Recognizing that the world can’t reach net-zero emissions by 2050 with existing technologies alone, the Breakthrough Energy Fellows (BE Fellows) program works with the best and brightest scientists, engineers, business experts, and teams from around the globe. The BE Fellows program provides early investment and support needed to accelerate the path from innovation to commercialization.

The 2021 inaugural BE Fellows cohort comes from leading research and business institutions in North America, Europe, and New Zealand, and will receive support from Breakthrough Energy to foster groundbreaking climate innovations in electrofuels, cement, steel, hydrogen, and fertilizer.

Ted, David and Bav at Verne will specifically use their BE Fellows support to reduce emissions in one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize — heavy-duty transportation.

This new program is part of the Breakthrough Energy network, founded by Bill Gates.

The Verne team is excited to join the Fall 2021 cohort of The Engine's Blueprint program.

In exciting news Verne has received the 2021 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Rocket Fund award! The funds will support an on-road demonstration project for Verne's proprietary high-density hydrogen storage system.

Thank you to the Rocket Fund team for their support, including Stephanie Yanchinski.

Congratulations also to the 6 other winners: Aeroshield Materials, Brimstone Energy, Induction Food Systems, NeoCharge, RePurpose Energy and Sensible Storage.

Increasingly industry and government are investing in hydrogen technology as a pathway to decarbonizing some of the hardest-to-abate sectors, including heavy-duty trucking, marine shipping, and industrial manufacturing.

This month President Joe Biden proposed funding for 15 “decarbonized hydrogen demonstration projects” as part of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. USA joins a growing number of countries that are investing heavily in a hydrogen economy.

Yesterday was Verne's first birthday and it coincided with some great news that we'd like to share...

We're so humbled to announce we won the MIT ClimateTech and Energy Prize!

Thank you to the MIT CEP organizers, sponsors, judges and other Finalist teams who are each making major strides towards combating climate change. The prize money will enable us to carry out our first demonstration projects.

As we end the first year of our climate journey, we'd like to take a moment to thank everyone around us that has supported us:

• our family and friends who have been so patient with us when we've had hydrogen on our minds
• our mentors who have been so generous with their time and advice and are always looking for new opportunities for us

It will truly take a village to decarbonize transportation, and we're grateful to the Verne community for supporting our progress.

Thank you

New Shell report on Decarbonizing Road Freight finds that 70% of road freight participants see decarbonization as a top-3 priority, with OEMs the most-concerned (more info on page 54).

27M heavy duty trucks are responsible for 3.7% of global GHG emissions, or 41% of road freight emissions (page 19).

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the only feasible option for long haul heavy duty trucks (page 62).