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

expert voices

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

From Your Site Articles

Three young professionals have made the cut for this year's Forbes Under 30 list in the Energy and Green Tech list for 2025. Photos via Forbes

Under 30: Houston innovators snag spots on Forbes list of top young energy professionals

A handful of Houstonians have been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy and Green Tech list for 2025.

Kip Daujotas is an investment associate at Aramco Ventures, a $7.5 billion venture capital arm of the world's largest energy company. Houston is the Americas headquarters for Saudi Aramco. Since its inception in 2012, Aramco Ventures has invested in more than 100 tech startups. Daujotas joined the team over two years ago after studying for an MBA at Yale University. He led Aramco’s first direct air capture (DAC) investment — in Los Alamos, New Mexico-based Spiritus.

Also representing the corporate side of the industry, Wenting Gao immigrated from Beijing to obtain an economics degree from Harvard University, then got a job at consulting giant McKinsey, where she recently became the firm’s youngest partner. Gao works on bringing sustainability strategies to energy and materials companies as well as investors. Her areas of expertise include battery materials, waste, biofuels, and low-carbon products.

Last but not least, Houston entrepreneur Rawand Rasheed is co-founder and CEO of Houston-based Helix Earth. He co-founded the startup after earning a doctoral degree from Rice University and co-inventing Helix’s core technology while at NASA, first as a graduate research fellow and then as an engineer. The core technology, a space capsule air filtration system, has been applied to retrofitting HVAC systems for commercial buildings.

Each year, Forbes 30 Under 30 recognizes 600 honorees in 20 categories. The 2025 honorees were selected from more than 10,000 nominees by Forbes staff and a panel of independent judges based on factors such as funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness, and potential.

Specifically, the Energy & Green Tech category recognizes young entrepreneurs driving innovation that’s aimed at creating a cleaner, greener future.

“Gen Z is one of the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs and creators, who are reshaping the way the world conducts business, and our Under 30 class of 2025 proves that you can never begin your career journey too early,” says Alexandra York, editor of Forbes Under 30. “With the expansion across AI, technology, social media, and other industries, the honorees on this year’s list are pushing the boundaries and building their brands beyond traditional scopes.”

At last year's awards program, Cemvita Factory's co-founders, Tara and Moji Karimi, accepted the award for the Green Impact Business category. This year, Moji Karimi served as a judge

18 Houston energy startups named finalists for innovation awards program

companies to watch

The 2023 Houston Innovation Awards announced its 52 finalists — a large portion of which are promising energy transition startups.

The awards program — hosted by EnergyCapital's sister site, InnovationMap, and Houston Exponential — will name its winners on November 8 at the Houston Innovation Awards. The program was established to honor the best and brightest companies and individuals from the city's innovation community.

The following startups, which all have an energy transition element to their business, received a finalist position in one or two categories.

Click here to secure your tickets to see who wins.

