Note: this post was originally published in ClimateTech VC here As global temperatures rise, ironically, so are energy costs. These days, retail electricity prices are rising at their fastest rate since 2008 — largely spurred by spiking natural gas costs. Never a group to let a good crisis go to waste, innovators are responding to the challenge with a surge of financing for virtual power plants (VPPs) and distributed energy resources (DERs). Over just the last few weeks,