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

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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.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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ExxonMobil secures approval for $5B East Texas carbon capture project

ccs expansion

Spring-based ExxonMobil has won approval from the Texas Railroad Commission for a $5 billion carbon capture and storage project in East Texas.

Dominic Genetti, senior vice president of CCS at ExxonMobil, told The Financial Times, which broke the news, that the Railroad Commission’s action is a “major milestone” that lets the company keep expanding along the Gulf Coast. In a 2-1 vote, commissioners authorized a carbon sequestration permit for the project.

“The Railroad Commission clearly recognizes the important role carbon capture and storage can play in meeting growing global demand for lower-carbon products while supporting new jobs and economic growth,” Genetti said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved ExxonMobil’s Rose CCS project last year.

The project will enable the company to inject about 53 metric tons of industrial customers’ carbon emissions into three underground wells it drilled in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area. Over a 13-year period, ExxonMobil plans to inject about 4 million metric tons per year into the Fleming and Upper Frio rock formations, according to Carbon Herald.

ExxonMobil says it owns the world’s first and largest CCS system, comprising 1,300 miles of CO2 pipeline and secure storage sites. Seventy percent of the pipelines are along the Gulf Coast.

The company ramped up its CCS business in 2023 with the $4.9 billion purchase of Denbury, which owned about 1,000 miles of CO2 pipelines.

“Our expertise, combined with Denbury’s talent and CO2 pipeline network, expands our low-carbon leadership and best positions us to meet the decarbonization needs of industrial customers while also reducing emissions in our own operations,” ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said when the deal closed.

In January, Genetti wrote in a post on ExxonMobil’s website that the company is committed to CCS “for the long haul.”

“CCS is not new technology, but it’s flown relatively under the radar compared with the attention that production of hydrocarbons commands,” he wrote. “Now, as the world becomes more aware of the need to reduce emissions, CCS finally has a brighter spotlight and a broader runway to scale up.”

The company also announced this week that it has begun CCS operations at a direct reduced iron facility in Convent, Louisiana. The project will capture, transport and store up to 800,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, according to the company.

Houston’s power future: The role of energy efficiency and demand response

The View from HETI

In Houston, industrial expansion, advanced manufacturing, data centers, AI, electrification, and population growth are all increasing demand for power across the region. At the same time, the infrastructure needed to support that growth, from generation and transmission to distribution and storage, takes significant time and investment to plan and build.

This growing power demand creates a near-term challenge: how can the region support new investment while major grid projects are planned and built?

A new report from the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, “Role of Efficiency & Demand Response to Meet Near-Term Regional Power Demand”, examines how Houston can get more from the grid it has today. Its central finding: energy efficiency (EE) and demand response (DE) can create measurable grid “headroom” while new major infrastructure projects are being planned, financed, permitted and built.

Explore the key takeaways from the report:

Houston’s power challenge affects economic growth

Houston’s ability to attract industrial investment increasingly depends on reliable, affordable power. ERCOT and MISO Texas project major load growth through 2030 and 2035 from industrial development, data centers, AI, advanced manufacturing and electrification.

Efficiency and demand response can lower peak demand and help manage local grid constraints that could slow growth.

EE and DE are different tools, and Houston needs both

Energy efficiency creates lasting reductions in electricity use through equipment upgrades, building improvements and changes in operations. Demand response lets customers temporarily reduce or shift power use based on grid conditions, incentives or market signals.

Texas programs show measurable results

In 2024, Texas investor-owned utility programs delivered about 609 MW of evaluated demand reduction and 603 GWh of annual energy savings. The report puts the lifetime cost of saved energy at about $0.02 per kWh.
CenterPoint Energy accounted for more than 40% of ERCOT investor-owned utilities’ total demand reduction and energy savings. It achieved about 236 MW of peak demand reduction and 229 GWh of energy savings, above goals of 66 MW and 116 GWh.

Entergy Texas also achieved significantly more demand reduction and energy savings than its 2024 program year goals, with a reported 24 MW of peak demand reduction against a goal of 17 MW and 43 GWh of energy savings against a goal of 30 GWh.

Large power users can add flexibility

Data centers, industrial facilities and advanced manufacturers may be able to shift noncritical work, adjust cooling, use on-site resources or briefly cut consumption.

The report states that verified demand savings, flexible loads and behind-the-meter resilience could help reduce interconnection risk and support more cost-effective growth.

Technology can expand options

Storage, smart controls and energy management systems can work with efficiency and demand response. Smaller loads can also be combined across commercial buildings, multifamily developments and homes.

For Houston, these tools do not replace new generation, transmission, distribution or storage. They can help the region use existing infrastructure more effectively while new capacity is built, supporting reliable, affordable power and continued economic growth.

———

This article originally appeared on the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Initiative blog . HETI exists to support Houston's future as an energy leader. For more information about the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, visit htxenergytransition.org. Download your copy of Role of Efficiency & Demand Response to Meet Near-Term Regional Power Demand to learn more.

New 160MW battery storage project comes online in Houston

powered on

Colorado-based energy storage company SMT Energy and North Carolina-based software company FlexGen have begun operations of Houston IV, a 160-megawatt utility-scale battery storage facility that aims to support the ERCOT grid.

The companies delivered the project in just six weeks, according to a news release. Mississippi-based Irby Construction Company served as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) partner, and CenterPoint Energy will serve as the interconnecting utility.

“FlexGen’s distinctive combination of software automation, our remote operations center, and on-the-ground field expertise all work together to accelerate battery deployment,” Jason Rislov, SVP of operations at FlexGen, said in the release. “What used to take 25-plus weeks took us six. That time saved translates directly into giving the grid and consumers what they need most right now: a more reliable, resilient energy system.”

Houston IV is one of more than 12 projects that SMT and FlexGen have built to connect to ERCOT, according to Energy Storage News.

“Bringing a 160-MW battery storage facility online in just six weeks required disciplined planning, seamless coordination, and an unwavering focus on safety and quality,” Shaun Coleman, project manager at Irby Construction, said in a news release. “The SMT Energy, FlexGen, and Irby Construction teams coordinated engineering, procurement, and construction to keep every workstream aligned, identify challenges early, and maintain safety and quality at an accelerated pace. That integration is critical, not only to delivering projects quickly, but also to ensuring battery storage facilities perform reliably over the long term.”

Houston IV is expected to store and provide enough electricity to power 8,800 homes in Texas annually. In March, SMT Energy secured $135 million in funding for the project from Macquarie and KeyBanc Capital Markets as joint lead arrangers. SMT and FlexGen broke ground to signal the start of the process in May.

In 2023, SMT Energy and joint venture partner SUSI Partners also announced plans to add 10 battery storage projects to Texas, which would double capacity from 100 megawatts to 200 megawatts in the Houston and Dallas areas.

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