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Energy expert: Why Houston's 100-degree days matter more than 5 years ago

guest column

Extreme temps are here to stay. Getty Images

If you are a Houston native or have lived in the city since the 1980s, you likely remember when a 100-degree day was so rare it made the local news. There were heat advisory warnings, with special attention to the midday hours, because the heat exposure carried with it risks like dehydration, heat stroke and extreme exposure to UV rays.

In this new era for our city and state, 100-degree days are becoming more common. Our local weather forecasters still report on the occurrence, but we are no longer able to restrict our activities as heavily.

The climate has changed rapidly, and Texans are navigating our collective response to the increased heat that has serious implications for our health, energy supply, economy and regional life.

Houston Has Always Been Hot, But This Heat is Different

Houston has expanded exponentially in the last few decades, doubling its population from roughly 1.4 million in 1976 to 2.4 million today. When we account for the growth in the surrounding suburbs, the population boom nearly quintuples.

Houston and the surrounding suburbs now total nearly 7 million people, a huge population increase that brings greater demand for energy. This demand impacts our infrastructure, energy availability, consumer costs, workforce productivity and water supply significantly. With these additions comes more asphalt and fewer trees. With less tree cover and green space, heat gets trapped, increasing temperatures in the city.

We are not just inheriting rising temperatures; we are also building hotter cities.

100-Degree Days and The Texas Grid

I have written before about our grid capacity, changes facing Texas, and the strain that we have seen on the grid. While redundancies in the Texas grid are improving, the pace of this change continues to pose challenges for our area.

The extreme heat has now made air conditioning mandatory for a greater percentage of days during the calendar year. AC units (large and small) are no longer cycling on and off as they are designed to run; instead, most systems are running continuously to meet the needs of Texans.

Daily activities and devices, including remote work, the AI boom, physical exercise, children’s playtime, charging multiple devices, and streaming entertainment, require much more cooling than in previous generations, producing a much larger demand on the grid.

Additionally, the way Houstonians live at home has also changed. Homes across America are much larger on average than they were in the 1980’s. Also, with the rise of remote work, there is a greater need for all-day electricity in each individual household. These factors, combined with the exponential increase in the number of devices and appliances used in households, significantly affect energy demand in our region.

Of course, we’re also seeing massive usage of electricity from large business users (warehouses, data centers, and more), including empty office buildings as return-to-office is slower than expected post-pandemic.

Heat is Not the Only Culprit

As Houston is a coastal city, we not only have to contend with 100-degree temperatures, but humidity also adds an extra layer of complexity to our climate. Thanks to the humidity, temperatures stay elevated for longer periods, meaning everything is retaining heat at a higher rate and for longer than ever before.

The heat never really leaves us anymore, as we don’t have cooler nights to help balance these very hot days. The compounding effect of extreme temperatures and high humidity makes energy demand higher in our region than in places like the New Mexico desert.

Economic Impact on Our Region

Extreme heat hits Texans’ wallets long before a weather alert ever pops up. When temperatures stay above 100 degrees for days at a time, air conditioners are basically working overtime, which sends electricity bills climbing.

And the harder those systems run, the more wear and tear homeowners end up dealing with, usually at the worst possible time, like the middle of July when a boom of AC units decide to quit at once. Meanwhile, roads, transformers and other infrastructure are all under more stress than they were originally built for.

There’s also a much bigger ripple effect that people don’t always think about. When it’s dangerously hot outside, construction crews, energy workers, landscapers, and other outdoor industries simply can’t operate the same way, which slows productivity and raises safety concerns.

Cities are also spending more money on cooling centers and heat-related emergency response, and over time, all of those rising costs have a way of showing up somewhere, whether that’s insurance rates, utility costs or the price communities pay to keep up with extreme weather.

The Opportunity for Houston

Texas is becoming a real-time test case for what happens when extreme heat, rapid growth, and massive energy demand all hit at once. While problematic, it also creates a huge opportunity for Houston and the Texas energy sector to lead. If there’s any place equipped to determine what the future of energy resilience looks like, it’s the city that already powers so much of the world’s energy conversation.

And the solution isn’t just “create more electricity.” It’s about building a smarter, more flexible system overall with better grid technology, battery storage, stronger infrastructure, more efficient building, and energy systems that can handle these extreme weather swings without everything feeling stressed at once. The reality is that a lot of what Texas figures out over the next few years could become the blueprint for other cities and states across the country.