ALLY Energy, helping energy companies and climate startups find, develop, and retain great talent, scored two finalist positions — one in the Female-Owned Business category and the other in the Social Impact Business category.
Eden Grow Systems, next generation farming technologies, is a finalist in the People's Choice: Startup of the Year category.
Feelit Technologies, nanotechnology for preventive maintenance to eliminate leaks, fires and explosions, increase safety and reduce downtime, is a finalist in the Female-Owned Business category and the People's Choice: Startup of the Year category.
Fervo Energy, leveraging proven oil and gas drilling technology to deliver 24/7 carbon-free geothermal energy, scored two finalist positions — one in the Sustainability Business category and the other in the People's Choice: Startup of the Year category.
FluxWorks, making frictionless gearboxes for missions in any environment, is a finalist in the Hardtech Business category.
Helix Earth Technologies, decarbonizing the built environment and heavy industry, is a finalist in the Hardtech Business category.
INOVUES, re-energizing building facades through its non-invasive window retrofit innovations, making building smarter, greener, and healthier for a better and sustainable future, was named a finalist in the Sustainability Business category.
Kanin Energy, helping heavy industry monetize their waste heat and decarbonize their operations, was named a finalist in the BIPOC-Owned Business and the Sustainability Business categories.
Mars Materials, developing a carbon-negative pathway for carbon fiber and acrylamide production using CO2 and biomass as raw materials, is a finalist in the BIPOC-Owned Business category.
Molecule, an energy/commodity trading risk management software that provides users with an efficient, reliable, responsive platform for managing trade risk, is a finalist in the Digital Solutions Business category.
Rhythm Energy, 100 percent renewable electricity service for residential customers in Texas, is a finalist in the People's Choice: Startup of the Year category.
Sage Geosystems, a cost-effective geothermal baseload energy solution company, also innovating underground energy storage solutions, was named a finalist in the Sustainability Business category.
Solugen, decarbonizing the chemical industry, is a finalist in the Hardtech Business category.
Square Robot, applying robotic technology to eliminate the need to put people into dangerous enclosed spaces and eliminate taking tanks out of service, is a finalist in the Hardtech Business category.
Syzygy Plasmonics, a deep decarbonization company that builds chemical reactors designed to use light instead of combustion to produce valuable chemicals like hydrogen and sustainable fuels, is a finalist in the Hardtech Business category.
Tierra Climate, decarbonizing the power grid faster by helping grid-scale batteries monetize their environmental benefits and change their operational behavior to abate more carbon, was named a finalist in the Sustainability Business category.
Utility Global, a technology company converting a range of waste gases into sustainable hydrogen and syngas, was named a finalist in the Sustainability Business category.
Venus Aerospace, a hypersonics company on track to fly reusable hypersonic flight platforms by 2024, is a finalist in the Hardtech Business category.

Additionally, two energy companies were named to the Corporate of the Year category, which honors corporations that supports startups and/or the Houston innovation community. Aramco Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures are two of the four finalists in this category.

Lastly, Jason Ethier, co-founder of Lambda Catalyzer and host of the Energy Tech Startups podcast, and Kendrick Alridge, senior manager of community at Greentown Labs, scored finalist positions in the Ecosystem Builder category, as individuals who have acted as leaders in developing Houston’s startup ecosystem.

Click here to see the full list of finalists.

Amogy's tech is designed to enable carbon-free mobility in sectors such as shipping, transportation, and power generation. Photo via Amogy

Clean energy startup to expand to Houston with $40M facility

coming soon to Hou

Brooklyn, New York-based clean energy startup Amogy, which specializes in turning ammonia into power, is spending more than $40 million to convert a Houston building into a manufacturing facility.

Amogy says the 54,000-square-foot, four-acre plant, set to open in 2024, “signifies a pivotal step in [our] journey toward commercialization and its commitment to accelerating the global energy transition.”

Amogy’s ammonia-to-energy system will be assembled at the facility, located at 12221 N. Houston Rosslyn Road. So far, the system has been piloted in a drone, tractor, and semi-trailer truck. Amogy is retrofitting a tugboat to be the world’s first ammonia-powered vessel.

The startup’s product, known as a powerpack, is designed to enable carbon-free mobility in sectors such as shipping, transportation, and power generation.

“Amogy believes the adoption of ammonia as a renewable fuel will play a pivotal role in diversifying the landscape of clean energy solutions, thereby ensuring global energy security,” the company says.

Amogy plans to hire about 200 people for the Houston facility, including manufacturing workers, mechanical technicians, welders, health and safety specialists, operations professionals, and sales professionals.

“The Amogy Houston site will be a state-of-the-art facility able to manufacture our clean energy solution at scale,” says Daniel MacCrindle, chief operations officer at Amogy. “We are working quickly to hire and equip the facility so we can begin production.”

Seonghoon Woo, co-founder and CEO of Amogy, says the startup picked Houston for the facility to be close to customers, suppliers, and prospective employees.

Since being founded in 2020, Amogy has collected nearly $220 million in funding. Investors include Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, AP Ventures, SK Innovation, Aramco Ventures, and Mitsubishi.

Syzygy Plasmonics has raised a series C round of funding. Photo courtesy of Syzygy

Houston company closes $76M series C round to fuel its mission of reducing carbon emissions

MONEY + MATTER

A Houston-based company that is electrifying chemical manufacturing has closed its largest round of funding to date.

Syzygy Plasmonics closed a $76 million series C financing round led by New York-based Carbon Direct Capital. The round included participation from Aramco Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, LOTTE CHEMICAL, and Toyota Ventures. The company's existing investors joining the round included EVOK Innovations, The Engine, Equinor Ventures, Goose Capital, Horizons Ventures, Pan American Energy, and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. According to a news release, Carbon Direct Capital will join Syzygy's board and serve as the series C director.

