Stay informed with the latest developments shaping the future of sustainability, energy, and tech. From major green investments and breakthrough projects to AI-powered climate platforms and EV infrastructure milestones. Here’s a roundup of this week’s most impactful news and deals across the sector:
Net Zero / Sustainability — Key Industry News
The EU is heading to COP31 in Belém, Brazil with a stark warning that existing national climate pledges are insufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C, per draft Council conclusions dated 14 September seen by Euronews. The document states the EU Council highlights “with concern” that current ambition and implementation remain insufficient — echoing a recent UNEP warning. The Council will push for stronger NDC commitments from major emitters at COP31, the first held under post-Paris Agreement global stocktake rules.
Hungary’s government moved to increase regulatory and contractual pressure on BYD and CATL — the two Chinese manufacturers with major manufacturing investments in the country — highlighting the deepening contradiction at the heart of EU clean tech trade policy. While the Commission has imposed countervailing duties on Chinese-built EVs, Hungary has positioned itself as the primary destination for Chinese battery and EV manufacturing investment, creating structural tension between EU-level policy and national industrial strategy with direct implications for the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank discussions.
Senior German politicians from three parties — Olaf Lies (SPD), Cem Özdemir (Greens), and Markus Söder (CSU) — issued a joint call on 18 September for additional demand-side support for the German automotive industry. The cross-party nature of the demand reflects the extent to which Germany’s automotive sector has become a broad consensus issue, and comes as EU 2030 CO₂ targets are under renegotiation in Council working groups where Germany’s position carries disproportionate weight.
Data Centres — Key Industry News
Scotland’s parliament voted on 16 September to back a de facto, temporary moratorium on new hyperscale data centres, with no planning applications approved until the Scottish Government publishes updated planning guidance. The decision affects several multi-gigawatt AI campus proposals — including at least one £2 billion project — and contrasts with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s rejection the previous week of calls for a national moratorium, creating a formal divergence in UK digital infrastructure planning policy between Scotland and England.
Dutch colocation operator NorthC broke ground on 17 September on a new 6MW data centre in Frankfurt — its first facility in Germany’s largest data centre market, due online in 2028. NorthC is expanding into Frankfurt as its primary German market hub, following a strategy of building out enterprise-grade colocation in secondary and emerging European data centre markets.
Asp Data Center secured NOK 1.6 billion (approximately €140 million) in financing on 18 September to advance its Stavanger data centre project, refinancing a previous agreement. Stavanger is an emerging Nordic data centre hub due to Norway’s abundant hydroelectric power, subsea cable connectivity, and competitive land costs, positioning it alongside Oslo, Bergen, and northern Norway AI compute campuses.
Data Centres — Key Deal News
Delos Data Raises Over $100M in Funding
Delos Data, a Palo Alto, CA-based AI inference company, raised over $100m in funding. Backers included Matrix Partners, Playground, Socratic Partners, Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Matter Venture Partners, IAG, and industry luminaries from across compute, hyperscale, scalable systems, networking silicon, infrastructure software, and optical connectivity.
Energy Storage — Key Industry News
Energy-storage.news published its post-event roundup from the inaugural Energy Storage Summit Germany (15–16 September, Berlin) on 18 September. Dominant themes: Flexible Connection Agreements and grid fee interactions; inertia requirements for grid-forming BESS; Germany’s first capacity market auction outcome; and the EU restrictions on Chinese BESS suppliers — with speakers noting Chinese manufacturers remain dominant in German projects through indirect supply chains despite EU-level procurement restrictions.
Panellists at BESTE Barcelona identified three primary barriers to faster BESS deployment in the Iberian Peninsula: insufficient flexibility in grid connection frameworks; the absence of a clear long-term revenue framework for merchant BESS in Portugal and Spain; and slow permitting. Despite the barriers, speakers were broadly optimistic, pointing to Spain’s ACER-approved capacity market and high renewable penetration as evidence of regulatory willingness to move rapidly.
