Houston's top energy transition founders explain their biggest challenges

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Clockwise from top left: Sean Kelly of Amperon, Dianna Liu of ARIXTechnologies, Matthew Dawson of Elementium Materials, Vibhu Sharma of InnoVent Renewables, Cindy Taff of Sage Geosystems, and Emma Konet of TierraClimate. Photos courtesy

From finding funding to navigating the pace of traditional oil and gas company tech adoption, energy transition companies face their fair share of challenges.

This year's Houston Innovation Awards finalists in the Energy Transition category explained what their biggest challenge has been and how they've overcome it. See what they said below, and make sure to secure your tickets to the Nov. 14 event to see which of these finalists win the award.

"The evolving nature of the energy industry presents opportunities to solve some of our industry's greatest challenges. At Amperon we help optimize grid reliability and stability with the power of AI demand forecasting."

— Sean Kelly, CEO of Amperon, an AI platform powering the smart grid of the future

"The biggest challenge in leading an energy transition-focused startup has been balancing the urgency for sustainable solutions with the slow pace of change in traditional industries like oil and gas. Many companies are cautious about adopting new technologies, especially when it comes to integrating sustainability initiatives. We overcame this by positioning our solutions not just as environmentally friendly, but as tools that improve safety, efficiency, and cost savings. By aligning our value proposition with their operational goals and demonstrating real, measurable benefits, we were able to gain traction and drive adoption in industries that are traditionally resistant to change."

— Dianna Liu, CEO of ARIXTechnologies, an integrated robotics and data analytics company that delivers inspection services through its robotics platforms

"Scaling up production of hard tech is a major challenge. Thankfully, we recruited top-notch talent with experience in technology scale-up and chemical processes. In addition, we've begun building partnerships with some of the world's largest chemical manufacturers in our space who are excited to be a part of our journey and could rapidly accelerate our go to market strategy. We have significant demand for our product as early as 2025, so partnering with these companies to scale-up will bring our technology to market years ahead of doing it alone."

— Matthew Dawson, CEO of Elementium Materials, a battery technology with liquid electrolyte solutions

"Our pyrolysis reactor is a proprietary design that was developed during Covid. We ran simulations to prove that it works, but it was not easy to test it in a pilot facility, let alone scaling it up. We managed ... to run our pilot plant studies, while working with them remotely. We proved that our reactor worked and produced high quality products. Later, we built our own pilot plant R&D facility to continue running tests and optimizing the process. Then, there was the challenge of scaling it up to commercial size. ... We put together a task force of four different companies to come together to design and build this complex reactor in record time."

— Vibhu Sharma, CEO of InnoVent Renewables, a startup with proprietary continuous pyrolysis technology that converts waste tires, plastics, and biomass into valuable fuels and chemicals

"Energy storage and geothermal power generation are capital-intensive infrastructure projects, requiring investors with a deep commitment and the patience in terms of years to allow the technology to be developed and proven in the field. One challenge is finding that niche of investors with the vision to join our journey. We have succeeded in raising our $30 million series A with these types of investors, whom we’re confident will continue the journey as we scale."

— Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems, an energy company focused on developing and deploying advanced geothermal technologies to provide reliable power and sustainable energy storage solutions regardless of geography

"The biggest challenge we've faced has been to bring together massive independent power producers on one side who are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into grid infrastructure with multi- national tech giants on the other that don't have experience working much with energy storage. As a startup with only four employees, gaining credibility with these players was critical. We overcame this hurdle by becoming the preeminent thought leader on storage emissions, through publishing white papers, discussing the issues on podcasts, and (more)."

— Emma Konet, CTO of TierraClimate, a software provider that helps grid-scale batteries reduce carbon emissions

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Fervo Energy's big deal — and more things to know this week. Photo via blog.google

Fervo's $244M funding round, events not to miss, and more Houston energy transition things to know this week

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Editor's note: Dive headfirst into the new week with three quick things to catch up on in Houston's energy transition: a roundup of events not to miss, a podcast to stream, and more.

Really big deal: Fervo Energy raises $244M funding round

An Oklahoma-based shale oil and gas leader has backed Fervo Energy's latest round of funding, supporting the startup's geothermal technology yet again.

