New York-based nonprofit The Clean Fight launched its National Deployment Grant Fund last July to make catalytic grants to help startups prove out their climate solutions with customers and pave the way for broader adoption.
The fund, which was anchored by Builders Vision, has secured $1 million from The Rockefeller Foundation toward its $10 million goal. The funding will expand The Clean Fight’s grantmaking and help disseminate learnings from the projects to other communities.
“Too many clean energy solutions that could materially improve lives stall in the early stages of market adoption” said Rockefeller’s Slav Gatchev. “The Clean Fight’s National Deployment Grant Fund uses strategic grantmaking to break through that barrier.”
The announcement came at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Big Bets for America conference in Baltimore last week. The foundation also announced an additional $12 million commitment to Invest in Our Future, a pooled philanthropic fund created in 2023 to ensure that underserved communities would benefit from the federal funding for clean energy and climate resilience under the Biden administration.
Demonstration projects
With backing from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, The Clean Fight since 2020 has tested the catalytic impact of grant funding to accelerate deployment of climate solutions for the built environment in New York State.
It has distributed $5.4 million in catalytic grants in New York, supported 70 companies and 22 deployment projects that have generated more than 5,000 follow-on deployments statewide.
The National Deployment Grant Fund, which makes grants of $50,000 to $250,000 to scale energy innovation and resilience projects, expands that work to communities across the country. The focus is on “first of many” projects for the built environment that can be replicated in other communities. In addition to Builders Vision, Breakthrough Energy and Turner Construction are also partners on the fund.
“The right first project doesn’t just benefit one community; it creates a powerful slipstream for everyone who comes after. That’s exactly what this Fund is built to do,” said Kate Frucher of The Clean Fight.
The Clean Fight has also made three new grants, the nonprofit shared with ImpactAlpha.
A $125,000 grant to Somerville, Mass.-based Transaera will support the installation of its novel heat pump air conditioning and ventilation system at a multifamily building in Washington, DC. in a head-to-head test against a conventional system. The comparison will generate independent performance data to give building owners the confidence to switch to all-electric heating and cooling systems, The Clean FIght said.
Rock Rabbit, a startup that simplifies energy incentives for installers and others, received a $50,000 grant to validate a scalable model to onboard ‘mom and pop’ installers to the platform. This project aims to prove out the viability of engaging small contractors, who do the majority of home retrofit work but find navigating incentives too complex.
A third grant of $75,000 will enable Blue Frontier to pilot a high-efficiency cooling system at a school for students with autism in Jupiter, Florida. The project will demonstrate the ability to install energy-efficient air conditioning in accordance with design guidelines that address built environments for autistic individuals. It will also model a financially viable pathway for leveraging tax credits to deploy high-efficiency cooling in budget-constrained schools nationwide.
