Inside SF Climate Week 2026: A CleanStart Perspective

Apr 30, 2026

Last week I joined more than 60,000 attendees at San Francisco Climate Week 2026 — the Bay Area’s sprawling, nine-day convergence of climate leaders, founders, investors, policymakers, and advocates. With 650-plus events spread across the city, SFCW has become one of the largest climate gatherings in the world, and this year’s edition made clear just how fast California’s clean energy ecosystem is evolving.

Over several packed days, I attended panels and summits covering everything from next-generation battery technology and data-center power demands to wildfire-driven insurance crises, net-zero transportation, climate foresight tools, and the economic engine of the clean economy. Here’s what stood out: Despite headwinds from Washington, D.C., California’s clean economy continues to generate innovation, jobs, and economic growth. That reinforced the importance of the work we do at CleanStart–helping innovators turn bright ideals and ambitious goals into deliverable action through bringing those ideas to the market.

Battery Innovation Summit: Where Deep Tech Meets Deployment

The Battery Innovation Summit, held April 22–24 during Climate Week, was a standout. This wasn’t a generic climate panel — it was a commercialization-focused convening of 300-plus leaders from across the battery, energy storage, electrification, and power infrastructure sectors. Founders, engineers, investors, OEMs, utilities, and policymakers gathered to align around what actually matters: deployment and scale.

The summit zeroed in on a theme that was impossible to ignore across Climate Week: data centers are reshaping the energy conversation. The explosive growth of AI-driven computing is creating massive new electricity demand, and the battery and grid storage sectors are racing to respond. Discussions explored how deep-tech batteries — from long-duration storage breakthroughs to novel chemistries — can serve e-mobility, grid reliability, and the data-center buildout simultaneously. For clean energy advocates like CleanStart, this convergence is a reminder that the energy transition is no longer just about replacing fossil fuels — it’s about building entirely new energy infrastructure to support a digital economy that didn’t exist a decade ago.

Investable startups, supply chain strategy, and the manufacturing-to-deployment pipeline were recurring themes. The message was clear: the technology is ready, but capital, permitting, and supply-chain coordination remain the bottlenecks.

Climate Foresight and Resilience: Making Complexity Legible

At the Climate Foresight & Resilience event, hosted at 9Zero and presented as part of SF Climate Week’s programming, the conversation turned to how investors and builders can make better decisions in a world where climate outcomes are too complex for intuition and too dynamic for static models.

Anthos presented on causal intelligence — the idea that capturing expert knowledge as computable causal models can reveal where leverage actually lives in complex systems. Cool Climate Collective shared their internationally recognized Three Futures Test, a foresight framework that stress-tests climate ventures across divergent scenarios to build portfolios grounded in resilience rather than optimism. And Resilience Investments introduced a framework for putting California’s public assets to work in a new model for wildfire risk reduction, grid resilience, and the state’s insurance crisis.

For CleanStart, these tools matter. The clean tech startups and innovators we work with need more than great technology — they need frameworks for navigating regulatory uncertainty, wildfire risk, and shifting capital markets. Foresight isn’t a luxury; it’s infrastructure for decision-making.

Wires & Fires: Electricity, Insurance, and California’s Economic Future

One of the most sobering sessions I attended was Wires & Fires: The Intersection of Electricity, Insurance Markets, and a Resilient California Economy, presented by Pleiades Strategy and the Natural Resources Defense Council as part of the Pleiades Salon series.

The panel laid bare a difficult reality: Californians are caught between rising electricity costs and skyrocketing insurance premiums, both driven by climate change. Ratepayers are absorbing billions in wildfire safety and liability costs. Insurance policyholders face higher bills or outright cancellations as wildfires threaten their communities. The FAIR Plan — California’s insurer of last resort — is growing rapidly, potentially becoming the state’s largest insurer. And at the end of the line, local and state governments are covering firefighting, disaster response, and rebuilding costs while investing comparatively little in prevention.