Fervo announced its latest round of funding this week to the tune of $244 million. The round was led by Devon Energy, a company that's previously backed the startup.

“Demand for around-the-clock clean energy has never been higher, and next-generation geothermal is uniquely positioned to meet this demand,” Tim Latimer, Fervo CEO and co-founder, says in a news release. “Our technology is fully derisked, our pricing is already competitive, and our resource pipeline is vast. This investment enables Fervo to continue to position geothermal at the heart of 24/7 carbon-free energy production.” Read more.

Podcast to stream: Emma Konet, CTO and co-founder of Tierra Climate

If the energy transition is going to be successful, the energy storage space needs to be equipped to support both the increased volume of energy needed and new energies. And Emma Konet and her software company, Tierra Climate, are targeting one part of the equation: the market.

"To me, it's very clear that we need to build a lot of energy storage in order to transition the grid," Konet says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "The problems that I saw were really on the market side of things."

Konet says she was bullish on the energy storage side of things when she was an early hire at Key Capture Energy, a private equity-backed energy storage project developer. The issue with energy storage projects, as Konet describes, is they aren't being monetized properly and, in some cases, aren't sustainable and increasing emissions. Read more.

Events not to miss

Put these Houston-area energy-related events on your calendar.

For the sixth year in a row, the Industrial XR Forum is returning to bring together industrial, energy & engineering immersive tech leaders, software developers and more at the 2024 Industrial IMMERSIVE Week on March 5 to 7 at Hyatt Regency West. Register.
CERAWeek 2024 is Monday, March 18, to Friday, March 22, in the George R. Brown Convention Center. Register.
DeCarb Connect supports senior leaders in decarbonization to accelerate strategy and decision making to reduce carbon emissions and reach net zero targets. The event is March 26 to 28 at Westin Houston Memorial City. Register.
On March 27, Greentown Houston is hosting "Accelerating Net-Zero Solutions: CCUS Innovation and Startup Showcase." Watch the Go Make 2023 cohort pitch their innovations in carbon utilization, storage, and traceability; hear about their work with Shell throughout the startup-corporate-partnerships accelerator; and learn from CCUS industry experts. Register.
On April 17, the University of Houston presents "Gulf Coast Hydrogen Ecosystem: Opportunities & Solutions" featuring experts from academia, industry, government, and more. The symposium begins at 8 am with a networking reception takes place beginning at 5 pm at the University of Houston Student Center South - Theater Room. Register.

Tierra Climate is technology agnostic, so while the company is seeing activity in the battery space, they can also work with other types of storage. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-based energy storage fintech platform founder targets new market key to transition

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"The product we're building is solving these problems. It's a financial product, but what it's doing is solving a market deficiency," she says. "We're sending the right signal to the battery to operate in a way that reduces emissions, and then we're paying them for it because there's a demand to decarbonize."

For over a year, Konet, as co-founder and CTO, has worked on the platform, which is essentially a marketplace for corporates to buy carbon offsets, incentifying and monetizing storage projects.

Emma Konet, co-founder and CTO of Tierra Climate, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo via LinkedIn

Tierra Climate is technology agnostic, so while the company is seeing activity in the battery space, they can also work with other types of storage — like hydrogen, pumped water, and more. Konet says her ideal customers are companies with money and interest in playing a role in the energy transition and looking to offset their scope two and three emissions.

"The ultimate vision for our company is for this to be an accessible product that has a high degree of integrity that small to very large companies can execute on, because it's a pay-per-performance mechanism that doesn't lock companies into a really large contract," she says. "It's really scalable."

This year, she says the company, which won fourth place in the 2023 Rice Business Plan Competition, is focused on securing its first big contract and fundraising for its seed round.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

The six finalists for the sustainability category for the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards weigh in on their challenges overcome. Photos courtesy

4 biggest challenges of Houston-based sustainability startups

Houston innovation awards

Six Houston-area sustainability startups have been named finalists in the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards, but they didn't achieve this recognition — as well as see success for their businesses — without any obstacles.

The finalists were asked what their biggest challenges have been. From funding to market adoption, the sustainability companies have had to overcome major obstacles to continue to develop their businesses.

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. Eighteen energy startups were named as finalists across all categories, but the following responses come from the finalists in the sustainability category specifically.

