Last week’s ClimaTech conference in Boston was awesome! Tons of interesting content, great people, and fun. Definitely an injection of hope.

Also, being a panel moderator by day and DJ by night was a blast. Can’t wait to hit the road for…Europe!

Speaking of hope. Here’s your latest injection!

It’s not all bleak out there, hope dealers! Fervo went public. The Iran war is accelerating the adoption of renewables. States are fighting back on voting rights and masked ICE agents. Pancreatic cancer survival time just doubled. Yeah, we’re not quite f*d…

THE IV: May 14th, 2026

💉 The AI data center boom is supposed to break the grid. The first geothermal IPO in history just raised $1.89 billion to power it instead.

Fervo Energy raised $1.89 billion in its IPO on May 13, opened 33% above its offer price, and closed valued above $10 billion. The IPO was the largest US clean energy public offering since 2021.

🔗 Fervo Energy pops 33% in IPO debut fueled by AI data center demand — TechCrunch

💉 A new drug just doubled survival time for the deadliest common cancer.

Revolution Medicines released results on its RAS inhibitor for advanced pancreatic cancer, achieving median overall survival of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months for standard chemotherapy.

🔗 Revolution Medicines Announces Positive Topline Results from Phase 3 RASolute 302 Trial

💉 Renewables are supposed to make electricity more expensive. Australia just got the opposite.

Renewables supplied 46.5% of Australia’s electricity generation in Q1 2026 — a record — while average wholesale prices fell 12% year-on-year. More than 350,000 household batteries are now displacing evening gas use. Gas-fired generation hit its lowest quarterly average since 1999.

🔗 Renewables surge as batteries reshape Australia’s grid — energy.gov.au

💉 The mental health crisis is supposed to be getting worse. A new study says it’s quietly getting better for the people who needed help most.

A JAMA study from Harvard researchers found suicide mortality among Americans aged 15–34 dropped 11% after the 988 Lifeline launched in July 2022 — an estimated 4,400 fewer suicide deaths than projected in the first 2.5 years. States with the largest increase in answered calls saw the biggest reductions, suggesting a dose-response. Overall call volume rose 146% in the highest-uptake states.

If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 — call or text 988.

🔗 988 Lifeline launch linked to 11% drop in youth suicide deaths — AJMC

💉 The world’s first nature-inclusive floating wind farm just delivered its first power off the coast of France.

Ocean Winds’ Éoliennes Flottantes du Golfe du Lion project sent its first power to the French grid — a 30 MW floating offshore wind farm built with marine biodiversity protections, including artificial reef structures embedded in turbine anchors. It is the first nature-inclusive floating wind project anywhere in the world. Full commercial operation is targeted later this year.

🔗 Ocean Winds delivers its first power from EFGL — Renewable Energy Magazine

💉 While the world’s energy bills climb because of the war, India just installed solar on a record number of homes in a single month.

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced that 270,000 rooftop solar panels were installed in April 2026 — the highest single-month total ever. The scheme has now crossed 3 million installations, benefiting 4.5 million households. Total national solar capacity hit 150 gigawatts as of March 31 — a 53-fold increase since 2014, with the last 50 GW added in just 15 months.

🔗 India installs record 2.7 lakh rooftop solar panels in April — Sarkaritel

💉 While the Supreme Court gutted the federal Voting Rights Act, one state just moved to build its own.

The New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee passed a substitute version of the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act, advancing legislation that would create state-level preclearance for voting rule changes. If signed, NJ would become the 10th state with its own voting rights act, joining California, New York, Virginia, Washington, Oregon, Connecticut, Minnesota, Colorado, and Maryland.

🔗 NJ A1715 — John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act

💉 Mexico’s new president just committed to the largest clean energy buildout in Mexican history.

President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that her administration will install at least 16,000 MW of renewable energy through private and mixed-investment schemes — a 17% increase in Mexico’s total installed capacity. 5,000 MW was already authorized in December 2025.

🔗 Sheinbaum commits to 16,000 MW in mixed renewables — Mexico Business News

💉 New York just became the first state to ban federal immigration agents from wearing masks.

