Building Europe’s New Energy Community

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the European Energy Collective newsletter!

Over the past two years, we’ve built the European Defense Tech Hub into a thriving community of founders, engineers and investors. Now we’re applying the same approach to energy. We are Philipp, Benjamin and Fynn — and we are excited to start this new chapter with you.

Europe is at a turning point.

And energy is the bottleneck: without secure, affordable, and independent energy, Europe cannot truly decide its own future. Dependence on Russian gas made Europe vulnerable when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

So we shifted to American LNG.

Today, 57% of Europe’s LNG imports come from a country willing to use coercion to force the annexation of Greenland, which is European territory.

The implication is clear: Energy is Europe’s strategic imperative.

And that’s why we need to build the community that builds the future of European energy: A place where founders, engineers, and investors come together to turn energy from a geopolitical liability into a source of sovereignty and resilience.

We’ll host hackathons, meetups, and webinars throughout the year to connect people working on real solutions.

→ Subscribe now to our EEC Event Calendar and don’t miss any future events

And whether you're starting a company, investing in startups, or working on technical and regulatory challenges: With every edition of this newsletter, we’ll keep you posted about events, insights, and connections that move the community forward.

In this edition, we’ll cover:

Online | Feb 03, 2026

In this workshop, coordinators from Tech4Good explain how off-grid energy technologies are sourced, evaluated, and prepared for real-world deployment under crisis conditions in Ukraine.

The session covers what makes an energy solution viable outside the grid, how teams move from prototype to field use, and how innovators can connect with partners, testing environments, and implementation pathways through Tech4Good’s network.

→ Sign up now

Vienna, Austria | March 13 — 15, 2026

This March, join us and more than 100+ participants at Eastern and Central Europe’s largest energy hackathon, hosted in collaboration with The Energy Bridge. Together, we will work on the sector’s hardest problems, ranging from grid stability and decentralized renewables to AI-based forecasting and flexible demand management.

Meet ambitious energy builders, connect with potential co-founders, and create solutions that could reshape the future of energy.

→ Sign up now

Berlin, Germany | April 24 — 26, 2026

We’re excited to host our first hackathon exclusively focused on battery innovation!

Join us and 100+ hackers from across Europe and beyond for three days of building, hands-on mentorship from leading startups, plus the chance to meet potential co-founders and investors.

→ Sign up now

For the first time, a sitting German Chancellor has unequivocally called the country’s nuclear phase-out a mistake. Last week, Friedrich Merz told business leaders in Dessau that Germany made a “serious strategic mistake” by shutting down its reactors.

Speaking at the Halle-Dessau Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Merz said Germany is now undertaking “the most expensive energy transition in the entire world” and criticized his predecessors for shutting down the country’s last three reactors in April 2023.

“We simply don’t have enough energy generation capacity”, he added.

Merz’s statement marks a shift. Germany’s nuclear exit was central to German energy policy, yet always controversial. Now, with electricity prices among the highest in Europe and 70% of its energy needs met through imports, the old consensus is cracking.

The good news: Acceptance is the first step toward improvement. We have moved beyond ignorance and denial to clearly state the issue: Energy security is not optional. And once a problem is clearly named, it can be engineered, financed, and built. It is time to do just that!

At CES 2026 earlier last month, Finnish startup Donut Lab made one of the boldest claims in battery history: the world’s first production-ready solid-state battery, already shipping in vehicles.

Why it matters: Solid-state batteries have been the holy grail of electrification for over a decade. Replacing the liquid electrolyte in conventional lithium-ion cells with a solid material promises higher energy density, faster charging, longer lifespan, and no fire risk. Major players like Toyota, BMW, and CATL have been chasing this for years, with timelines that kept slipping to 2027, 2030, or beyond.

Now, a small Finnish company says it got there first.

The specs (if true): Donut Lab claims its battery delivers 400 Wh/kg energy density, about 30% higher than the top lithium-ion cells. It fully charges in five minutes and lasts 100,000 cycles, compared to 1,500 for standard lithium-ion. It operates from -30°C to over 100°C without losing capacity. And it costs less to produce than lithium-ion batteries, using no rare or geopolitically sensitive materials.

The product: The battery will power the Verge TS Pro, an electric superbike from Verge Motorcycles, its sister company. First deliveries are scheduled for Q1 2026. Price: $29,900 for the standard version with a 350 km range; $34,900 for the long-range version with a 600 km range. Verge plans to build 350 bikes this year, half for Europe, half for California.

The scepticism: No patents have been published. No independent testing. No detailed materials disclosure. Industry veterans, including GM's former battery chief, say solid-state batteries remain years away from mass production. Some observers note that Donut Lab, originally a motor company, announced a world-changing battery breakthrough just months after investing in Nordic Nano, a Finnish nanotechnology startup working on energy storage.

The next 12 weeks will tell. If Verge delivers working bikes to customers this quarter, it would be a genuine inflection point for the industry. If not, it joins a long list of battery breakthroughs that never made it beyond the press release.

The European Angle: Regardless of how the story ends, the attempt itself matters. Europe has ceded battery manufacturing to Asia, particularly China.

A European company claiming to leapfrog the competition with fundamentally new technology, built from abundant materials, is exactly the kind of move the continent needs more of. Even if Donut Lab's claims require more validation, they've put European battery innovation back on the map.

We'll be watching this closely.

10 European Nations commit to deliver 100 gigawatts of offshore wind power (Reuters)

EU to halt Russian LNG by end-2026 (Reuters)

CATL to Install Sodium-Ion Batteries in Cars From Q2 2026

2026 kicks off with serious momentum in European energy tech:

Berlin-based Cloover raised a massive $1.2B in a Series A plus debt package to scale its AI operating system in the energy sector. Heavyweight rounds also went to Terralayr (battery storage), osapiens (ESG compliance software), and Kraken (utility SaaS), all of which are pushing the infrastructure and digital backbones of the energy transition.

We are excited about Prototype Capital’s third fund, led by Andreas Klinger, which has raised €15M so far to back European founders. He is going all in on Europe and is one of the key masterminds behind EU Inc.

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