BloombergNEF Announces 12 Climate Innovators as Winners of its 2026 Pioneers Award

BNEF’s annual Pioneers award recognizes game-changing technologies or innovations with the potential to accelerate the transition toward a net-zero economy across three key climate challenges.

BloombergNEF (BNEF) today announced the winners of its 2026 Pioneers award, recognizing 12 startups working to accelerate the global energy transition through technological innovation. This year’s winners include companies improving the sustainability of data centers, flattening the duck curve and decarbonizing shipping – among many others.

Since its inception in 2010, the BNEF Pioneers program has awarded 176 winners that have raised over $25 billion in funding to advance innovation in their fields. This year, the competition received over 600 applications from 66 different markets. These were evaluated by the BNEF analyst team against three criteria: the potential impact on reducing emissions, the degree of technology innovation and originality, and the likelihood of adoption and potential scalability.

For the 2026 Pioneers program, BNEF invited nominations from ventures specifically targeting three innovation areas:

1. Technologies for sustainable, scalable data center infrastructure
2. Flattening the duck curve
3. Decarbonizing shipping and heavy-duty transport

BNEF also sought out ‘wildcards,’ which are innovations that fall beyond the scope of these areas.

The winners of the 2026 BNEF Pioneers competition are:

Challenge 1: Technologies for sustainable, scalable data center infrastructure

The surge of interest in AI is turning data centers into giant energy users. This growth is straining power grids, water systems and materials supply chains. Technologies that provide flexibility services, boost IT hardware efficiency and improve cooling could help data centers maximize compute power while reducing their energy consumption and impact on resources.

Emerald AI is developing software that makes AI data centers power-flexible, turning them from static loads into intelligent grid assets.

HT Materials Science is engineering a drop-in heat-transfer fluid that improves the energy efficiency of closed loop HVAC systems in data centers and industrial facilities.

Point2 Technology is developing radio frequency semiconductor interconnect technology that allows for faster and more energy efficient communication in AI data centers.

Challenge 2: Flattening the duck curve

As solar and wind installations have grown, many grids have come to face steep midday net-load dips and evening ramps, known as the “duck curve.” In regions with high renewable deployment, this is already reducing renewable project financial returns and slowing clean energy investment. Innovations in battery storage deployment business models, long-duration energy storage technologies, and demand-response capabilities can help balance the grid and increase the revenue that developers can earn for building renewable energy assets.

Base Power is operating a distributed residential battery network that balances the grid and provides backup power during outages.

Qvantum is decarbonizing heating and cooling in multi-family buildings with flexible heat pumps that shift load away from peak hours.

XL Batteries is developing organic flow batteries for long duration energy storage that support grid reliability and enable greater deployment of renewable power.

Challenge 3: Decarbonizing shipping and heavy-duty transport

Shipping and heavy-duty road transport are challenging sectors to decarbonize because they face steep technical and economic barriers, including long duty cycles, energy-dense fuel needs and fragmented infrastructure. Significant technological innovation is needed for the sector to achieve net-zero emissions.

DeepWay is cutting trucking emissions and modernizing freight logistics with its electric trucks and driver assistance systems.

Silverstream Technologies is reducing emissions in commercial shipping through air lubrication technology that decreases hull resistance and lowers fuel consumption.

WattEV is decarbonizing transportation through a vertically integrated ecosystem that combines charging infrastructure, truck leasing, and logistics operations.

Wildcards:

The Wildcard winners are companies working outside of this year’s three core subject areas.

BasiGo is electrifying public transport in Kenya and Rwanda by leasing electric buses and developing charging infrastructure.

Endolith is improving the supply of critical minerals by using microbes to recover more copper from low-grade ore.

GRST is advancing cleaner battery production with a PFAS-free, water-soluble binder for lithium-ion batteries.

Claire Curry, selection committee co-chair and global head of Technology, Industry & Innovation research at BloombergNEF, commented: “During times of volatile energy prices, trade tensions and domestic onshoring efforts, new technology innovation remains of paramount importance. Now, the energy sector must tackle not just rapid decarbonization but also meet the rising demand for power, satisfy security of supply, and remain cost competitive. The 12 BNEF Pioneer winners for 2026 – tackling data center sustainability, commercial transport decarbonization, and flattening the power supply duck curve caused by renewables – do just this.”

Quotes from the 2026 BNEF Pioneers:

Emerald AI
“We’re honored to be recognized as a 2026 BNEF Pioneer. At Emerald AI, we believe AI can be the best thing that happens to the grid. Across five demonstrations at commercial data centers, we’ve proven that AI factories can reduce power consumption on command while maintaining full computational performance. Our peer-reviewed results in Nature Energy show that data centers don’t have to be grid liabilities; they can be the grid’s most valuable flexible allies.”