The expert conversation brought together energy, insurance, and policy perspectives to explore how California can build a cleaner, safer grid and a more insurable state. For anyone working in clean energy in California, this session was a critical reminder that the energy transition doesn’t happen in isolation — it’s entangled with wildfire policy, insurance markets, and economic affordability in ways that demand cross-sector solutions.

Achieving a Net-Zero Transportation Future

Transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and one of the largest expenses for American families, consuming roughly 15 percent of most household budgets. The Money, Planning, People, Policy panel — also part of the Pleiades Salon — tackled the question of what it actually takes to build a net-zero transportation system.

The discussion brought together experts and policymakers working on the front lines of transportation transformation — from local transit funding fights for Muni and BART’s future in the Bay Area, to the uncertain trajectory of electric vehicle deployment, to rethinking land-use planning at a fundamental level. The panel emphasized that achieving net-zero transportation requires mobilizing four critical ingredients: money, planning, people, and policy. None of them can be skipped.

This is core territory for CleanStart. Our work on clean transportation — from CARB’s incentive programs and the SHIFT initiative to emerging clean aviation technologies — is part of this larger systems puzzle. The panel reinforced that turning climate ambition into actual infrastructure is messy, urgent, on-the-ground work.

The Clean Economy: Opportunities Rising

I also attended E2’s The Clean Economy: Opportunities Rising event, co-hosted with the SF Chamber of Commerce, Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, and the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI). Held at 9Zero, the evening featured a fireside chat with Kate Gordon — former Senior Advisor to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and to Governor Gavin Newsom — and E2 Executive Director Bob Keefe, who discussed his new book Clean Economy NOW.

A panel followed featuring Nancy Pfund of DBL Partners, Samantha Grassle of Elemental Impact, and Apoorv Bhargava of WeaveGrid, alongside CARB Chair Lauren Sanchez, who highlighted state action driving innovation — including the leveraging of California’s bedrock Cap-and-Invest program. The panel was moderated by CELI Executive Director Richenda Van Leeuwen.

The through-line was clear: despite headwinds from Washington, D.C., California’s clean economy continues to generate innovation, jobs, and economic growth. Smart state policy, coupled with private and public investment, is creating real opportunities. For CleanStart, this panel underscored why our work connecting clean tech startups with the policy and capital ecosystem is so important.

9Zero: The De Facto Hub of Climate Week

If there was a single physical center of gravity for SF Climate Week 2026, it was 9Zero Climate Innovation Hub at 350 California Street. As the Official Hub of SFCW for the third consecutive year, 9Zero hosted dozens of events and welcomed thousands of visitors through its doors — and that was just the daytime programming.

After hours, 9Zero became the de facto networking hub of the entire week. Hallway conversations, impromptu introductions, and late-evening exchanges over drinks connected founders with investors, policymakers with engineers, and advocates with operators in ways that no single panel or keynote could replicate. Some of the most valuable conversations I had all week happened in those informal moments at 9Zero — the kind of serendipitous connections that make in-person gatherings irreplaceable.

For a community of founders, investors, scientists, and innovators working to drive climate action, 9Zero embodies exactly the kind of collaborative infrastructure the clean energy ecosystem needs.

Key Takeaways for CleanStart

Across the sessions I attended, several themes kept surfacing:

The data-center energy boom is reshaping clean energy priorities. Battery storage, grid reliability, and long-duration technologies are no longer “nice to have” — they’re essential infrastructure for a digital economy. Clean energy providers need to think bigger about scale and speed.

California’s wildfire, insurance, and energy affordability challenges are deeply interconnected. Solving any one of them requires addressing all three. The clean energy transition must account for ratepayer costs, infrastructure resilience, and insurance market dynamics simultaneously.

Net-zero transportation demands more than technology. Funding, planning, workforce development, and policy alignment all have to move together. The Bay Area’s transit future — and California’s broader EV and clean transportation strategy — depends on this coordination.

Foresight and resilience frameworks are becoming essential tools for climate capital. Investors and builders alike are moving beyond optimism-based planning toward scenario-tested, systems-aware strategies.

