Monolith, the Lincoln-based clean energy company, announced this week that it received what is likely the largest single investment in Nebraska history.
The company, which has a plant near Hallam that produces carbon black, a powdery substance that’s used in tires, inks, plastics and other products, said it recently received more than $300 million from a host of big-name investors.
The round of investment was led by TPG Rise Climate, the dedicated climate investing strategy of TPG’s global impact investing platform TPG Rise, and Decarbonization Partners, a partnership between BlackRock and Temasek. Additional investment was also received from NextEra Energy Resources, SK, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and Azimuth Capital Management. Some of the same companies participated in a $120 million investment round for Monolith last year.
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That $120 million investment had tied a 2020 Hudl investment as the previous largest in state history.
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“Global decarbonization by 2050 will require bold steps and transformational partnerships, which we believe we’ve found in working with TPG Rise Climate and Decarbonization Partners,” Rob Hanson, co-founder and CEO of Monolith, said in a news release. “We’re eager to continue Monolith’s growth trajectory to support a high energy, low emissions future.”
The company is in the process of building a second carbon black plant that will increase its production capacity to nearly 200,000 tons of carbon black per year, as well as an anhydrous ammonia plant that will use the hydrogen produced in the carbon black manufacturing process and combine it with nitrogen to produce the liquid fertilizer that farmers use. That plant will have a capacity of about 275,000 metric tons annually.
In December, Monolith announced that it had received conditional approval for a $1.04 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Title XVII Innovative Energy Loan Guarantee Program. It is expected to start construction on the plant either later this year or early next year, with a planned completion date of 2026.
“Producing sustainable hydrogen and carbon black is crucial to decarbonizing the energy and materials industry,” Dr. Meghan Sharp, global head of Decarbonization Partners, said in the release. We are pleased to support Monolith’s growth and continued expansion.”
Monolith has now raised more equity investment than any startup company in the history of both Lincoln and Nebraska.
Ben Williamson, principal and general counsel of Invest Nebraska, said Monolith is attracting a lot of investment because it has a lot going for it that is attractive to investors.
“Climate/decarbonization tech is very sexy right now,” Williamson said, especially for large private equity and publicly traded firms, and it has become an even more attractive industry because of the war in Ukraine, he said.
In addition, Monolith’s $1.04 billion loan from the federal government also makes it attractive because it means investors know the money they give the company can be used for expansion rather than on capital projects.
In its news release, Monolith said the new investment will go toward “further technological development that will offer next-generation product capabilities and other corporate-level expansion.”
The company also said the capital infusion will enable it to continue development of “a deep backlog of clean hydrogen, ammonia and carbon projects with industry-leading partners.”
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The states that produce the most renewable energy
States That Produce the Most Renewable Energy
Photo Credit: Jim Cork / Shutterstock
Since President Joe Biden and a new Congress took office earlier this year, federal policymakers have been working to speed up the U.S. transition to clean and renewable energy sources. One of Biden’s first actions in office was to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, the 2016 agreement in which countries pledged to significantly reduce their CO2 emissions. The Biden Administration followed this up with aggressive carbon reduction targets and the American Jobs Plan proposal, which includes provisions to modernize the power grid, incentivize clean energy generation, and create more jobs in the energy sector. Much of Biden’s agenda builds on prior proposals like the Green New Deal, which would achieve emissions reductions and create jobs through investments in clean energy production and energy-efficient infrastructure upgrades.
The transition to renewables has taken on greater urgency in recent years with the worsening effects of climate change. Carbon emissions from non-renewable sources like coal, oil, and natural gas are one of the primary factors contributing to the warming of the atmosphere, and climate experts project that to limit warming, renewable energy must supply 70 to 85% of electricity by midcentury.
Renewable energy still represents less than a quarter of total annual electricity generation in the U.S., but the good news is that renewable energy has been responsible for a steadily increasing share of electricity generation over the past decade. Most of the upward trajectory comes from exponential growth in the production of solar and wind power. In 1990, solar power generated only 367,087 megawatt-hours of electricity, while wind power was responsible for 2,788,600 megawatt-hours. Since then, technological improvements and public investment in wind and solar helped lower costs and make them viable competitors to non-renewable sources. By 2020, solar production had reached 89,198,715 megawatt-hours, while wind produced 337,938,049 megawatt-hours of electricity.
Renewables account for a growing share of US electric power generation

But this evolution is uneven across the U.S., a product of differences in states’ economies, public policy toward renewables, and perhaps most importantly, geographic features. Even among states that lead in renewable energy production, these factors contribute to different mixes of renewable sources. For instance, Texas—the nation’s top producer of renewable energy—generates most of its renewable electricity from wind turbines. Runner-up Washington and fourth-place Oregon take advantage of large rivers in the Pacific Northwest to generate more hydroelectric power than any other state. And California, which is third in total renewable production, has been a long-time leader in solar energy thanks in part to an abundance of direct sunlight.
TX WA CA and OR are the leading producers of renewable energy

Meanwhile, states that lag behind in renewable generation include several states without the size or geographic features to scale up production, like Delaware, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, along with states whose economies are more traditionally dependent on fossil fuels, like Mississippi and Alaska.
To determine the states producing the most renewable energy, researchers at Commodity.com used data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration to calculate the percentage of total electricity generated from renewable sources. Renewable energy sources include: wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydroelectric. In the event of a tie, the state with the greater five-year growth in renewable electricity production, between 2015 and 2020, was ranked higher.
Here are the states that produce the most renewable energy.
15. Nebraska

Photo Credit: Tami Story Photography / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 28.9%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +115.7%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 10,648,740
- Largest renewable energy source: Wind
14. Alaska

Photo Credit: Roman Sorokin / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 30.8%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +8.3%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 1,931,545
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
13. Colorado

Photo Credit: Bogdan Denysyuk / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 30.9%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +77.4%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 16,724,964
- Largest renewable energy source: Wind
12. North Dakota

Photo Credit: northlight / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 38.1%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +87.0%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 16,084,768
- Largest renewable energy source: Wind
11. Oklahoma

Photo Credit: Bob Pool / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 39.7%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +91.9%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 32,687,539
- Largest renewable energy source: Wind
10. California

Photo Credit: Virrage Images / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 42.6%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +38.9%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 82,239,832
- Largest renewable energy source: Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic
9. Kansas

Photo Credit: Kyle T Perry / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 44.2%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +117.6%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 24,117,519
- Largest renewable energy source: Wind
8. Montana

Photo Credit: Flaxphotos / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 59.4%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +16.8%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 13,872,119
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
7. Iowa

Photo Credit: Jim Cork / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 59.4%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +85.6%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 35,437,099
- Largest renewable energy source: Wind
6. Oregon

Photo Credit: steve estvanik / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 67.5%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +9.5%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 42,928,468
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
5. Washington

Photo Credit: Nick Fox / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 75.0%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +5.6%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 87,109,288
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
4. Idaho

Photo Credit: Charles Knowles / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 76.1%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +15.0%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 13,456,149
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
3. Maine

Photo Credit: Danita Delimont / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 76.7%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: -1.7%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 7,674,956
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
2. South Dakota

Photo Credit: marekuliasz / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 80.5%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +55.0%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 11,388,457
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
1. Vermont

Photo Credit: Colin D. Young / Shutterstock
- Percentage of electricity generated from renewables: 99.9%
- 5-year change in renewable electricity production: +9.0%
- Total electricity generated from renewables (MWh): 2,155,177
- Largest renewable energy source: Hydroelectric Conventional
Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or [email protected]
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
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