The New York State budget includes provisions banning ICE officers and other federal immigration agents from wearing face coverings during enforcement actions, reinforcing sensitive-locations protections at schools, hospitals, and houses of worship. The package also strengthens identification requirements for any law enforcement officer conducting an arrest on state property.

🔗 New York State set to ban law enforcement including ICE from wearing masks — Reuters

💉 The fastest country in the developing world to quit coal isn’t where you’d expect.

Chile’s national grid ran on 75.1% solar at midday on March 14 — an all-time instantaneous record — and solar supplied 28.7% of total electricity for the month. The country’s installed power mix is now 69.9% renewable, with 2.5 GW of battery storage operational and another 6.3 GW under construction. The IEA projects Chile will hit 90% renewable electricity by 2030.

🔗 Chile solar PV reaches 28.7% of national electric system generation in March 2026 — IndexBox

Keep your chins up, we got this. Until next time…

Hope Dealers,

Last Call!

See you TONIGHT at Vesuvio Cafe in SF from 5-9pm! There’ll be badass founders and investors imbibing at what is in our opinion the best bar in the country.

RSVP and donate if you can to enjoy the open bar!

👉🏽RSVP HERE👈🏽 while you can!

The IV

The antidote to negative content

April 20, 2026

Need a dose of hope? We hear ya.

It must be 4/20, because psychedelic therapy was just fast-tracked by the White House. Live music fans got a big win because Live Nation sucks, and now everybody knows it—taylor swift ticket refunds, anyone? Maryland says NO to an ICE facility, and more…

1. After 16 years and billions in hidden fees, a jury just told Ticketmaster: it wasn’t your imagination.

A federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary operated as an illegal monopoly, harming consumers, artists, and venues. A second trial will now determine remedies — which could include forcing Live Nation to sell concert venues or break up the company entirely.

NPR | Washington Post

2. 29 people have died in ICE custody this year. On Wednesday, a federal court said: not in this warehouse.

The US District Court in Maryland halted ICE’s plan to convert an 825,000-square-foot warehouse near Hagerstown into a 1,500-bed detention facility. ICE had purchased the property for $102 million and awarded a $113 million retrofit contract — while bypassing required environmental reviews and while Washington County’s sewage system was already near capacity. Construction is now paused indefinitely. The system of checks doing what it was built to do.

Maryland Matters | 7News

3. The federal government just invested $50 million in psychedelic mental health research — and it has bipartisan backing.

For the roughly 30% of people with depression or PTSD whose symptoms don’t respond to standard medications, a new federal research pathway just opened. An executive order commits $50 million through ARPA-H to match state investments in psychedelic therapy research. The order also directs the FDA to issue National Priority Vouchers for three breakthrough-designation psychedelics, cutting review timelines from months to weeks. No psychedelic has been approved yet. But the science is now federally funded and fast-tracked.

White House | CBS News

4. The US DOJ is suing states that pass AI laws. States are passing them anyway.

Governors in Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Maine signed AI safety legislation into law — including chatbot disclosure requirements, protections for minors from AI manipulation, and prohibitions on AI impersonating mental health professionals. This comes despite a White House executive order directing the DOJ to challenge “onerous” state AI laws and threatening to condition federal infrastructure funding on compliance. More than 35 states have active AI legislation in 2026. When the federal government stepped back, the states stepped in.

Transparency Coalition | Troutman Privacy + AI

5. AI data centers need baseload clean power. This 1.7-gigawatt geothermal deal just locked it in.

Fervo Energy and Turboden — a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries company — signed a three-year framework to supply turbines for up to 35 of Fervo’s 50 MW “GeoBlock” power plants, totaling 1,750 MW of 24/7 carbon-free power. The companies are currently in the advanced commissioning stage of Phase I at Cape Station in Beaver County, Utah, with startup expected later this year. Once online, it will be the first commercial-scale enhanced geothermal project in the world.

Turboden / Fervo press release

6. Africa just built more solar in three months than it did in all of last year.

Africa commissioned roughly 970 MW of utility-scale solar in Q1 2026 — the highest quarterly addition ever recorded, and more capacity than the entire continent installed in all of 2025. Total installed utility-scale capacity across Africa now stands at 26.15 GW, led by South Africa and Egypt, with strong momentum building in Morocco, Nigeria, Zambia, and Namibia. Africa currently has 133 GW of utility-scale solar in active development. What was promise a decade ago is now delivery at speed.

