(Bloomberg) —
Startup TS Conductor Corp. raised $60 million in a new funding round. The company, which manufactures power lines that are more efficient than the majority currently in operation, plans to use the funding to open a second facility east of the Mississippi River as it seeks to boost production capacity. New power cables will be crucial as old transmission lines are increasingly stressed by natural disasters and rising energy demand from data centers.
The California-based company didn’t share details on the exact location of the new site, but is planning to increase output at its Huntington Beach facility, which is already operating near full capacity, according to a statement. Wellington Management led the new funding round, with other backers that include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Quanta Services, Frontier, Energy & Environment Investment Inc., and Edison International.
Disasters like hurricanes and wildfires have exposed weaknesses in the US grid. TS Conductor’s advanced material is stronger than current wires, making it attractive to utilities seeking to make their systems more resistant to natural disasters. Its power cables also weigh less and can carry more electricity than the standard wires that have been used for more than a century.
Read more: The Century-Old Transmission Line Is Getting a 21st Century Upgrade
The need to replace weaker existing cables is even more urgent with the rising power demand from artificial intelligence and the push to electrify everything from transport to heating and cooling systems. But while TS Conductor — which was named a BloombergNEF Pioneer this year — offers a promising solution, the cables are not widely used and can be two to three times more expensive than conventional transmission lines on a per-foot basis.
“The electric grid is the backbone of our clean energy future, and it urgently needs a 21st-century upgrade,” Chief Executive Officer Jason Huang said in the statement. “With this funding round, we’re scaling up production to put our proven solution into the hands of utilities faster.”
There aren’t enough long-haul wires to transfer preferred low-carbon power from remote wind and solar farms to locations where it’s needed, thereby slowing the green transition. Adapting and expanding the grid to reach net zero by 2050 will cost at least $21.4 trillion, according to BNEF. Among those investments are installing nearly 50 million miles (80 million kilometers) of wires to transmit and distribute clean energy.
In April, the White House announced that it wanted to upgrade 100,000 miles of US transmission lines within five years. Yet when it comes to new lines, only 55 miles were installed in 2023, according to a new report from the nonprofit Americans for a Clean Energy Grid.
Listen on Zero: How to Upgrade the World’s Biggest Machine
To contact the author of this story:
Tope Alake in New York at talake@bloomberg.net
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