Houston is already testing some of these smarter resilience strategies, such as microgrids, stronger substations, and more flexible energy systems designed to keep critical facilities running during major storms or outages. The goal is simple: build a grid that can take a hit without everything feeling strained all at once.

Going Forward

Hotter days are here to stay. We can’t stop our lives amid the extreme heat, so we have to find ways to adapt and we have to do it quickly. If there’s one thing Texas has always done well, however, it’s innovate under pressure. The communities, companies and energy leaders that move fastest now won’t just be responding to the future, they’ll be helping define it.

———

Sam Luna is director at BKV Energy, where he oversees brand and go-to-market strategy, customer experience, marketing execution, and more.

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Extreme weather in Texas is not only increasing but also becoming more hazardous for communities, infrastructure, and the economy. Photo by Jarosław Kwoczała on Unsplash

Energy expert: What record heat and extended summers mean for Texans

guest column

Earth’s third-warmest year on record occurred in 2025, reinforcing a decades-long pattern of rising global temperatures. This warming trend is increasingly reflected in regional weather patterns across the United States, particularly in Texas, where hotter summers, prolonged droughts, and heavier rainfall events are becoming more common.

A 2024 report from Texas A&M University highlights how these shifts are already reshaping weather conditions across the Lone Star State. The assessment analyzes climate and weather data from 1900 through 2023 and projects likely trends through 2036.

Its findings suggest that extreme weather in Texas is not only increasing but also becoming more hazardous for communities, infrastructure, and the economy.

A Rise in Extreme Heat
One of the most dramatic changes is the increasing frequency of extreme heat events. Summer temperatures in Texas have climbed back to levels not seen since the early 20th century, and projections suggest they will exceed those historic highs within the next decade.

Triple-digit temperatures are becoming far more common. In the 1970s and 1980s, most parts of Texas experienced relatively few days above 100°F in a typical year. By 2036, those days are expected to occur about four times as often, especially across North, Central, and West Texas.

Houston reflects that broader trend. Five of the 10 years with the most 100-degree days on record in the city have occurred since 2000, according to records dating back to the late 1880s.

The summer of 2023 was Houston’s hottest on record, surpassing even the historic heat of 2011. While short-term cold snaps still occur, climate data suggests extreme summer heat will become more frequent in the years ahead.

Heat waves are also starting earlier in the year and lasting longer. As of 2024, the average length of heat-wave season in the United States has increased by 46 days since the 1960s. Their frequency has also increased steadily, rising from an average of two heat waves per year in the 1960s to about six per year in the 2010s and 2020s.

Energy Grid Strain
Heat waves occurring earlier in the year and more intensely place increasing pressure on the state’s electricity system. When temperatures spike early in the summer, households and businesses simultaneously increase air-conditioning use, pushing electricity demand close to record levels.

In recent summers, record-breaking electricity demand has repeatedly tested grid capacity. Energy experts warn that if heat extremes continue to intensify, maintaining grid reliability will require expanded generation capacity, improved energy efficiency, and greater integration of renewable energy and battery storage. Fortunately, Texas has already made strides in these areas of concern.

Texas continues to lead the nation in clean energy adoption and grid modernization, particularly in wind and solar power. With more than 40,000 megawatts (MW) of wind capacity, the state ranks first in the country in wind-powered electricity generation, supplying up to 35% when blowing and as low as 0%. Much of this growth was driven by the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires utility companies to develop renewable energy in proportion to their market share. The policy originally set a goal of generating 10,000 MW of renewable capacity by 2025, but Texas surpassed this target years ahead of schedule due to rapid investment and expansion.

Solar energy is also growing quickly. Texas has officially overtaken California as the country’s. leader in utility-scale solar, according to recently released data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. With over 37 GW of capacity, Texas now leads in new solar installations, supported by large-scale solar farm development and favorable policies that continue to diversify the state’s energy mix.

To build a more resilient and cost-effective power system, Texas is working to integrate wind and solar generation while strengthening grid reliability. Efforts include regulatory reforms, mandates for improved power infrastructure, and the deployment of renewable energy storage solutions. A recent report from the Solar Energy Industries Association indicates that Texas is on track to surpass California this year as the nation’s leader in energy storage capacity, driven largely by the rapid growth of battery storage facilities across the state. Alongside renewable expansion, the state also added 3,410 MW of natural gas–fueled power in 2024 to support growing electricity demand.

