12 finalists presenting...

West Biofuels Making the Leap to Commercial Plants

After more than 15 years of R&D, West Biofuels (WBF) in Woodland is building its first two commercial scale plants to convert ag and forestry residues into electricity. It has plans to develop many more as these first two prove their commercial viability and as...

The Next Grid Frontier: Why IAW FlexHub Matters for California (and Beyond)

California just launched one of the most consequential experiments in grid modernization, and most of the business community hasn't noticed yet. In March, Momentum announced the public launch of the Industrial, Agriculture, and Water Load Flexibility Hub, known as IAW...

Sacramento’s Grid Just Got a Lot Smarter

Seventy investors, founders, researchers, and grid professionals filled the room at Baker Tilly in Rancho Cordova on June 18 for CleanStart's latest Cleantech Meetup, "Intelligence on the Grid: How Much Smarter Does it Need to be?" Fueled by a great spread from our...

The Golden Ticket Goes to Data Pigeon: CleanStart Celebrates the UC Davis Big Bang Competition

Charlie Bucket got a candy factory. The winners of this year's UC Davis Big Bang Business Competition got something arguably sweeter: validation, prize money, and a launching pad for startups that are changing the world. The annual Big Bang competition, hosted by Joe...

The Pace of Storage Installations is Mind-Blowing

I have been studying the data on the new installations of grid-scale batteries in an article from Canary Media. I feel like the White Queen in Through the Looking Glass. She was pleased to say she managed to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast...

It’s A New World for Getting Investment

In the past two years, there has been a shift in what will get an investor to write a check. It is all coming down to hard evidence of revenue, of a modest customer acquisition cost, of an experienced team, and of being able to grow sales 100% per year for at least a...

Capital Valleys Forum: What Happens When You Put Both Valleys in One Room

The other week I had the privilege of moderating the "Bridging Silicon Valley Innovation to Central Valley Scale" panel at the inaugural Capital Valleys Forum, a flagship event of Sacramento Climate Week 2026 held at UC Davis's Aggie Square campus. I've been in rooms...

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Regional Companies

Our comprehensive map is a dynamic guide highlighting the emerging and thriving cleantech companies in our region.

Facilitates Collaboration:
- Fosters networking and partnerships among nearby cleantech companies, driving collaborative initiatives.
Economic Boost:
- Attracts investment, creates jobs, and stimulates economic growth by showcasing a thriving regional cleantech sector.
Community Engagement:
- Enhances community awareness, encouraging local support and participation in sustainable initiatives.