Click here to secure your tickets to see who wins.

1. Securing a commercial pilot

"As an early-stage clean energy developer, we struggled to convince key suppliers to work on our commercial pilot project. Suppliers were skeptical of our unproven technology and, given limited inventory from COVID, preferred to prioritize larger clients. We overcame this challenge by bringing on our top suppliers as strategic investors. With a long-term equity stake in Fervo, leading oilfield services companies were willing to provide Fervo with needed drilling rigs, frack crews, pumps, and other equipment." — Tim Latimer, founder and CEO of Fervo Energy

2. Finding funding

"Securing funding in Houston as a solo cleantech startup founder and an immigrant with no network. Overcome that by adopting a milestone-based fundraising approach and establishing credibility through accelerator/incubator programs." — Anas Al Kassas, CEO and founder of INOVUES

"The biggest challenge has been finding funding. Most investors are looking towards software development companies as the capital costs are low in case of a risk. Geothermal costs are high, but it is physical technology that needs to be implemented to safety transition the energy grid to reliable, green power." — Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems

3. Market adoption

"Market adoption by convincing partners and government about WHP as a solution, which is resource-intensive. Making strides by finding the correct contacts to educate." — Janice Tran, CEO and co-founder of Kanin Energy

"We are creating a brand new financial instrument at the intersection of carbon markets and power markets, both of which are complicated and esoteric. Our biggest challenge has been the cold-start problem associated with launching a new product that has effectively no adoption. We tackled this problem by leading the Energy Storage Solutions Consortium (a group of corporates and battery developers looking for sustainability solutions in the power space), which has opened up access to customers on both sides of our marketplace. We have also leveraged our deep networks within corporate power procurement and energy storage development to talk to key decision-makers at innovative companies with aggressive climate goals to become early adopters of our products and services." — Emma Konet, CTO and co-founder of Tierra Climate

4. Long scale timelines

"Scaling and commercializing industrial technologies takes time. We realized this early on and designed the eXERO technology to be scalable from the onset. We developed the technology at the nexus of traditional electrolysis and conventional gas processing, taking the best of both worlds while avoiding their main pitfalls." — Claus Nussgruber, CEO of Utility Global

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Texas' oil and gas foundation could boost its geothermal future, UH says

future of geothermal

Equipped with the proper policies and investments, Texas could capitalize on its oil and gas infrastructure and expertise to lead the U.S. in development of advanced geothermal power, a new University of Houston white paper says.

Drilling, reservoir development and subsurface engineering are among the Texas oil and gas industry’s capabilities that could translate to geothermal energy, according to a news release. Furthermore, oil and gas skills, data, technology and supply chains could help make geothermal power more cost-effective.

Up to 80 percent of the investment required for a geothermal project involves capacity and skills that are common in the oil and gas industry, the white paper points out.

Building on its existing oil-and-gas foundation, Texas could help accelerate production of geothermal energy, lower geothermal energy costs and create more jobs in the energy workforce, according to the news release.

The paper also highlights geothermal progress made by Houston-based companies Fervo Energy, Quaise Energy and Sage Geosystems, as well as Canada-based Eavor Technologies Inc.

UH’s Division of Energy published the white paper, Advanced Geothermal: Opportunities and Challenges, in partnership with the C.T. Bauer College of Business’ Gutierrez Energy Management Institute.

“Energy demand, especially electricity demand, is continuing to grow, and we need to develop new low-carbon energy sources to meet those needs,” Greg Bean, executive director of the institute and author of the white paper, said of geothermal’s potential.

HETI leader reflects on four years focused on the energy transition

The View From HETI

It’s hard to believe only four years have passed since I joined the Greater Houston Partnership to lead the Houston Energy Transition Initiative. We talk about COVID years feeling simultaneously like just yesterday and a lifetime ago, and my time at HETI feels quite similar. The energy and climate landscape has evolved dramatically over the last few years, but one constant has endured…Houston remains at the heart of the energy industry.