California’s clean economy is growing despite federal headwinds. State policy, particularly CARB’s leadership and the Cap-and-Invest program, continues to drive innovation and attract investment. The business case for clean energy in California is strong and getting stronger.

Get Involved

SF Climate Week demonstrated that the clean energy transition is accelerating — and that California remains at the forefront. Here’s how you can stay engaged:

Connect with CleanStart: Learn more about our work advancing clean energy, clean transportation, and clean technology in California at CleanStart.org. Sign up for our newsletter and join an upcoming CleanStart Perspectives webinar to hear directly from the innovators and policymakers shaping the transition.

Contact your state legislators: Policies that support clean energy investment, grid resilience, insurance reform, and transportation electrification need champions in Sacramento. Let your representatives know these issues matter to you.

Explore the Climate Week community: Climate Week Sacramento is right around the corner. If you missed SFCW this year, start planning for 2027. Organizations like 9Zero, E2, and the Clean Energy Leadership Institute offer year-round programming and community for anyone working on climate solutions.

It Wasn’t All Work

Networking Opportunities were frequent in the evening. I ran into Deep Dive Accelerator Alumni, Leslie Shariden of Planet Cents, at the Social Impact SF Climate Week Mixer where entrepreneurs all got a chance to pitch. Leslie pitched Planet Cents and I even pitched CleanStart. There was the popular Investor & Founder networking event at 9zero and Heatmap News put on the Heatmap House Party on the Historic Klamath Ship.

Want to get involved in Climate Week in Sacramento! Sign up now for the Capital Valleys Forum on May 8th and visit Sac Climate Week’s site.

Capital Valleys Forum

Sac Climate Week

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

13+ GW—Storage operating on CAISO today

6 GW—New procurement ordered by the CPUC

25%—Of new procurement must be long-duration (8+ hrs)

Start Where the Money Is: Utility-Scale Procurement

For founders targeting the front-of-meter, utility-scale market, Seth’s guidance was direct: the revenue foundation is capacity, not energy. California’s investor-owned utilities, community choice aggregators (CCAs), and energy service providers are all subject to Resource Adequacy (RA) obligations set by the CPUC — and those obligations require long-term contracts that create predictable, bankable revenue streams for storage projects.

“For utility scale, it’s really figuring out how you can obtain a long-term contract through those utility solicitations. That’s going to be the key. And then stacking the additional revenue associated with energy, ancillary services, and other opportunities — but really, it’s the capacity that’s procured pursuant to these programs that are key.”

— Seth Hilton, Partner, Stoel Rives LLP

The CPUC recently ordered procurement of 6 gigawatts of new storage capacity — a significant mandate that creates real contracting opportunities for companies ready to compete in utility solicitations. Standard RA qualification requires a 4-hour duration minimum, but the Commission’s most recent order took a meaningful step forward by requiring that up to 25% of procured resources be long-duration storage of 8 hours or more.

The Regulatory Reality for Long-Duration Storage

If your technology plays in the long-duration space — anything above 4 hours — there’s both good news and honest complexity to understand. The CPUC has explicitly recognized the need for longer-duration resources, but the valuation frameworks to properly compensate them are still catching up. Seth noted that companies engaging early in the regulatory process, rather than waiting for the rules to be finished, will be best positioned to shape the outcome.

What to Watch at the CPUC & CAISO

Charging sufficiency obligations — Load-serving entities must now demonstrate they have the energy to charge storage resources. A proposed cap on storage procurement was rejected after significant industry pushback, led by organizations like the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA).
Long-duration valuation — The Commission is actively developing frameworks to properly value 8-hour-plus storage. Engaging early in these proceedings gives founders the ability to shape the rules rather than react to them.
Ancillary services markets — CAISO’s energy and ancillary services markets (under FERC jurisdiction, not CPUC) offer compensation for batteries’ fast-response advantages, including frequency regulation and spinning reserves.

Behind the Meter: Revenue Stacking Is the Strategy

For companies pursuing residential or commercial behind-the-meter deployments — distributed battery networks, virtual power plants, or consumer-owned systems aggregated for grid services — the business model is more complex but the opportunity is growing. Seth’s advice: don’t look for a single revenue stream. Build a stack.

