Please join us at a Leif Capital webinar - Electrifying Farms, Decarbonizing Agriculture - on Wednesday June 2nd at 10:00 Eastern / 15:00 BST / 16:00 CET to discuss the investment and partnership opportunities in the accelerating the energy transition in farms.
Speakers:
Richard Legault, CEO, Eocycle Technologies
Daniel Pinault, Principal, Cycle Capital
Tim Kay, Commercial Director, Verco
Other speakers tbd
Moderator: Tom Whitehouse, CEO, Leif Capital
Please register here.
Ahead of the webinar, Leif Capital will be publishing a report and a series of short blogs on some of the venture-backed businesses that are electrifying and decarbonizing farms, the investors that have invested in them and the corporations they’re working with. If you’re an entrepreneur, investor or corporate that would like to be featured, please contact us.
Why farms and agriculture? Bill Ray was a preacher’s son. Tom Whitehouse is a farmer’s grandson (dairy, just in case you were wondering). I’m curious why the world is only recently beginning to realise the size of the challenge and opportunity presented by agriculture’s electrification and decarbonization. I know we’re mostly living in cities these days, but we’ve still got to eat. The electric drones, robots, sensors and other equipment required to increase agricultural yields need to be charged. And agriculture’s huge GHG footprint, has to be curtailed.
*Source: Mckinsey and Company: Agriculture and Climate Change; Reducing emissions through improved farming practices, April 2020
The good news is that the cost of distributed (on-site) renewable energy and storage has declined and is set to continue declining. Farmers with big energy needs that are in windy and sunny areas, such as the US Midwest farm belt, are increasingly using renewables for the simple reason that they are cheaper than the grid. The food industry they sell into is happy to see its supply chain decarbonize. The new US government is cracking the whip. “We are going to be very aggressive on this because we have no time to waste,” said US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack a couple of months back. The ITC, a key US tax break that reduces the up-front cost of installing wind and/or solar, has been extended. From being lukewarm on climate change abatement, you’ll have noticed that the US is now hot for renewables. It’s about time.
The first venture-backed business we’ll introduce is our client Eocycle Technologies, a Quebec-based, wind turbine manufacturer and systems integrator, offering a WS2 (wind + solar + storage) that will break grid parity.
Other vanguard venture-backed businesses electrifying farms include:
I hope to see you on June 2nd.
Tom Whitehouse
CEO, Leif Capital