Dr. Varun Sivaram, Founder & CEO, Emerald AI

HT Materials Science
“We’re proud to be recognized as a 2026 BNEF Pioneer for our work at HT Materials Science advancing more efficient industrial cooling. Our Maxwell ® technology improves heat transfer at the fluid level, unlocking meaningful energy savings and cooling capacity within existing infrastructure. From AI infrastructure to industrial operations, demand for cooling is growing rapidly—and with it, the need for more efficient solutions.

Thomas Grizzetti, CEO, HT Materials Science 

Point2 Technology
“We’re deeply honored to be named a 2026 BNEF Pioneers winner. This recognition highlights how transformative Point2’s RF interconnect SoCs and our e-Tube RF data transmission over plastic waveguide truly are—removing the performance bottleneck that constrains AI compute. As the world races to expand energy capacity for AI, we’re proving that performance and sustainability can scale together.”

Sean Park, Co-Founder & CEO, Point2 Technology

Base Power
“We’re appreciative to be recognized as a 2026 BNEF Pioneer. The grid is changing rapidly, but most solutions still rely on centralized infrastructure. At Base Power, we’re taking a different approach: deploying distributed batteries at scale. This makes reliable backup accessible to far more households while turning those homes into a coordinated, flexible energy resource.”

Zach Dell, Co-Founder and CEO, Base Power 

Qvantum
“Being acknowledged as a 2026 BNEF Pioneer highlights our commitment to reshaping heating and cooling with more sustainable solutions, blending established, proven principles with innovations the heat pump industry previously deemed impossible. This recognition reinforces the urgency and global relevance of making advanced heat pump technology easy to adopt everywhere. We’re proud to stand among innovators driving real change and even more inspired to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”

Fredrik Rosenqvist, Founder & CEO, Qvantum 

XL Batteries
“XL Batteries is honored to be recognized as a 2026 BNEF Pioneer. As electrification and AI accelerate pressure on the grid, storage has to be efficient, flexible, and dependable. Our Organic Flow Battery is designed to meet that moment, giving utilities and developers a solution they can deploy with confidence to support a more affordable and resilient energy system.”

Dr. Thomas Sisto, Co-Founder & CEO, XL Batteries 

DeepWay
“We are honored that DeepWay has been selected as a 2026 BNEF Pioneers winner. Building on our intelligently designed electric heavy-duty trucks, along with self-developed core technologies in batteries, electric drive bridge and electronic control and autonomous driving, we are actively driving the low-carbon transformation of the logistics and transportation industry.”

Wan Jun, Founder, Chairman and CEO, DeepWay

Silverstream Technologies
“We are delighted to receive this recognition from BNEF, which reflects the sustained effort, technical depth and commitment of colleagues across Silverstream who have worked to grow the company, deliver excellence for our customers and build trust in our system. Embedding energy efficiency technologies into vessel designs from the outset is a great way to future-proof fleets and fuel-agnostic, proven solutions such as our patented Silverstream® System offer a practical way to help decarbonize maritime.”

Noah Silberschmidt, Founder and CEO, Silverstream

WattEV
“We’re honored to be recognized as a 2026 BNEF Pioneer. WattEV’s vertically integrated approach is what sets us apart. By handling the complete loop of infrastructure, equipment, and transport, we are able to optimize our offering to provide the lowest cost of ownership to carriers and guarantee a baseline utilization across our network. With over six million zero-emission miles accumulated across California on our fleet of 75 trucks, we’ve demonstrated that the WattEV model works and can be scaled.”

Salim Youssefzadeh, CEO, WattEV 

BasiGo
“Africa is uniquely positioned to lead the world in affordable, low-carbon public transport. At BasiGo, we are addressing the biggest barrier to electric bus adoption in Africa: the high upfront cost. Our Pay-As-You-Drive model pairs flexible financing with charging infrastructure and maintenance, making the transition convenient and commercially viable for operators, without reliance on subsidies. We are grateful to BloombergNEF and our partners for recognizing the impact of our work and supporting our vision of a clean, electric future for public transport in Africa.”

Jit Bhattacharya, Co-Founder & CEO, BasiGo

Endolith
“Endolith deploys adaptive microbial systems at mines to recover copper that conventional methods leave behind, unlocking critical materials from the resources we already have. Microbes have been doing this work for billions of years. We’re deploying them at scale in a fundamentally new way with modern biology and data. The recognition is meaningful. The problem is urgent. The work is what matters, and we’re so grateful to be here.”

Dr. Liz Dennett, Founder & CEO, Endolith

GRST
“GRST makes battery binder – the high tech “glue” which attaches the active materials to the electrodes. Unlike conventional binder, GRST binder doesn’t use harmful PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” and it dissolves in water for simple low-cost recycling to high purity black mass. As battery production scales, GRST’s binder supports a non-toxic and circular energy transition. Winning the 2026 BNEF Pioneers prize gives us a powerful platform to promote our technology and inspire battery solutions in harmony with nature.

Dr. Bill Ho, CEO, GRST