Hithium launched its sodium-ion battery cell and 4MWh BESS on 16 September, promising a 20,000-cycle lifetime and 30-year operational lifespan. The technology eliminates lithium, cobalt, and nickel supply chain dependencies entirely. If validated under independent testing, the 20,000-cycle figure would be competitive with leading LFP products on a lifecycle basis — positioned for 2-hour grid balancing and capacity market applications across Europe.
Energy Storage — Key Deal News
Barrell Lithium Tops 62,000 Acres, Closes Oversubscribed Series C
Barrell Energy Inc. and portfolio company Barrell Lithium LLC have closed an oversubscribed Series C financing round while expanding their lithium brine leasehold to more than 62,000 net mineral acres across prospective areas of the Smackover Formation in East Texas.
Built Environment — Key Industry News
INSEE’s September 2026 economic assessment, covered by batinfo.com on 16 September, confirmed that French construction and renovation activity continues to act as a drag on overall economic growth — with household investment down 1.3% and business investment down 0.3%. The sector is contracting for the fourteenth consecutive quarter, driven by high financing costs, reduced grant scope from September 2026, and persistent skills shortages among artisan builders. The data raises direct questions about France’s capacity to deliver its EPBD National Building Renovation Plan commitments by the 31 December 2026 deadline.
France published new carbon requirements applicable to heating and air conditioning systems in new buildings from 1 January 2027, reported by batinfo.com on 14 September. The new thresholds tighten France’s RE2020 environmental regulation by reducing the permitted carbon contribution of fossil fuel heating systems — directly accelerating the market shift toward heat pumps, district heating, and low-carbon alternatives in new build residential and commercial property. The announcement was contested by Coénove, the gas industry association, which filed a formal objection arguing the new threshold renders gas heating commercially unviable in new construction.
French renovation specialist Renov’le announced on 17 September that it is developing a 78-dwelling residential estate as a coordinated renovation demonstration project, covering insulation, heating system upgrades, and ventilation across a complete residential block. The project is designed to provide a replicable template for the whole-building renovation approach that France’s EPBD National Building Renovation Plan is targeting — but that has been historically difficult to deliver at scale through the individual application-based MaPrimeRénov’ model.
Built Environment — Key Deal News
AXIS invests up to €12 million in 011H Sustainable Construction
AXIS, the venture capital firm of the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), is set to invest up to €12 million in 011H Sustainable Construction, S.L. (011h), a Spanish technology company specialising in advanced and sustainable industrialised- construction for residential use.
EV & EV Charging — Key Industry News
Electrive’s IAA Transportation 2026 roundup confirmed the emergence of a genuinely competitive multi-manufacturer market for battery-electric 40-tonne trucks in Europe — with BYD’s ETT 44, Tesla Semi, Volvo FH Electric, Daimler eActros 600, Sany e363, Foton Daystar, and Maxus eDeliver 420L all displayed. The crowded field marks a structural shift from IAA 2023 and signals the beginning of the volume adoption phase for electric heavy goods vehicles in Europe.
EZO secures €150 million to expand UK and Ireland EV charging networks — published 17 September
EV charging operator EZO secured €150 million on 17 September to accelerate expansion of its public fast-charging network across the UK and Ireland, focused on high-utilisation sites including motorway service areas, retail parks, and transport hubs. The financing comes as the UK moves toward a critical September plate-change month, with the gap between actual BEV share (forecast 27.4%) and the 33% ZEV mandate target driving urgency among both OEMs and charging operators.
US electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid and European ride-hailing platform Bolt announced on 19 September plans to develop a commercial electric robotaxi service targeting a 2027 European launch. The partnership combines Lucid’s premium EV platform with Bolt’s 100-million-user network across 45+ European cities. The announcement follows Wayve and Uber’s London commercial robotaxi launch on 3 September, signalling that European autonomous mobility is entering a phase of competitive commercial deployment.