Green Building Africa

7. Renters can’t put panels on their roofs. So Americans built a 10-gigawatt workaround.

US community solar — shared solar projects that let renters, apartment dwellers, and households with shaded roofs buy into off-site solar — crossed 10 gigawatts of installed capacity in April 2026. Community solar has made clean energy accessible to households that couldn’t otherwise participate in the transition. At current growth rates, the sector is on track to reach 30 GW nationwide by 2030.

Wood Mackenzie / ACP via Tesevo

8. Pennsylvania’s shale gas wells might be about to produce clean power instead.

The US Department of Energy announced a $14 million project to convert a horizontal shale gas well in Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Utica Shale into an enhanced geothermal system — the first EGS demonstration east of the Mississippi. The project will test whether the same drilling technology that extracted gas from the ground can now tap the earth’s heat to make 24/7 carbon-free electricity. If it works, it offers a replicable template for hundreds of similar wells across Appalachia.

Department of Energy

That’s your dose of hope. Forward it to someone who needs it.

Warmly,

HD

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👉🏽RSVP HERE👈🏽 while you can!

Entities RSVPd so far: Azolla, PRIME Coalition, MIH Capital, Wild Assets, Coreshell, Goodwin, HSBC, it’s electric, Sylvatex, Skyview Ventures, Boomitra, Redex, Rondo Energy, Aepnus Technolgy, SPUN, and Node Climate!

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Congratulations to GridIQ, Boomitra, and Florrent—the newest additions to the lightning round company intros!!

Now, welcome to the first edition of our new bi-weekly newsletter: The IV!

While a majority of media sources firehose us with f*d news, we’re here to provide you doses of hope to show we’re not quite f*d.

The IV will continue to evolve, and recommendations are always appreciated :)

Now go ahead and get some of that hope.

💉IRENA: The World Just Added 692 GW of Non-Fossil Energy — The Largest Annual Surge Ever.

While people freak out over fossil fuel supply, non-fossil energy just had its biggest year ever, and the war should only increase demand.

The world added 692 gigawatts of non-fossil energy in 2025 — the largest annual surge ever recorded — pushing total global clean capacity to 5,000+ GW, according to a report released Tuesday. Solar led the way with 511 GW added, wind followed with 159 GW, and non-fossils accounted for 85.6% of all new electricity capacity built globally last year. IRENA’s Director-General said it best: “Countries that invested in the energy transition are weathering this crisis with less economic damage, as they boost energy security, resilience and competitiveness.”

💉UK Record Wind + Solar: Britain Saved £1 Billion in Gas Imports in a Single Month

Everyone's energy bill is spiking because of the war. Britain just proved there's a way out.

In March 2026, the UK generated record levels of wind and solar electrons — avoiding importing the equivalent of 21 terawatt hours of gas, equivalent to roughly 18 fully loaded LNG tankers. That would have cost around £1 billion at current Iran-war prices. Wind output was up 38% year-on-year for the month. Combined, wind and solar hit 11 terawatt hours in March — a new record. Gas generation fell 25% compared to March 2022, when fossil prices last spiked. “For the first time, we’re bringing deep geothermal power to British homes — a clean, constant energy source right beneath our feet,” Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson said this month. The less fossils feeding the grid, the less the war can touch your bill.

💉India Is Now the World's Third-Largest Solar Producer — Rooftop solar is now powering over 3 Million Homes

The world's most energy-stressed major economy just became its third-largest solar producer.

India officially reached 143.6 GW of installed solar capacity as of February 2026 — making it the world's third-largest solar producer — after installing a record 37.8 GW in 2025 alone. Non-fossil production now exceeds 51% of India's total electricity capacity, a milestone originally targeted for 2030, achieved five years early. The government's rooftop solar program has now reached 3 million households. India's budget allocation for non-fossil energy rose 30% this year. One billion people are outrunning the fossil fuel model.

💉46 Countries — Including Major Oil Producers — Just Confirmed They're Attending a Fossil Fuel Phaseout Summit

While oil prices soar, 46 countries — including oil producers — are meeting this month to plan the end of fossil fuels.