“A lot of the kind of legal and regulatory issues we work with them on are figuring out what incentive programs can be used to reduce the cost of behind-the-meter resources — the Self-Generation Incentive Program, the BUILD program at the Energy Commission — working through those opportunities to reduce costs, and then the reliability aspects: backup power generation is a key aspect for these behind-the-meter resources.”

— Seth Hilton, Partner, Stoel Rives LLP

The conversation got especially concrete when Greg Connolly of Kora Power described a real-world deployment scenario: working with a utility on a 100,000+ battery residential deployment targeting 1.6 gigawatts of distributed storage. His insight — backed by the math — was that distributing batteries within existing residential circuits can actually be cheaper than utility-scale deployment once you factor in the infrastructure upgrades required. Each substation upgrade runs roughly $6 million; each transformer upgrade, around $500,000. At scale, the economics of distributed storage look very different.

The VPP and Demand Response Landscape

Virtual power plants and demand response programs sit at the intersection of behind-the-meter deployment and grid services — and it’s a space evolving quickly, if unevenly. Seth was candid about the pattern he’s seen repeatedly: the CPUC creates a program to incentivize storage or VPP participation, the structure doesn’t quite match market reality, and participation is low. Programs have come and gone at SDG&E and face uncertainty at PG&E.

That’s not a reason to avoid this space. It’s a reason to engage proactively — building the business case, working within existing demand response frameworks, and pursuing targeted tweaks rather than waiting for a new program to be built from scratch.

The Honest Answer on Timelines

Thomas asked Seth the question every investor-backed founder is wrestling with: what are realistic timelines for getting contracts and revenue in the door? The answer was refreshingly direct.

“It’s gonna take way longer than you think, usually. If you’re talking about development in the utility space, front of the meter, where you need to interconnect that resource — interconnection is a real challenge. Takes years to work through that process. If you’re creating a new program, that can take a year, probably more like a year, or it can take many years of working with the PUC.”

— Seth Hilton, Partner, Stoel Rives LLP

Behind-the-meter deployments within existing programs move faster — but creating new programs or regulatory pathways adds years, not months. For founders, this has a direct implication: your regulatory strategy needs to be part of your fundraising story, and your investors need to understand the difference between a hard tech company operating in a regulated market and a software company with a 12-month go-to-market.

Practical Timeline Benchmarks

Utility-scale interconnection: Multi-year process — plan accordingly from day one
Working within an existing CPUC program: 6 months to 1 year to get operational
Creating or modifying a CPUC program: 1–3+ years, with ongoing iteration after launch
Direct utility procurement (novel structure): Highly variable — build relationships early

The Bigger Picture: California Is Moving, Even if Slowly

It would be easy to walk away from a regulatory deep-dive like this feeling daunted. Seth’s closing perspective was a useful corrective. California has gone from procuring its first 50 megawatts of storage capacity years ago to operating over 13 gigawatts on the CAISO system today. The state is planning for significantly more — and the data center boom, itself driving a significant share of that 6 gigawatt order in PG&E territory, is creating new adjacent opportunities for storage to displace gas backup generation.

“It may not be optimal, but there are a lot of opportunities for utility-scale storage, and for behind-the-meter storage. Some of it is working through the various programs that may apply to your resource, figuring out how you stack the various revenue streams that are available to you, and create something that will actually work. I really do think there’s some significant opportunities here going forward for energy storage under the current structures.”

— Seth Hilton, Partner, Stoel Rives LLP

Regulatory lag is real. So is the opportunity. The companies that will win are those that understand the system well enough to work within it — and to push it forward strategically rather than waiting for a perfect framework that may never arrive.

As Thomas wrapped the session: “Let’s build things towards this 6 gigawatts of power that we need.”

Stay Connected with CleanStart

CleanStart has been helping clean tech entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life in Sacramento and beyond since 2005. Join our community of founders, builders, and operators navigating the clean energy transition.