"We were very attracted to the multiple use cases for the Syzygy reactor and the lifetime-value of each Syzygy customer," says Jonathan Goldberg, Carbon Direct Capital's CEO, in the release. "Emissions from hydrogen production total more than 900 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Syzygy's photocatalysis technology is a key solution to decarbonize hydrogen production as well as other critical industries."

Syzygy Plasmonics has a technology that harnesses the power of light to energize chemical reactions — rather than the traditional process that is fueled by heat. The Syzygy approach reduces feedstock waste and produces fewer emissions when powered by renewable electricity. According to the release, some series C participants have also formed commercial agreements to deploy Syzygy's technology to meet their decarbonization goals.

The investment funding raised will help the company to "further development and delivery of all-electric reactor systems that eliminate fossil-based combustion from chemical manufacturing and reduce the carbon intensity of hydrogen, methanol, and fuel," per the release.

"Our mission is to decarbonize chemical and fuel production," says Syzygy Plasmonics CEO and Co-Founder Trevor Best in the release. "Syzygy's aim is to achieve 1 gigaton of carbon emissions reductions by 2040, and the series C financing is a key milestone in building towards that goal.

"Closing this fundraising round with such strong support from financial and strategic investors and with commercial agreements in hand is a signal to the market," he continues. "Forward-thinking companies have moved beyond setting decarbonization goals to executing on them. Syzygy is unique in that we are developing low-cost, low-carbon solutions to offer across multiple industries."

Syzygy was founded based off a breakthrough discover out of Rice University from co-founders and professors Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander, who invented high-performance photocatalysts. The company's collaborators then engineered a novel reactor that uses easy-to-find low-cost materials like glass, aluminum, and LEDs instead of high-cost metal alloys. After several field trials of the scalable, universal chemical reactor platform, Syzygy expects commercial units scheduled to ship in 2023.

"Syzygy is hyper-focused on aligning energy, technology, and sustainability," says Suman Khatiwada, CTO and co-founder of Syzygy, in the release. "The projects we are delivering are targeting zero-emissions hydrogen from green ammonia, low-emissions hydrogen from combustion-free steam methane reforming, and sustainable fuels made from carbon dioxide and methane. This technology is the future of chemical manufacturing."

Syzygy has raised a $23 million series B round last year following its $5.8 series A in 2019.

------

This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Houston energy startups named finalists for 2026 Innovation Awards

Meet the Innovators

InnovationMap.com, EnergyCaptialHTX's sister website, has revealed the finalists for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, and the local energy sector is well-represented throughout the awards.

The sixth annual Houston Innovation Awards program returns in an all-digital format this fall to honor the best of Houston's innovation ecosystem, including startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and more.

Finalists were determined by an esteemed panel of judges. The panel reviewed applications across 10 prestigious categories to determine our finalists. They will select the winner for each category, except for Startup of the Year, which will be chosen by the public via online voting launching later this month.

We will announce the honoree of our annual Trailblazer Award in the coming weeks, then stay tuned as we unveil all of this year's winners on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Without further ado, here are the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards finalists:

Minority-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation:

AI Made Fun
Deep Anchor Solutions
HEXAspec
Prana Surgical
Torres Orbital Mining Inc.

Female-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by a woman:

Adair
ARIX Technologies
Bairitone Health
FlowCellutions
ParaDocs Health

Energy Transition Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing a solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy and beyond:

Capwell Services
FlowCellutions
Hertha Metals
Mars Materials
Solidec

Health Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup within the health and medical technology sectors:

Bairitone Health
InformAI Inc.
Prana Surgical
Skybound MedTech

Deep Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics and space sectors:

Casimir
Focis AI
Machine Saver Inc.
Square Robot
Venus Aerospace

Startup of the Year (People's Choice)

Honoring a startup celebrating a recent milestone or success. The winner will be selected by the community via an online voting experience:

Fluxworks
IronLattice
Lumino
Progress Report
Rosarium Health
Thread
TokenRoster

Scaleup of the Year

Honoring an innovative later-stage startup that's recently reached a significant milestone in company growth:

