Mission Report: Energy Abundance
“The Race for Endless Electrons”
-Natalie Aldrich
Introduction
The global energy system is at an inflection point. Demand is rising relentlessly, driven by electrification, AI, and robotics, while traditional supply struggles to keep pace. The result is a multi-trillion-dollar race to build the next era of energy infrastructure. Energy-related venture deals have surged since 2020, reflecting both the urgency of the challenge and the scale of the prize.
At M1C, we invest in breakthrough generation, storage, and energy management technologies to power this future—where cheap, abundant energy is not optional but foundational.
We’re fortunate to learn directly from the founders tackling these challenges head-on. This report distills the most urgent pain points—and the most promising opportunities—emerging in the energy sector.
Insatiable Demand & Scarcity Challenge
The demand curve for electricity is no longer creeping upward—it’s spiking. Electrification, paired with energy-hungry processes like AI training and industrial robotics, is creating an insatiable appetite for electrons. In the U.S. alone, electricity demand is expected to grow by 25% by 2030 and by 78% by 2050, compared to 2023. Yet supply is tightening. The grid is aging, transmission expansion lags, and critical equipment like transformers remains scarce. Without intervention, this imbalance risks driving higher prices and outright scarcity. Energy industry-wide investments could total up to $1.4 trillion from 2025 to 2030 in the United States, equivalent to the industry’s spending over the previous 12 years combined.
However, if this linear system of take-make-waste was designed in our systems and that means that it can be designed out. Where some see a mountain of trash, we see treasure and given our focus here at M1C, we see significant opportunities in tracking, managing, and eliminating this waste.
The Transmission Bottleneck
Our transmission system and, by extension, the interconnection process, is failing to adapt to an increasingly distributed and renewable world. While this issue has been widely reported, the data remains staggering. There is now over 2,000 GW of capacity in interconnection queues (the vast majority of which is solar, storage, and wind). A mind-boggling quantity greater than the entire active U.S. generation fleet. While most of this capacity will never be built, developers are incentivized to place speculative bids to hold positions in the face of ballooning interconnection times. Average wait times have increased to over six years, up from just two in 2000. This is now the primary concern for renewable developers, as transmission costs can now be 50-100% of the total project costs, up from 10% just years ago. Total capacity in the queues fell 12%, decreasing from 2,596 GW in 2023 to 2,290 GW in 2024, due to rising interconnection costs.
It is clear that solving our transmission bottleneck is key to reaching our energy demand goals, but it is less clear exactly how we can do so. The first option is to build new transmission lines. According to the DOE, the United States will need to expand transmission systems by 60% by 2030 and may need to triple those systems by 2050 to meet growing electricity demands. Others have highlighted how instead of building new lines, we can upgrade our existing transmission infrastructure using advanced reconductoring to satisfy our transmission needs more cost-effectively. Lastly, grid enhancing technologies, such as power flow control, dynamic line ratings, storage-as-transmission, and topology optimization, can unlock more transmission capacity from existing lines without any construction. Realistically, we will likely need all of the above.
Investors are paying attention to the transmission space. Fixing it will require not only hardware upgrades and modernized policy, but also software-driven innovation. At M1C, we see four areas where startups are reshaping the grid:
Unlocking additional transmission capacity: Software-first solutions—such as dynamic line ratings, transmission optimization, and advanced queue management—are squeezing more throughput from existing wires. In this category, startups such as Nira, Paces and Othersphere are leading the way.
Managing and optimizing the grid: Smarter orchestration reduces losses and ensures clean power reaches end users. AI-driven platforms are helping operators visualize, predict, and optimize grid flows. We have seen developments in this space with companies such as ThreeV (an M1C portfolio company), GridCare, Camus and WeaveGrid.
Resilient Local Networks: Industrial microgrids combine on-site generation with energy-aware consumers, creating self-contained, reliable systems. Distributed power will grow in parallel with demand. Companies such as Derapi (an M1C portfolio company), David Energy, and Arbor Energy are working to enable a more distributed grid.
Creating Value from Stranded Energy: Asset Management best practices of today are inefficient yet crucial. It’s necessary to optimize operational efficiency, maximize asset lifespan, reduce costs, ensure safety, and comply with regulations. Startups working to squeeze more value of existing assets include: Soma, Tyba, Rune Energy and Strobe Power.
Advanced Energy Generation & Storage: The Path to Abundance
Transmission solves one constraint; generation and storage solve another. Technical breakthroughs in advanced nuclear, geothermal, storage, and digital platforms are making once-uneconomical solutions viable—and attracting serious investor attention.
At M1C we are looking into these spaces:
Storage: Fuel cells, thermal storage, and linear generators that provide temporary power for C&I customers and data centers before grid connection, then shift to backup. Companies in this space include: Moment Energy, Exowatt, Spring Cycle, Cache Energy and Lumindt Energy (an M1C portfolio company).
Geothermal: We're evaluating geothermal energy solutions, specifically focusing on enhanced and advanced systems that can generate power anywhere. We're also interested in technologies that support these systems, such as new drilling methods, like spallation and electric pulses, replacing traditional drills to bore more efficiently (Quaise Energy, GA Drilling). Companies are also improving systems and well designs to boost energy output (Fervo Energy, Eavor). To monitor these systems, better sensing tools are being developed to withstand extreme heat and pressure (Hephae Energy Technologies). On the exploration front, companies like Zanskar are creating new technologies to reduce the cost and risk of finding viable resources.
Nuclear Renaissance: The nuclear energy landscape is evolving rapidly, with startups carving out a space in a field long dominated by large-scale, state-backed projects. Opportunities lie in advanced fission reactors and nuclear fusion, which promise smaller, safer, and more scalable solutions than traditional nuclear power plants. Additionally opportunities lie along the nuclear value chain, such as enrichment cost reduction (General Matter and Hexium). These ventures are highly attractive due to their potential to deliver clean, baseload power, address a huge market need, and command a significant premium for their intellectual property and first-mover advantage (examples include: Valar Atomics, Radiant Nuclear and Antares).
Other Power Generation: Early-stage startups in waste heat to energy (Kanin Power), CO2 to energy (Arbor), and biomass conversion represent a new frontier for disruptive innovation (like Enerkem), offering a chance to capture significant value by commercializing technologies that turn waste streams into profitable, sustainable power. These ventures are especially attractive because they don't rely on traditional fossil fuels, but rather on abundant, often-overlooked resources, making them a strategic play in the global energy transition
Conclusion
The drive for energy abundance is sharpened by geopolitical instability and resource nationalism, underscoring the need for diversified, localized, and resilient infrastructure. The era of centralized, top-down systems is giving way to distributed, intelligent grids that enable efficiency, resilience, and consumer power. This transition is not incremental—it is transformative. The winners will deliver energy that is clean, reliable, and abundant, at prices that unlock new industries rather than constrain them. Energy will cease to be a limiting factor and become the foundation of growth, just as data became the engine of the digital economy.
At M1C, we believe the companies that commoditize energy in this way will define the next industrial era—and we intend to back them.
Onward!