Economic Consequences
Extreme heat also has measurable economic impacts. For every 1-degree increase in the average summer temperature, Texas’ annual nominal GDP growth rate slows by about 0.4 percentage points. Because Texas already experiences hotter summers than most of the country, rising temperatures affect the state’s economic growth about twice as much as they do in the rest of the United States. Additional warming compounds the strain on productivity, infrastructure, and energy costs.

Some industries are more sensitive to heat than others. Construction, agriculture, manufacturing, and outdoor services often experience productivity losses during prolonged heat waves.

The effects were already visible during the record-breaking summer of 2023, when cities such as Houston, Dallas, and El Paso experienced prolonged stretches of triple-digit temperatures. Surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found that roughly one-quarter of businesses responding to the Texas Business Outlook Surveys reported reduced revenue or production because of the heat.

The hardest-hit sector was leisure and hospitality, where outdoor activities and tourism often decline during extreme temperatures. However, businesses across manufacturing, retail, and services also reported disruptions.

Environmental and Infrastructure Stress
In addition to heat, there are growing risks related to drought, wildfire conditions, and urban flooding.

Extended heat waves tend to worsen drought conditions by increasing evaporation and reducing soil moisture. Lower water levels in lakes and reservoirs can lead to water restrictions for cities and agricultural producers, especially in regions that rely heavily on surface water supplies.

Dry conditions also increase the likelihood of wildfires, particularly across West Texas and the Hill Country. Strong winds, dry vegetation, and extreme heat can quickly turn small fires into fast-moving blazes that threaten homes, infrastructure, and ecosystems.

At the same time, Texas is experiencing an increase in severe rainfall events, which can overwhelm drainage systems in rapidly growing urban areas. Cities with large amounts of pavement and development are especially vulnerable to flash flooding when heavy rain falls in short bursts.

Along the Gulf Coast, rising sea levels are adding another layer of risk. Communities near Galveston Bay and other low-lying coastal areas face increasing threats from storm surge and high-tide flooding.

Preparing for a Hotter Future
Climate experts emphasize that over the next decade, Texans are likely to face more frequent heat waves, higher energy demand, and greater environmental stress.

Adapting to these changes will require a range of responses, including strengthening infrastructure, expanding water management strategies, improving urban planning, and enhancing emergency preparedness for extreme heat and flooding.

While the challenges are significant, understanding these trends now gives policymakers, businesses, and communities time to prepare. As the state’s population and economy continue to grow, resilience to extreme weather is an increasingly important priority for Texas in the years ahead.

———

Sam Luna is director at BKV Energy, where he oversees brand and go-to-market strategy, customer experience, marketing execution, and more.

A major heat alert is in place for Texas. Photo via Getty Images

Is the Texas power grid prepared for summer 2025 heat?

Guest Column

Although the first official day of summer is not until June 20, Houstonians are already feeling the heat with record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures. The recent heatwave has many Texans wondering if the state’s grid will have enough power to meet peak demand during the summer.

How the Texas grid fared in summer 2024

To predict what could happen as we enter summer this year, it is essential to assess the state of the grid during summer 2024, and what, if anything, has been improved.

According to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, solar electricity generation and utility-scale batteries within the ERCOT power grid set records in summer 2024. On average, solar contributed nearly 25 percent of total power needs during mid-day hours between June 1 and August 31. In critical evening hours, when load (demand for electricity) remains elevated but solar output declines, discharge from batteries successfully filled the gap.

Texas added more battery storage capacity than any other state last year, and, excluding California, now has more battery capacity than the rest of the country combined. The state also added 3,410 megawatts of natural gas-fueled power last year. While we did experience major power losses as a result of extreme weather, such as the derecho in May and Hurricane Beryl in July, ERCOT did not have to issue a single conservation appeal last summer to ward off capacity-related outages--and it was the sixth-hottest summer on record.

Policymakers are also taking steps to pass legislation that will help stabilize the grid. During this year’s 89th legislative session, Senate Bill 6 (TX SB6) was introduced, which seeks to:

  • Improve ERCOT's load forecasting transparency
  • Enhance outage protections for residential consumers
  • Adjust transmission cost allocations
  • Bolster grid reliability

In essence, the bill is meant to balance business growth with grid reliability, ensuring that the state continues to be an attractive destination for industrial expansion while preventing reliability risks due to rapid demand increases.

