In December, green tech experts told Tech Brew to expect large shows of state support for climate tech and renewable energy during the second Trump administration—and that seems to be coming to fruition.

One of those climate tech powerhouse states is Massachusetts, which is working to be “the global leader in climate tech” with the help of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, or MassCEC, a quasi-governmental economic development agency that helps climate tech startups in the state get off the ground, guides consumers to getting access to clean energy rebates, and manages Massachusetts’ green tech infrastructure.

Tech Brew talked with MassCEC’s CEO, Emily Reichert, about the agency’s work and how it’s meeting a moment in which federal support for clean tech has declined.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How does MassCEC incentivize and encourage climate technology and renewable energy innovation in Massachusetts?

We are really the tip of the spear, the innovation arm of the Massachusetts state government when it comes to energy, clean energy in particular. And we do that in a number of different ways.

So first, our portfolio is looking at early-stage technologies and supporting those to go-to-market. That is supporting young companies coming out of universities and providing them with grants and competitive grant opportunities to move their companies forward to the point where they can demonstrate their technology, often in a real-life environment, and we have grants for that. We also have a small investment fund, and MassCEC has been doing this emerging climate tech work, supporting early-stage companies, for a number of years now. I would say that we started out focusing mainly on clean energy, and now we support all of climate tech—which is all the sectors that need to be decarbonized, whether you’re talking about transportation, buildings, the grid, manufacturing, or agriculture. We see companies starting in Massachusetts, in all of those areas. And our goal with all of this is to make Massachusetts the place where climate tech companies want to be.

Keep reading here.—TC

Cobalt? So yesterday. Nickel? Passé. It’s manganese that’s all the rage these days.

That’s one takeaway from recent announcements from General Motors and Ford about advancements in so-called lithium-manganese-rich, or LMR, battery cells for EVs that they’re racing to bring to market.

This innovation is sought-after in the EV sector because LMR cells promise to deliver impressive battery ranges for EVs while lowering costs. Reducing battery costs is a key goal across the automotive industry because batteries make up a significant chunk of the overall cost of EVs, and price is a barrier to higher EV adoption.

“It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” Sam Abuelsamid, VP of market research at Telemetry, told Tech Brew of manganese, a raw material used in lithium-ion batteries.

“It’s roughly the same cost as [a lithium iron phosphate] cell, but only slightly less energy density than nickel,” he said. “So it gives you the advantages of both.”

Keep reading here.—JG

From vague notions about changing the world to hyper-specific employment situations, a new LinkedIn search feature aims to match your conversational thoughts with more tailored job results through AI.

The new search function will let job seekers type queries like, “​​I want to make cities more walkable and bike-friendly,” or, “I want to find remote entry-level jobs in video game marketing.” The aim is to surface roles that a classic keyword search might not have been able to suss out, according to the company.

LinkedIn VP of Engineering Wenjing Zhang told Tech Brew that the LLM-powered experience allows users to more freely express ambitions in plain language rather than contorting searches around certain buzzwords.

“The old search experience is…almost teaching you and molding you how to do a job search. We have all these keywords and filters. We’re almost limiting you,” she said. “​​The bigger pivot here is, it is more empowering you now…We want you to express yourselves.”

Keep reading here.—PK

The Power Shift agenda is here! Join us on May 29 in NYC—or virtually—to explore what an electric, autonomous, and smarter future in transportation really looks like. Hear from experts in EV infrastructure, grid modernization, and energy resilience. Limited tickets left—don’t miss your chance to shape what’s next.