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Houston organization names annual energy industry award winners

Natalie Harms
Nov 1, 2024, 1:03 pm
ALLY Energy's eighth annual GRIT Awards and Best Energy Workplaces named its winners this week across nine categories plus several people's choice winners. Photo via ALLY Energy/LinkedIn

A Houston company identified the top players in the energy industry — with this year's honorees being recognized for their growth, resilience, innovation, and talent.

ALLY Energy's eighth annual GRIT Awards and Best Energy Workplaces named its winners this week across nine categories plus several people's choice winners.

"The GRIT Awards honor those who have shaped the industry and continue to inspire future generations. These winners have demonstrated extraordinary leadership and dedication to driving innovation across the energy landscape," says Katie Mehnert, founder and CEO of ALLY Energy, in a news release.

According to ALLY, submissions are open to the public and a group of judges evaluate and decide on each of the GRIT Award finalists, which were announced in September, as well as the winners.

The 2024 winners were:

  • The Professional Award - Obianuju Igbokwe, technology strategy consultant at SLB
  • The Executive Award - Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO of EDP Renewables North America
  • The Entrepreneur Award - Tara Karimi, co-founder and chief science officer at Cemvita
  • The Sustainability Award - Maru Williams, ESG manager at Chevron
  • The Best Affinity Group, Employee Resource Group, or Business Resource Group Award - Occidental Petroleum, FRIEND
  • The Best Energy Team Award - 1PointFive, Direct Air Capture
  • The Top Energy Voices Award - Kithairos Solutions
  • The Best Energy Workplaces Award - EDP Renewables North America
  • The Best Energy or Climate Startup Award - Syzygy Plasmonics

The People's Choice awards, decided by online judging, named winners, including:

  • The Best Affinity Group, Employee Resource Group, or Business Resource Group Award - Baker Hughes, Multicultural ERG
  • The Best Energy Team Award - ADNOC Offshore, Project Light PMO
  • The Best Energy Workplace Award - Baker Hughes
  • The Best Energy or Climate Startup Award - Solaires Enterprises Inc.
  • The Top Energy Voices Award - Sarah Magruder, Founder and President of Savvy Oil & Gas Consulting
In addition to these winners, the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Awards honorees were recognized too. The recipients were:
  • Vicki Hollub, president and CEO of Occidental
  • Jan E. Odegard, consultant and former executive director of Ion
  • Sivasankaran "Soma" Somasundaram, president and CEO of ChampionX
best workplacesgrit awardsALLY Energy

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Houston geothermal company picks Nevada site for commercial-scale project

Sage Geosystems has selected a site for its next major geothermal facility. Photo via sagegeosystems.com

Sage Geosystems, a Houston-based developer of geothermal power systems, has chosen a site in Nevada for its commercial-scale Project Vector facility.

The company’s two-well enhanced geothermal system (EGS) will deliver around-the-clock geothermal heat to Ormat Technologies’ Blue Mountain geothermal power plant in Winnemucca, Nevada.

The startup expects to begin drilling the first well later this year, with the first electricity to be generated in 2027 and full-scale production to start in 2028.

In the Nevada system, fluid will circulate through an engineered subsurface reservoir, absorb heat from the surrounding rock and return heat to the surface. The heat will be delivered to the Blue Mountain plant for conversion into electricity.

Project Vector builds on the performance of Sage’s SMECI facility in South Texas. That facility’s results, combined with Sage’s digital twin platform, will be used to shape to the design and development of Project Vector.

Project Vector supports Sage’s growing commercial pipeline, including a 150-megawatt geothermal power agreement with Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

“Blue Mountain is an ideal location for Sage to take the next step in continuing to commercialize our proprietary EGS approach,” Jason Peart, chief operating officer at Sage, said in a release. “By delivering geothermal heat into an existing power plant, Project Vector can demonstrate the model for bringing firm, 24/7 geothermal power to market at scale.”

Project Vector extends Sage’s relationship with Ormat.

In August 2025, Sage and Ormat agreed to accelerate commercialization of Sage’s geothermal technology at an Ormat power plant. This January, Ormat co-led Sage’s $97 million Series B funding round.

Sage, founded in 2020, has raised about $159 million across three funding rounds.

As the startup ramps up its ESG platform, Sage is targeting data centers as customers, among other large-scale users of electricity.

“The energy needs are huge, and they need it now,” CEO Cindy Taff said on Data Center Frontiers’ podcast. “They can’t depend on the grid anymore.”

From Your Site Articles
project vectorgeothermal energygeothermal projectenhanced geothermal systemegsrmat technologies’ blue mountainormat technologiesjason peartcindy taffsmeci facilitysage geosystems

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