Erock
Hertha Metals
Venus Aerospace

Incubator/Accelerator of the Year

Honoring a local incubator or accelerator that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups:

Activate
Impact Hub Houston
MarMo Innovation

Mentor of the Year

Honoring an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs:

Al Danto, Rice University
Eric Rubenstein, New Climate Ventures
Jeremy Pitts, Activate
Joe Alapat, Liongard
Kyle Judah, Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Rachel Bickham, Bickham Services Unlimited LLC

Trailblazer Recipient

To be announced

Energy AI company opens first U.S. office in Houston after Halliburton deal

houston expansion

Building on its partnership with Houston-based oilfield services provider Halliburton, energy-sector AI company Shape Digital recently opened an office at The Ion. It’s the company’s first U.S. location.

Shape Digital’s workforce in Houston includes employees specializing in tech support, business development and client services. The company’s local hiring projections and headcount weren’t available. The new office will be located within Industrious at the Ion, according to Rice Alliance.

A key driver of the new Houston office: The company forecasts North America will account for more than 20 percent of its business in 2027.

“North America is a critical market for industrial innovation, and Houston sits at the center of companies driving that progress,” Caio Sene, vice president of client services at Shape Digital, said in a release. “Growing our presence here allows us to work alongside operators as they look for practical ways to turn existing operational data into clear recommendations for what to do next.”

Shape Digital, which also has offices in Singapore and Brazil, develops decision-making platforms for the oil and gas sector.

The Ion District office gives Shape Digital a presence close to Halliburton’s headquarters. In May, the two companies forged a partnership to combine Halliburton’s Digital Field Solverdecision-making system with Shape Digital’s AI portfolio.

Shape Digital layers AI software atop existing operations data rather than replacing legacy systems or adding new software.

The company’s suite of AI agents draws on more than 200 operations-monitoring algorithms, continually learning from company and industry data. The suite comprises four products: Shape Aura, Shape Lighthouse, Shape Lumen and Shape Reef.

Shape Digital says that by working with a customer’s existing operations data, it can deliver ROI in less than two months without any additional investment in equipment or infrastructure.

The company is a 2021 spinoff of Japan-based Modec. Modec builds, owns, and operates floating offshore oil and gas production facilities. Its Modec America subsidiary is based in Houston.

This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

Houston energy startup names former Cheniere execs to C-suite

new leaders

Houston-based energy infrastructure startup Joulent has brought aboard a new chief financial officer and new chief operating officer—both former executives at Houston-based Cheniere Energy.

The C-suite moves come three months after Joulent raised $1.75 billion from National Grid Ventures.

Michael Wortley joins Joulent as co-president and CFO. Wortley most recently was executive vice president and CFO at Cheniere, an LNG producer and exporter.

In conjunction with Wortley’s hiring, Brian Boland, who was Joulent’s interim CFO, has been named executive vice president, chief investment officer, and head of strategy.

Corey Grindal comes to Joulent as co-president and COO. Grindal most recently was executive vice president and COO at Cheniere.

“As Joulent evolves to meet the growing demand for power infrastructure, our expanded leadership team will help ensure we continue delivering the execution certainty our customers, partners, and investors expect,” Chris James, Joulent’s founder and CEO, said in a press release.

“Corey and Michael are accomplished operators with exceptional records of building and leading world-class energy infrastructure businesses, where they have embedded a culture defined by operational excellence and disciplined execution,” James added.

Joulet builds dedicated power-generating facilities that feed directly into data centers and other power-dependent facilities. This eliminates the need for companies to draw power from grids.

“With an initial multi-gigawatt development portfolio and strategic partnerships across the energy, infrastructure, and data center ecosystem, Joulent is helping remove power constraints to enable the next chapter of American innovation and U.S. reindustrialization,” the company says.

The $1.75 billion minority investment from National Grid Ventures complements Joulent’s existing partnerships.

Joulent, founded in 2023, emerged from stealth mode this summer. The company was founded by investment firm Engine No. 1.

Joulent’s first project, the Project Kilby natural gas facility in West Texas, will be co-located with a Microsoft data center. It’ll deliver about 2.67 gigawatts of power under a 20-year deal between Microsoft and Energy Forge One, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent.

View All Listings

ENERGYCAPITALHTX EMAILS ARE AWESOME