expert voices

Clean energy leaders taking the stage at Houston Energy and Climate Week

Here's who's speaking at Houston Energy and Climate Week. Photos courtesy and via company websites

Some of the biggest names in the clean energy scene will be sharing their expertise in Houston this week.

From leaders fresh off one of the industry's biggest IPOs to local organizers, here's who's speaking at promising panels and anchor events during Houston Energy and Climate Week—taking place now through Sept. 18. Visit each event's website for a full lineup.

Read more about Houston Energy and Climate Week and its programming in Energy Capital's event preview. Or learn more about the startups pitching at events throughout the week here.

Energy Solutions in a New Era Hosted by JERA & Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — Sept. 15 at the Ion

  • Mary Dhillon, strategy manager at Fervo Energy
  • Ricky Sakai, SVP of investment & business development at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America
  • Daniel Padilla, strategy & business development lead at Emerald AI
  • Adrian Trömel, chief innovation officer / interim vice president for innovation at Rice University (moderator)
  • Shigeki Uchihashi, VP of strategy & corporate venturing at JERA Americas

Cypher Pilotathon and Startup Showcase — Sept. 15 at POST Houston

  • Nada Ahmed, co-founder and CRO of Energytech Cypher
  • Taylor Chapman, investment principal at New Climate Ventures
  • Jason Ethier, co-founder and CEO of Energytech Cypher
  • Sean Kelly, CEO of Amperon
  • Ionel Nechiti, investment director for Aramco Ventures
  • Hema Prapoo, global energy industry leader from Microsoft
  • Ishan Rao, VP of commercial at Syzygy Plasmonics

Greentown Climatetech Summit — Sept. 16 at Greentown Labs

  • Arne Ballantine, co-founder of Ohmium International
  • David Baldwin, partner at SCF Partners
  • Christopher Hanson, former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
  • Tim Latimer, CEO and co-founder of Fervo Energy
  • Georgina Campbell Flatter, CEO of Greentown Labs
  • Nicolaus Radford, CEO and co-founder of Persona AI
  • Prag Mishra, chief AI officer at Armada
  • Jeremy Pitts, managing director at Activate
  • Bobby Gallagher, CEO, CTO and co-founder of Deployable Energy
  • Jason Wells, chair, president and CEO of CenterPoint Energy
  • Eliecer Viamontes, CEO of Entergy Texas

Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum — Sept. 17 at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business

  • Laurent Alteirac, enabling technology development manager at SLB
  • Kemal Anbarci, managing executive and general manager of venture capital at Chevron Technology Ventures
  • Sameer Bandhu, managing director of ventures and licensing at GE Vernova
  • Brad Burke, former associate vice president at Rice Office of Innovation and former executive director of Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University (moderator)
  • Andres Cabada, managing director at Halliburton Labs
  • Quennie Co, managing partner at Shell Ventures
  • Rob Crane, technology scouting & venturing manager at ExxonMobil
  • Ira Ehrenpreis, founder and managing partner at DBL Partners
  • Menachem Elimelech, director of Rice Center for Membrane Excellence (RiCeME) at Rice University
  • Brian Iversen, founder & managing partner at Cimbria Capital
  • Dustin Kinder, CEO of Maverick Water Group
  • Megan Lund, lead of venturing strategy & strategic partnerships at Woodside Energy
  • Sean Maher, vice president of investor relations & chief economist at Phillips 66
  • Robert Mellors, SUPERHOT program director at ARPA-E
  • John (JR) Reale, interim associate vice president for industry and new ventures at Rice University and executive director of Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University
  • Chad Seely, SVP of regulatory policy, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary at ERCOT
  • David Sholl, executive vice president for research and professor of chemical & biomolecular engineering at Rice University
  • Jim Sledzik, managing director of strategic venturing, North America, at Aramco Ventures

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A View From HETI

A new Houston battery storage facility has come online in just six weeks. Photo courtesy FlexGen

Colorado-based energy storage company SMT Energy and North Carolina-based software company FlexGen have begun operations of Houston IV, a 160-megawatt utility-scale battery storage facility that aims to support the ERCOT grid.

The companies delivered the project in just six weeks, according to a news release. Mississippi-based Irby Construction Company served as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) partner, and CenterPoint Energy will serve as the interconnecting utility.

“FlexGen’s distinctive combination of software automation, our remote operations center, and on-the-ground field expertise all work together to accelerate battery deployment,” Jason Rislov, SVP of operations at FlexGen, said in the release. “What used to take 25-plus weeks took us six. That time saved translates directly into giving the grid and consumers what they need most right now: a more reliable, resilient energy system.”

Houston IV is one of more than 12 projects that SMT and FlexGen have built to connect to ERCOT, according to Energy Storage News.

“Bringing a 160-MW battery storage facility online in just six weeks required disciplined planning, seamless coordination, and an unwavering focus on safety and quality,” Shaun Coleman, project manager at Irby Construction, said in a news release. “The SMT Energy, FlexGen, and Irby Construction teams coordinated engineering, procurement, and construction to keep every workstream aligned, identify challenges early, and maintain safety and quality at an accelerated pace. That integration is critical, not only to delivering projects quickly, but also to ensuring battery storage facilities perform reliably over the long term.”

Houston IV is expected to store and provide enough electricity to power 8,800 homes in Texas annually. In March, SMT Energy secured $135 million in funding for the project from Macquarie and KeyBanc Capital Markets as joint lead arrangers. SMT and FlexGen broke ground to signal the start of the process in May.

In 2023, SMT Energy and joint venture partner SUSI Partners also announced plans to add 10 battery storage projects to Texas, which would double capacity from 100 megawatts to 200 megawatts in the Houston and Dallas areas.

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