Private equity firm Starwood Energy and utility-focused startup TS Conductor have launched a $100 million joint venture to fix the nation's aging electric grid and clear a persistent clean-energy bottleneck.

Why it matters: The JV partners say that TS's carbon-fiber and aluminum cables for transmission and distribution lines can slash electricity losses by 50% while dramatically reducing construction costs.

Catch up fast: Power lines lose a significant amount of their electricity (heat and other factors pull it out of the lines). That, in turn, forces suppliers to generate more power to make up for those losses.

Of note: TS Conductor says its cables sharply reduce those losses, unlocking huge savings for electricity providers and, by extension, ratepayers.

Context: Electricity utilities traditionally build expensive facilities and then pass the costs on to customers. Historically, that's created a strong disincentive for efficiency measures.

What they're saying: "If you think about a toll road, if the road is bumpy or smooth, you pay the same whenever you pass through," TS Conductor CEO Jason Huang tells Axios. His company hopes to change that.

Meanwhile: TS completed its first commercial deployment of these carbon-fiber wires last year: a 230-kilovolt line it replaced for Montana-Dakota Utilities.