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).

The Verne team has received an Innovation Transfer Grant from Stanford's TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy. The grant will be used to build Verne's first full-size prototype of a high-density hydrogen tank suitable for fuel cell heavy duty trucks. The prototype will be used to validate Verne's performance and cost estimates.

The team would like to thank Brian Bartholomeusz, Arun Majumdar and the wider Stanford Energy network for their support for Verne's decarbonization journey.

Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled a second-generation fuel cell system that is nearing the point when it could be offered to heavy-duty truck builders looking to build hydrogen-powered tractors. System is intended to be compatible with the Kenworth T680 chassis, a chassis built by Hino and potentially equipment from other manufacturers.