The first-ever international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels will take place April 28-29 in Santa Marta, Colombia — a major coal export port in the world's fifth-largest coal-producing nation. 46 countries have confirmed attendance, including Brazil, Norway, Mexico, Angola, and Trinidad and Tobago — nations whose economies depend on fossil fuel exports. The conference is hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands and will develop concrete legal, economic, and social pathways for a just transition. The venue sends an intentional signal: fossil-fuel-dependent countries increasingly want a way out, and they're building the roadmap themselves.

💉CFS SPARC Fusion Reactor: 70% Complete and Now Selling Magnets Commercially

The fusion reactor being assembled outside Boston just started generating revenue — from its own magnets.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced Thursday it has sold high-temperature superconducting magnets to Realta Fusion — the second commercial deal of its kind and a sign the company is generating near-term revenue while SPARC, its demonstration reactor, nears completion. SPARC is now 70% complete, with all 18 magnets expected to be installed by summer 2026 and first plasma targeted for 2027. The magnets can generate a 20-tesla magnetic field — roughly 13 times stronger than an MRI machine. The running joke that fusion is always 30 years away is no longer holding.

💉Vietnam Scraps Its Largest LNG Plant in Favor of Renewables as Gulf Prices Spike

Vietnam just cancelled its biggest LNG plant. It’s building renewables instead.

Plans for Vietnam’s largest LNG power plant may be scrapped in favor of a new renewable energy project as soaring gas prices tied to the Iran war have worsened the economics of LNG across Southeast Asia. Vietnam has historically been one of Asia’s fastest-growing LNG markets. The reversal signals that the Gulf disruption is actively accelerating the non-fossil transition in places that were previously seen as locked into fossil fuel expansion — not just in wealthy nations.

💉Arizona's Conservative Supreme Court Blocked Three Anti-Voting Lawsuits in One Day

Voting rights are under threat everywhere in the US. Arizona’s own conservative court just said: not here.

Arizona’s conservative-leaning Supreme Court declined to hear a string of appeals from Republican-backed groups that sought to restrict mail-in ballot verification, allow hand-counting of ballots, and weaken early voting rules. By turning the cases away, the court let lower court rulings stand — preserving systems that make voting more accessible and election results more secure. Taken together, the rejections mark a significant legal victory for voting rights in a state that has been at the center of repeated efforts to reshape election rules since 2020.

💉Federal Appeals Court Blocked Push to Gut $4 Billion in Homelessness Funding

The US administration tried to pull $4 billion from homelessness programs. A federal court just said no.

A federal appeals court rejected the US administration's push to impose new conditions on homelessness funding Wednesday, calling implementation of the changes "immediately destabilizing and disastrous." The ruling upheld a lower court's preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Housing and Urban Development's plan to shift nearly $4 billion away from permanent housing toward programs requiring sobriety and mental health conditions. The appeals court noted that the existing Housing First approach — the target of HUD's overhaul — "has proven effective," citing two decades of bipartisan policy evidence. Without this ruling, the change would have risked pushing 170,000 people, including many disabled adults and veterans, back into homelessness.

💉Vermont Signed One of the Country's Strongest AI Safety Bills into Law

While Washington stalls on AI rules, states are building guardrails themselves.

Vermont’s governor just signed AI safety legislation into law, including provisions protecting neurological rights and restricting AI in health and human services — one of the nation’s most comprehensive state AI frameworks to date. Vermont wasn’t alone: Georgia sent three AI safety bills to Governor Brian Kemp this week, including chatbot disclosure requirements and a prohibition on AI-only insurance coverage decisions. Alabama, Iowa, and Utah all advanced AI safety legislation this session. Thirty-two states are now actively legislating AI conduct — a distributed system of democratic guardrails building without waiting for Congress.

💉A Homelessness Prevention Program Cut Unhousing Rates 78% with a $6,500 Average Investment — Now Going National

Homelessness can be prevented — and it costs less than letting it happen.

A homelessness prevention program in Santa Clara County found that a targeted payment averaging $6,500 — for rent, security deposits, and emergency housing expenses — reduced the likelihood of becoming homeless by 78%, compared to similar households that received no help. A CalMatters investigation found the program, run by Destination: Home, has inspired 10 pilot programs launching across the country in the first large-scale, multi-state test of a prevention-first approach.