high honor

Houston professor receives prestigious energy economics award

Peter Hartley has accepted one of the highest honors of his career. Photo via Rice.edu

A Rice economist, Peter Hartley, received the most prestigious honor awarded by the United States Association for Energy Economics earlier this month.

Known as the Adelman-Frankel Award, the honor is granted to "an individual or organization for a unique and innovative contribution to the field of energy economics," according to a statement from Rice. It was presented to Hartley for his wide-ranging work in the energy economics field on November 7 at USAEE/International Association for Energy Economics North American Conference in Chicago.

The Rice Baker Institute’s Center of Energy Studies was granted the award as an organization in 2013. Last year, two professors from the University of California, Berkeley received the award.

“I’m honored to be included among the distinguished group of economists,” Hartley says in a statement.

Hartley has worked as an energy economist for 40 years. He is the George A. Peterkin Professor of Economics at Rice and is a Rice Scholar of Energy Economics at the Baker Institute. His work focused originally on electricity but has shifted to focus on natural gas, oil, coal, nuclear and renewable energy in recent years. He's also published work on more theoretical topics, including money, banking and business cycles.

Prior to coming to Rice, Hartley served as an assistant professor of economics at Princeton University. He is originally from Australia and holds a bachelors in mathematics and masters in economics from Australian National University. He received his PhD in economics from University of Chicago.

Also at the conference, Connor Colombe, a PhD graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, received the Best Student Paper award, according to the USAEE's LinkedIn page. The winner was granted $1,000 and received feedback from energy economists at the conference.

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A View From HETI

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.”

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