When I joined HETI at the start of 2022, I could not have imagined the impact we would have over the next four years. Our vision, laid out in 2020 by then Partnership Chair Bobby Tudor, was bold – leverage Houston’s energy leadership to accelerate global solutions for an energy abundant, low-carbon future. Our mission was clear – ensure the long-term economic competitiveness of the Houston region in a changing energy landscape. Our strategy, developed with strong support from McKinsey, was sound – build a coalition of industry, academic and community partners to position Houston as a leading hub for energy and climate innovation, commercialization and economic growth.

And Houston’s energy leaders, across business, academia and community, came together to deliver that strategy. Bobby Tudor’s timely vision created an anchor for Houston’s energy community that allowed us to broaden the energy and climate discussion to one focused on meeting growing energy demand and reducing emissions. That vision was a catalyst for changing the perception of Houston from oil & gas capital to an “all of the above” energy capital with a thriving energy and climate tech innovation ecosystem. Houston is where you can work collaboratively to build new energy value chains and ensure an affordable, secure, and lower emissions energy mix for our region, our country, and the world.

In this fast-moving energy environment, it can be easy to focus on what to do next without taking time to reflect on the work and celebrate the wins. We took the opportunity at the end of 2025 to reflect on five years of impact. As we developed that report, I thought about how fortunate I have been to lead this work for the last four years. HETI’s impact has been incredibly meaningful for our region, our members, and the new companies and founders building the next generation of energy technology and talent. As my time as executive director comes to an end, HETI’s work continues. The need remains clear: more energy, less emissions, and continued collaboration that brings together innovation and infrastructure, policies and markets, and hard tech together with human ingenuity.

As I prepare to hand the reigns to HETI’s new SVP and executive cirector, Sophia Cunningham, at the end of March, I have been reflecting on the impact this role has had on me. Four years ago, I could never have imagined the opportunities, experiences and relationships this role has enabled. I am truly grateful for the support and engagement of Houston’s business and community leaders, the visionary leadership of Bobby Tudor, Scott Nyquist, HETI Members, and the Greater Houston Partnership in creating this initiative at exactly the right moment in time. I am incredibly proud of the HETI and partnership team members who have delivered with purpose and passion, and I greatly appreciate Houston’s energy and climate leaders and champions who have supported my agenda, challenged my thinking, broadened my perspectives, and worked with HETI to demonstrate the power of partnership in developing, innovating and advancing the ideas and technologies needed to meet this challenge for our region and the world.

As excited as I am to see where this next chapter takes me, I am even more excited to see where the work of HETI goes from here. I am still optimistic that the challenge of providing the world with affordable, reliable, and resilient energy while simultaneously reducing emissions is one Houston is uniquely positioned to meet.

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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, EnergyCapitalHTX's presenting sponsor, visit htxenergytransition.org.

Texas could topple Virginia as biggest data-center market by 2030, JLL report says

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Everything’s bigger in Texas, they say—and that phrase now applies to the state’s growing data-center presence.

A new report from commercial real estate services provider JLL says Texas could overtake Northern Virginia as the world’s largest data-center market by 2030. Northern Virginia is a longtime holder of that title.

What’s driving Texas’ increasingly larger role in the data-center market? The key factor is artificial intelligence.

Companies like Google and Microsoft need more energy-hungry data centers to power AI innovations. In a 2023 article, Forbes explained that AI models consume a lot of energy because of the massive amount of data used to train them, as well as the complexity of those models and the rising volume of tasks assigned to AI.

“The data-center sector has officially entered hyperdrive,” Andy Cvengros, executive managing director at JLL and co-leader of its U.S. data-center business, said in the report. “Record-low vacancy sustained over two consecutive years provides compelling evidence against bubble concerns, especially when nearly all our massive construction pipeline is already pre-committed by investment-grade tenants.”

Dallas-Fort Worth has long dominated the Texas data-center market. But in recent years, West Texas has emerged as a popular territory for building data-center campuses, thanks in large part to an abundance of land and energy. Nearly two-thirds of data-center construction underway now is happening in “frontier markets” like West Texas, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin, the JLL report says.

Northern Virginia, the current data-center champ in the U.S., boasted a data-center market with 6,315 megawatts of capacity at the end of 2025, the report says. That compares with 2,423 megawatts in Dallas-Fort Worth, 1,700 megawatts in the Austin-San Antonio corridor, 200 megawatts in West Texas, and 164 megawatts in Houston.

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