seeing green

Houston energy transition leader to spearhead urban reforestation initiative

SCS Technologies named Jane Stricker, executive director of HETI, as the executive chairperson of its inaugural urban reforestation event next month. Photo via GHP

One of Houston's foremost energy transition leaders has been named to a community urban reforestation project from a Texas energy company.

Big Spring, Texas-based SCS Technologies named Jane Stricker, executive director of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Houston Energy Transition Initiative, as the executive chairperson of its inaugural urban reforestation event next month.

SCS, a provider of liquid hydrocarbon, water, and CO2 measurement systems, is holding the event on March 23 at the Galena Park Resource and Training Center in Galena Park, Texas, in collaboration with One Tree Planted and Trees for Houston.

“We are honored that Jane Stricker is spearheading our Galena Park tree-planting effort. As a revered leader in the energy transformation movement, Jane's impact is profound across Houston’s diverse energy sector and internationally,” Cody Johnson, CEO of SCS Technologies, says in a news release. “Jane's stewardship of this event underscores the vital importance of fostering partnerships between the community and industry to improve local environments and make strides in reducing our collective carbon footprint.

"Our donation of trees to the Galena Park area—a community just east of Houston materially affected by emissions from surrounding petrochemical plants—is one step towards environmental restoration and tree equity," he continues.

The goal for the event is to give out 1,125 shade, flowering, and fruit trees to community members, who will be asked to plant at their homes and businesses.

“The vast undertaking of the energy transformation requires more than just technological innovation; it demands a shared commitment from all sectors to enact real change. SCS Technologies is leading by example, demonstrating how innovative solutions and community-focused actions can drive meaningful change,” Stricker adds in the release. “As the executive chairperson, I am proud to be part of the Galena Park tree distribution event, an initiative that illustrates our shared dedication to environmental sustainability and community enrichment. The impact of these trees extends beyond carbon sequestration, bringing beauty and much-needed shade from our hot summer sun to the Galena Park community.”

The initiative is a part of SCS's goal to plant 100,000 trees in "economically challenged urban neighborhoods" across Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana by 2030. The company, per its environmental initiatives, is also participating in SME Net Zero by 2050.

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A View From HETI

Researchers from Rice University say their recent findings could revolutionize power grids, making energy transmission more efficient. Image via Getty Images.

A new study from researchers at Rice University, published in Nature Communications, could lead to future advances in superconductors with the potential to transform energy use.

The study revealed that electrons in strange metals, which exhibit unusual resistance to electricity and behave strangely at low temperatures, become more entangled at a specific tipping point, shedding new light on these materials.

A team led by Rice’s Qimiao Si, the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy, used quantum Fisher information (QFI), a concept from quantum metrology, to measure how electron interactions evolve under extreme conditions. The research team also included Rice’s Yuan Fang, Yiming Wang, Mounica Mahankali and Lei Chen along with Haoyu Hu of the Donostia International Physics Center and Silke Paschen of the Vienna University of Technology. Their work showed that the quantum phenomenon of electron entanglement peaks at a quantum critical point, which is the transition between two states of matter.

“Our findings reveal that strange metals exhibit a unique entanglement pattern, which offers a new lens to understand their exotic behavior,” Si said in a news release. “By leveraging quantum information theory, we are uncovering deep quantum correlations that were previously inaccessible.”

The researchers examined a theoretical framework known as the Kondo lattice, which explains how magnetic moments interact with surrounding electrons. At a critical transition point, these interactions intensify to the extent that the quasiparticles—key to understanding electrical behavior—disappear. Using QFI, the team traced this loss of quasiparticles to the growing entanglement of electron spins, which peaks precisely at the quantum critical point.

In terms of future use, the materials share a close connection with high-temperature superconductors, which have the potential to transmit electricity without energy loss, according to the researchers. By unblocking their properties, researchers believe this could revolutionize power grids and make energy transmission more efficient.

The team also found that quantum information tools can be applied to other “exotic materials” and quantum technologies.

“By integrating quantum information science with condensed matter physics, we are pivoting in a new direction in materials research,” Si said in the release.

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