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Sacramento’s Startup Community Comes Together for a Festive Holiday Celebration

Dec 11, 2025

This week, more than 70 innovators, founders, and ecosystem champions gathered at The Urban Hive for the annual Sacramento Startup Ecosystem Holiday Party. The energy in the room made one thing clear: our region’s entrepreneurial community continues to grow stronger, more connected, and more collaborative each year.

The event brought together leaders and participants from across the region’s innovation network, including StartupSac, CleanStart, Urban Technology Lab, The Urban Hive, the Carlsen Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Startup Folsom, Startup Grind Sacramento, MedStart, 1 Million Cups Sacramento, The Veteran Entrepreneur Tribe, Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy, AgStart, and the CA Starters Coalition. It was a true cross-community celebration—uniting people who are shaping Sacramento’s future through technology, sustainability, and entrepreneurship.

Attendees spent the evening networking, reconnecting, and building new relationships in a warm, festive atmosphere. From first-time founders to seasoned mentors, the diversity of perspectives and ideas highlighted the strength of Sacramento’s startup ecosystem.

For CleanStart, gatherings like this reinforce our mission: to support innovators, expand the clean tech community, and help build a vibrant economy across the region. Seeing so many partners and entrepreneurs come together is a reminder of what makes Sacramento special.

As we head into a new year, we’re excited to continue collaborating with our ecosystem partners and helping the next generation of clean tech founders thrive.

Here’s to a strong 2026 for Sacramento startups and clean tech innovation.

Congratulations to the Deep Dive Accelerator Graduates

Nov 11, 2025

At the Rising Stars Showcase, we proudly presented Certificates of Completion to the companies graduating from our Deep Dive Accelerator program. These companies have already shown strong customer traction and revenue, and they joined our intensive coaching program to sharpen their strategies and accelerate their next stage of growth. The program was conducted over 26 weeks from April to October with classes and one-on-one coaching sessions with each company. The ceremony recognized their hard work and persistence in finishing all elements of the program.

Congradulations to the 2025 Deep Dive Cohort:

Capital Energy Systems – Bobby Reed & Jeremy Macdonald
Give2Lead – Marcie Shelton
Nutra Compass – Justin Mickle
Planetcents – Leslie Sheridan
Solir – Diana Eastman
XEROHOME – Mudit Saxena

Check out the Highlights!

Diana Eastman presenting Solir at an earlier Deep Dive Class.

Sixth Annual GrowTECH Fest: Two days of bold ideas, big energy and next-gen momentum

Nov 11, 2025

GrowTECH Fest 2025: Two days of bold ideas, big energy and next-gen momentum

What a whirlwind two days of inspiration in Chico! On November 6 & 7 Chico Start brought the North State startup ecosystem out in full force for GrowTECH Fest 2025 – and the energy was electric. The Chico Start team led by Eva Shepherd with Heather Ugie put on a great event. Organizers and attendees alike could feel that something special was afoot: a growing sense that this region is truly ready to punch above its weight when it comes to innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurial grit.

From the opening keynote through to the student lightning round and startup stories pitch event, the theme was clear: now is the moment to act, test your ideas, build the infrastructure, and bring new clean-tech solutions to market. Here’s a look at some of the standout moments that got everyone buzzing — and why they matter for our region’s future.

Testing business ideas with clarity

A highlight was the talk by David Bland (co-author of Testing Business Ideas), who delivered a powerful message: stop guessing and start experimenting. He laid out how founders and venture-teams can move beyond the “we think this is a problem” mindset and instead frame their assumptions, design rapid experiments, and learn what matters early. CleanStart brought David to our Deep Dive Accelerator for this reason. As David reminded the crowd: you don’t have to get everything perfect; you do need the courage to test quickly and learn fast.
That sentiment set the tone for the rest of the event — a subtle shift from inspiration-only to action-oriented.

