Texas hydrogen research hub brings on new corporate partner

howdy, partner

Overall, the project is one of the largest collections of renewable hydrogen production, onsite storage, and end-use technologies that are all located at the same site. Photo via utexas.edu

A Texas US Department of Energy initiative has added a new corporate player.

Hitachi Energy has joined the DOE's H2@Scale in Texas and Beyond initiative with GTI Energy, Frontier Energy, The University of Texas Austin, and others. The initiative, which opened earlier this year, plans to assist in “integrating utility-scale renewable energy sources with power grids and managing and orchestrating a variety of energy sources” according to a news release.

Most of the ‘H2@Scale project’s activities take place at University of Texas JJ Pickle Research Center in Austin. The project is part of a larger one to expand hydrogen’s role and help to decarbonize Texas. The ‘H2@Scale' project consists of multiple hydrogen production options like a vehicle refueling station alongside a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Overall, the project is one of the largest collections of renewable hydrogen production, onsite storage, and end-use technologies that are all located at the same site.

Another larger goal is to investigate the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of hydrogen generation from renewable resources, which all aligns with the project’s vision of decarbonization efforts.

Hitachi Energy is part of the full hydrogen value chain from early-stage project origination and design. They also work to ensure grid compliance, power conversion systems and asset management solutions.

“Hitachi Energy is proud to be a key partner in the US Department of Energy’s ‘H2@Scale in Texas and Beyond’ project. The initiative comes at a pivotal moment in our commitment to advancing hydrogen production and its role in the evolving clean energy landscape,” Executive Vice President and Region Head of North America at Hitachi Energy Anthony Allard says in a news release. “As hydrogen emerges as a critical element in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries, Hitachi Energy remains dedicated to drive innovation and sustainability on a global scale.”

Hitachi’s project teams will undertake feasibility studies for scaling up hydrogen production and use, which will aim to benefit the development of a strategic plan and implementation of the H2@Scale project in the Port of Houston and the region of the Gulf Coast. The teams will also seek opportunities to leverage prospective hydrogen users, pre-existing hydrogen pipelines, and large networks of concentrated industrial infrastructure. Then, they will work to identify environmental and economic benefits of hydrogen deployment in the area.

Earlier this year, Hitachi Energy teamed up with teamed up with Houston-based electrical transmission developer Grid United for a collaboration to work on high-voltage direct current technology for Grid United transmission projects. These projects will aim to interconnect the eastern and western regional power grids in the U.S. The Eastern Interconnection east of the Rocky Mountains, the Western Interconnection west of the Rockies and the Texas Interconnection run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, make up the three main power grids.

Grid United announced a new partnership with Hitachi Energy that it's entered into a collaboration to work on high-voltage direct current technology for Grid United transmission projects. Photo via hitachienergy.com

Houston company names new tech partner on projects aimed at increasing grid reliability

tapping into tech

A Houston company has tapped a new tech partner to work on projects that are expected to help boost transmission capacity across the U.S. amidst increased, continued demands for energy.

Houston-based electrical transmission developer Grid United and Hitachi Energy announced at CERAWeek that it's entered into a collaboration to work on high-voltage direct current technology for Grid United transmission projects. These projects will aim to interconnect the eastern and western regional power grids in the U.S. The Eastern Interconnection east of the Rocky Mountains, the Western Interconnection west of the Rockies and the Texas Interconnection run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, make up the three main power grids.

This technology and these projects play a key role in the U.S. government’s commitment to accelerating the energy transition, which includes the priorities of the U.S. Department of Energy. The collaboration is considered a capacity reservation agreement in which Hitachi Energy will provide HVDC technology to support the development of multiple Grid United HVDC interconnections. The interconnections aim to mitigate the impact of extreme events and accommodate demands for electricity.

