taking notes

Things to know: Beryl in the rearview, Devon Energy's big deal, and events not to miss

Hurricane Beryl's impact has shown a light on the Energy Capital of the World's energy problem — and more things to know this week. Photo via Getty Images

Editor's note: Dive headfirst into the new week with three quick things to catch up on in Houston's energy transition.

Hurricane Beryl's big impact

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Houston area likely won’t have power restored until this week, as the city swelters in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.

The storm slammed into Texas on July 8, knocking out power to nearly 2.7 million homes and businesses and leaving huge swaths of the region in the dark and without air conditioning in the searing summer heat.

Although repairs have restored power to nearly 1.4 million customers, the scale of the damage and slow pace of recovery has put CenterPoint Energy, which provides electricity to the nation's fourth-largest city, under mounting scrutiny over whether it was sufficiently prepared for the storm and is doing enough now to make things right.

Some frustrated residents have also questioned why a part of the country that is all too familiar with major storms has been hobbled by a Category 1 hurricane, which is the weakest kind. But a storm's wind speed, alone, doesn't determine how dangerous it can be. Click here to continue reading this article from the AP.

Big deal: Devon Energy to acquire Houston exploration, production biz in $5B deal

Devon Energy is buying Grayson Mill Energy's Williston Basin business in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $5 billion as consolidation in the oil and gas sector ramps up.

The transaction includes $3.25 billion in cash and $1.75 billion in stock.

Grayson Mill Energy, based in Houston, is an oil and gas exploration company that received an initial investment from private equity firm EnCap Investments in 2016.

The firm appears to be stepping back from energy sector as it sells off assets. Last month EnCap-backed XCL Resources sold its Uinta Basin oil and gas assets to SM Energy Co. and Northern Oil and Gas in a transaction totaling $2.55 billion. EnCap had another deal in June as well, selling some assets to Matador Resources for nearly $2 billion. Click here to continue reading.

Events not to miss

Put these Houston-area energy-related events on your calendar.

  • 2024 Young Leaders Institute: Renewable Energy and Climate Solutions is taking place July 15 to July 19 at Asia Society of Texas. Register now.
  • CCS/Decarbonization Project Development, Finance and Investment, taking place July 23 to 25, is the deepest dive into the economic and regulatory factors driving the success of the CCS/CCUS project development landscape. Register now.
  • The 5th Texas Energy Forum 2024, organized by U.S. Energy Stream, will take place on August 21 and 22 at the Petroleum Club of Houston. Register now.

Trending News

A View From HETI

Liangzi Deng (left) and Paul C.W. Chu of the Texas Center for Superconductivity and the Dept. of Physics at the University of Houston received funding for their work. Photo courtesy of UH

Researchers at the Department of Physics at the University of Houston and Texas Center for Superconductivity have received a second-year funding from global leader in business of invention Intellectual Ventures to continue their work on exploring superconductivity,

The project, which is led by Paul C. W. Chu, T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, professor of physics and founding director of the TcSUH and assistant professor of physics and a new TcSUH principal investigator Liangzi Deng, has been awarded $767,000 to date.

“Working with IV gives us the freedom known for scientific pursuit and at the same time provides intellectual guidance and assistance in accord with the mission goal,” Chu says in a news release.

The researchers are working on making superconductivity easier to achieve. At room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure is where the researchers are looking to simplify superconductivity. One finding from Chu and Deng’s team is called pressure-quench protocol, or PQP.The PQP will help maintain key properties (like superconductivity) in certain materials after the high pressure needed to create them is removed.

“Intellectual Ventures funded this research because Paul Chu is one of the acknowledged thought leaders in the area of superconductivity with a multi-decade track record of scientific innovation and creativity,” Brian Holloway, vice president of IV’s Deep Science Fund and Enterprise Science Fund, adds. “The work led by Chu and Deng on pressure quenching could result in game-changing progress in the field. We are very excited about the preliminary results from the first year and we look forward to continuing this collaboration.”

The project showed early success the first year, as the research used a special system to synthesize materials under high temperatures and pressure. The second-year projects will include the investigation of pressure-induced/enhanced superconductivity in cuprates and hydrides.

“If successful, UH will once again break the record for the highest superconducting Tc at atmospheric pressure,” Deng says in the release. “Additionally, we will collaborate closely with theorists to uncover the mechanism of PQP. Our research has far-reaching implications, with the potential to extend beyond superconductors to other material systems.”

Trending News