AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from MIT Technology Review, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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The MIT Technology Review team released its 2026 list of Climate Tech Companies to Watch, highlighting firms advancing energy technology. The author notes that China dominates the global energy landscape, citing Envision Energy as a key example. This company has installed over 100 gigawatts of wind power and more than 50 gigawatt-hours of battery storage worldwide. Its projects are expanding internationally to Germany, Brazil, Australia, and Vietnam. Additionally, Chinese firms are racing to develop solid-state batteries, which the author describes as potentially safer and offering longer range than current lithium-ion options.

WeLion New Energy is highlighted for achieving 824 watt-hours per kilogram in lab tests, a density more than three times that of standard lithium-ion batteries. While scaling these results remains difficult, WeLion is developing semi-solid-state batteries to improve performance faster than purely solid-state cells. In the United States, only three companies made the list, with two receiving support from Big Tech for data center power needs. Fervo Energy raised $2.2 billion in May and plans gigawatts of horizontal geothermal plants by 2030. X-energy is building helium-cooled small modular nuclear reactors, currently collaborating with Amazon on a 320-megawatt cluster in Richland, Washington.

Energy storage demand is rising as solar and wind expand. Form Energy appears for the third time on the list for its iron-air batteries, which could enable cheaper long-duration storage. A massive project of 30 gigawatt-hours will power a Google data center, potentially becoming the world’s largest by capacity between 2028 and 2031. Energy Dome uses compressed carbon dioxide to store energy for over ten hours, with plans for more than 30 gigawatt-hours globally, including a facility in Ireland launching in 2028. Moment Energy is repurposing millions of end-of-life EV batteries for backup power using a Vancouver facility. The author remains hopeful that these technologies will help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions despite current challenges.