“With industry leading HVDC technology and a global track record, Hitachi Energy is a needed collaborator for the development of a more resilient and reliable electric power grid,” Michael Skelly, CEO and co-founder of Grid United, says in a news release. “By working with companies like Hitachi Energy and partnering with incumbent utilities, we’re confident we can quicken the pace of modernizing and strengthening the U.S. electric grid to meet rapidly increasing electricity demand.”

The multi-contract framework is one of the first of new business models, which allows Hitachi Energy to plan in “advance to increase manufacturing capacity, expand and train the workforce, and maximize standardization to increase efficiency between successive projects” according to a news release.

We are proud to collaborate with Grid United to strengthen the U.S. power grid, making it more flexible, reliable, and secure,” Managing Director of Grid Integration Business Niklas Persson says in a news release. “By applying our innovative new business model which enables speed and scale in the supply chain, we are confident we can make important contributions to streamlining the development process to help accelerate the energy transition.”

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Greentown and partners name 10 startups to carbontech accelerator

new cohort

The Carbon to Value Initiative (C2V Initiative)—a collaboration between Greentown Labs, NYU Tandon School of Engineering's Urban Future Lab and Fraunhofer USA—has announced 10 startup participants to join the fifth cohort of its carbontech accelerator.

The six-month accelerator aims to help cleantech startups advance their commercialization efforts through access to the C2V Initiative’s Carbontech Leadership Council (CLC). The invitation-only council consists of corporate and nonprofit leaders from organizations like Shell, TotalEnergies, XPRIZE, L’Oréal and others who “foster commercialization opportunities and identify avenues for technology validation, testing, and demonstration,” according to a release from Greentown

“The No. 1 reason startups engage with Greentown is to find customers, grow their businesses, and accelerate impact—and the Carbon to Value Initiative delivers exactly that,” Georgina Campbell Flatter, CEO of Greentown, said in a news release. “It’s a powerful example of how meaningful engagement between entrepreneurs and industry turns innovation into commercial traction.”

The C2V Initiative received more than 100 applications from 33 countries, representing a variety of carbontech innovations. The 10 startups chosen for the 2025 fifth cohort include:

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sora Fuel, which integrates direct-air capture with direct conversion of the captured carbon into syngas for production of sustainable aviation fuel
Brooklyn-based Arbon, which develops a humidity-swing carbon-capture solution by capturing CO₂ from the air or point-source without heat or pressure
New York-based Cella Mineral Storage, which works to develop subsurface mineralization technology with integrated software, enabling new ways to sequester CO2 underground
Germany-based ICODOS, which helps transform emissions into value through a point-source carbon capture and methanol synthesis process in a single, modularized system
Vancouver-based Lite-1, which uses advanced biomanufacturing processes to produce circular colourants for use in textiles, cosmetics and food
London-based Mission Zero Technologies, which has developed and deployed an electrified, direct-air carbon capture solution that employs both liquid-adsorption and electrochemical technologies
Kenya-based Octavia Carbon, which develops a solid-adsorption-based, direct-air carbon capture solution that utilizes geothermal heat
California-based Rushnu, which combines point-source carbon capture with chemical production, turning salt and CO2 into chlorine-based chemicals and minerals
Brooklyn-based Turnover Labs, which develops modular electrolyzers that transform raw, industrial CO2 emissions into chemical building blocks, without capture or purification
Ontario-based Universal Matter, which develops a Flash Joule Heating process that converts carbon waste such as end-of-life plastics, tires or industrial waste into graphene

The C2V Initiative is based on Greentown Go, Greentown’s open-innovation program. The C2V Initiative has supported 35 startups that have raised over $600 million in follow-on funding.

Read about the 2024 cohort here.

CenterPoint gets go-ahead for $2.9B upgrade of Houston grid

grid resiliency

Texas utility regulators have given the green light for Houston-based CenterPoint Energy to spend $2.9 billion on strengthening its Houston-area electric grid to better withstand extreme weather.