Take control of your energy-future

Also, we were thrilled to hear from Thomas Hall, Executive Director of CleanStart, who delivered a stirring panel contribution entitled “2035 — What’s Next?”. Thomas called on everyone in the room — entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and students — to take control of electricity systems: embrace solar, batteries, microgrids and decentralised energy architectures. In his words: “We can take action and spend locally… we must build it, own it and scale it.”
For CleanStart’s community, that framing aligned perfectly: this region has the talent, the grid-readiness, the policy momentum — all that’s left is seizing that opportunity.

Talent rising: Student Lightning Round

One of the most exhilarating portions of the festival was the Student Lightning Round, where fresh-faced teams pitched bold ideas in rapid succession. The winner emerged as Change LLC — a team that built a sodium-ion-powered e-motorcycle as their proof-of-concept. Their win spotlighted two critical trends: (1) students are no longer only ideating — they’re building hardware, they’re innovating in battery chemistry and mobility; (2) our network’s academic and startup pipelines are delivering real-world prototypes.

Startup Story Challenge: pitch–fire and impact

Meanwhile, the Startup Story Challenge brought veteran venture-builders and fresh startups together in a high-stakes pitch atmosphere. One highlight: Jeff Greef (alumnus of the CEO Crash Course) pitched his company Plumas Woodfiber — a firm pushing advanced forest-biomass and wood-fiber technologies. Yet, the prize went to another region-shaking venture, Ponderosa.ai, an autonomous drone fire-suppression company that uses machine-vision and robotics to tackle wild-land fires.

Why this moment matters

Looking across the two days, a few things become obvious:

We have moved from “talking about innovation” to “doing innovation”. The presence of prototypes, business-model experiments, and regional partnerships was undeniable.
The North State – often overlooked – is increasingly aware of its momentum. With events like GrowTECH Fest, and with support from orgs like CleanStart, ChicoStart, and others, the ecosystem is knitting together.
Clean tech, energy infrastructure, mobility, forest-and-wild-land resilience: these are converging themes in our region. That convergence gives us real advantages.
The collaboration between students, startups, investors, policy and infrastructure actors was strong. The pipelines are visible and working.
Momentum breeds momentum. One inspiring keynote or one winning pitch can catalyze dozens of follow-on conversations, partnerships and companies.

What’s next — and how you can plug in

If you left GrowTECH Fest 2025 energized (as we did), then here’s your invitation: don’t let the momentum fade. Follow the journeys of the startups you met. Connect with the students who pitched. Stay plugged into the broader regional scene. Specifically:

Follow ChicoSTART on social media and subscribe to their updates — this region is building something.
Keep tabs on the student teams and startup winners — Change LLC and Ponderosa.ai are just the start.
For CleanStart’s community: we’ll continue spotlighting regional cleantech pioneers, publishing insights, and connecting the dots. Stay subscribed to our blog and mail-list.
If you attended GrowTECH Fest and left with a conversation unfinished, pick it up. Meet a founder for coffee. Introduce yourself to an investor. Ask the questions you meant to ask.
Mark your calendar for 2026. The vibe in 2025 was electric — let’s make sure we carry it into next year, scale it, deepen it.

Final thoughts

GrowTECH Fest 2025 wasn’t just another conference — it was a milestone. A moment when the North State’s entrepreneurial and cleantech ecosystem showed up in full force. We cheered the student winners, the startup pitches, the strategic keynotes. But more than that, we saw the horizon: a region ready to lead in clean energy, mobility, forest resilience, and distributed infrastructure.

At CleanStart we’re proud to stand alongside this movement. We’re excited about the ventures that will emerge from these two days, the partnerships that were formed, and the ideas now entering the execution phase.

So here’s to 2026: to follow-through, to bold experiments, to region-wide acceleration. If you’re in the game — whether as a founder, investor, student, policy-maker or collaborator — this is your moment. Stay tuned, stay connected, and let’s keep building the future together.

Follow ChicoSTART. Follow the startups. Stay plugged into the North State’s innovation surge.
We’ll see you next year.

Check out the fun!

“What’s Next” and other posterboards By Marker Ninja – Trent Wakenight

See ALL Trent’s Posterboards from GrowTECH 2025

"What's Next" By Marker Ninja - Trent Wakenight