The cost of the plan is nearly $3 billion below what CenterPoint initially proposed to the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

In early 2025, CenterPoint unveiled a $5.75 billion plan to upgrade its Houston-area power system from 2026 through 2028. But the price tag dropped to $2.9 billion as part of a legal settlement between CenterPoint and cities in the utility’s service area.

Sometime after the first quarter of next year, CenterPoint customers in the Houston area will pay an extra $1 a month for the next three years to cover costs of the resiliency plan. CenterPoint serves 2.9 million customers in a 12-county territory anchored by Houston.

CenterPoint says the plan is part of its “commitment to building the most resilient coastal grid in the country.”

A key to improving CenterPoint’s local grid will be stepping up management of high-risk vegetation (namely trees), which ranks as the leading cause of power outages in the Houston area. CenterPoint says it will “go above and beyond standard vegetation management by implementing an industry-leading three-year trim cycle,” clearing vegetation from thousands of miles of power lines.

The utility company says its plan aims to prevent Houston-area power outages in case of hurricanes, floods, extreme temperatures, tornadoes, wildfires, winter storms, and other extreme weather events.

CenterPoint says the plan will:

Improve systemwide resilience by 30 percent
Expand the grid’s power-generating capacity. The company expects power demand in the Houston area to grow 2 percent per year for the foreseeable future.
Save about $50 million per year on storm cleanup costs
Avoid outages for more than 500,000 customers in the event of a disaster like last year’s Hurricane Beryl
Provide 130,000 stronger, more storm-resilient utility poles
Put more than 50 percent of the power system underground
Rebuild or upgrade more than 2,200 transmission towers
Modernize 34,500 spans of underground cables

In the Energy Capital of the World, residents “expect and deserve an electric system that is safe, reliable, cost-effective, and resilient when they need it most. We’re determined to deliver just that,” Jason Wells, president and CEO of CenterPoint, said in January.

Solidec partners with Australian company for clean hydrogen peroxide pilot

rare earth pilot

Solidec has partnered with Australia-based Lynas Rare Earth, an environmentally responsible producer of rare earth oxides and materials, to reduce emissions from hydrogen peroxide production.

The partnership marks a milestone for the Houston-based clean chemical manufacturing startup, as it would allow the company to accelerate the commercialization of its hydrogen peroxide generation technology, according to a news release.

"This collaboration is a major milestone for Solidec and a catalyst for sustainability in rare earths," Yang Xia, co-founder and CTO of Solidec, said in the release. "Solidec's technology can reduce the carbon footprint of hydrogen peroxide production by up to 90%. By combining our generators with the scale of a global leader in rare earths, we can contribute to a more secure, sustainable supply of critical minerals."

Through the partnership, Solidec will launch a pilot program of its autonomous, on-site generators at Lynas's facility in Australia. Solidec's generators extract molecules from water and air and convert them into carbon emission-free chemicals and fuels, like hydrogen peroxide. The generators also eliminate the need for transport, storage and permitting, making for a simpler, more efficient process for producing hydrogen peroxide than the traditional anthraquinone process.

"Hydrogen peroxide is essential to rare earth production, yet centralized manufacturing adds cost and complexity," Ryan DuChanois, co-founder and CEO of Solidec, added in the release. "By generating peroxide directly on-site, we're reinventing the chemical supply chain for efficiency, resilience, and sustainability."

The companies report that the pilot is expected to generate 10 tons of hydrogen peroxide per year.

If successful, the pilot would serve as a model for large-scale deployments of Solidec's generators across Lynas' operations—and would have major implications for the high-performance magnet, electric vehicles, wind turbine, and advanced electronics industries, which rely on rare earth elements.

"This partnership with Solidec is another milestone on the path to achieving our Towards 2030 vision," Luke Darbyshire, general manager of R&I at Lynas, added. "Working with Solidec allows us to establish transformative chemical supply pathways that align with our innovation efforts, while contributing to our broader vision for secure, sustainable rare earth supply chains."

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