Is the Texas grid prepared for summer 2025?

The good news is that the grid is predicted to be able to manage the energy demand this summer, but there is no guarantee that power disruptions will not happen.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has indicated that summer 2025 will likely be warmer and drier than average across most of Texas. Based on ERCOT data and weather projections, West Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas face the highest risk of outages.

While Texas is No. 1 in wind power and No. 2 in solar power, only behind California, there are valid concerns about heavy reliance on renewables when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, compounded by a lack of large-scale battery storage. Then, there’s the underlying cost and ecological footprint associated with the manufacturing of those batteries. Although solar and wind capacity continues to expand rapidly, integration challenges remain during peak demand periods, especially during the late afternoon when solar generation declines but air conditioning usage remains high.

Additional factors that contribute to the grid’s instability are that Texas faces a massive surge in demand for electricity due to an increase in large users like crypto mining facilities and data centers, as well as population growth. ERCOT predicts that Texas’ energy demand will nearly double by 2030, with power supply projected to fall short of peak demand in a worst-case scenario beginning in summer 2026.

Thanks to investments in solar power, battery storage, and traditional energy sources, ERCOT has made progress in improving grid reliability which indicates that, at least for this summer, energy load will be manageable. A combination of legislative action, strategic planning and technological innovation will need to continue to ensure that this momentum remains on a positive trajectory.

---

Sam Luna is director at BKV Energy, where he oversees brand and go-to-market strategy, customer experience, marketing execution, and more.

A major heat alert is in place for Texas. Photo via Getty Images

Heat dome moves into Texas with record highs expected

stay cool

A heat dome that has led to nearly 90 consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures in Phoenix moved into Texas Wednesday, with record highs expected to fall by the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, energy demand in Texas hit an unofficial all-time high Tuesday, according to data from the state’s grid operator.

A major heat alert is in place for Texas, reflecting what the weather service called “rare and/or long-duration extreme heat with little to no overnight relief.” An extreme heat alert was issued for eastern New Mexico.

A heat dome is a slow moving, upper-level high pressure system of stable air and a deep layer of high temperatures, meteorologist Bryan Jackson said.

“It is usually sunny, the sun is beating down, it is hot and the air is contained there,” Jackson said. “There are dozen or so sites that are setting daily records ... mostly over Texas.”

Record high temperatures were expected in cities such as Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Amarillo. In Phoenix, monsoon rains have provided brief respites since Sunday, although daytime highs continue to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).

The dome was expected to move into western Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico beginning Saturday, then into the mid-Mississippi Valley, where it was forecast to weaken slightly, Jackson said.

About 14.7 million people are under an excessive heat warning, with heat indexes expected at 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) and above. Another 10 million people were under a heat advisory.

There were 38 heat-related deaths in Texas from January through July, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, and hundreds have already sought emergency care, according to MedStar ambulance in Fort Worth, Texas. The service responded to 286 heat-related calls during the first 20 days of August, about 14 per day, compared to about 11 per day in August 2023, according to public information officer Desiree Partain.

Austin-Travis County EMS Capt. Christa Stedman said calls about heat-related illness in the area around the Texas state Capitol since April 1 are up by about one per day compared with a year ago, though July was somewhat milder this year.

"The vast majority of what we see is heat exhaustion, which is good because we catch it before it’s heat stroke, but it’s bad because people are not listening to the red flags,” such as heat cramps in the arms, legs or stomach warning that the body is becoming too hot, Stedman said.

Despite the record heat in Texas, residents haven't been asked to cut back on their energy use like in years prior. This contrasts with the 11 conservation notices issued last year. One reason is that the agency, which manages Texas' independent energy grid and deregulated providers, has improved the grid's capabilities with the addition of more than 15 gigawatts of power supply since last summer.

Although the agency has gotten better at controlling the demands of the grid, their criteria for when to notify residents to conserve energy has also changed, Doug Lewin, an energy consultant and president of Stoic Energy said.

Lewin suspects it’s because they’re ineffective and unpopular.

“I don’t think they’re seeing all that much reduction when they give notices,” Lewin said of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. In fact public uproar against the conservation warnings has led to the agency sending fewer of them, he continued.

“There are many factors that ERCOT operations take into consideration when determining the need to issue conservation, case by case depending on conditions at the time,” communications manager Trudi Webster said on the matter.

“It’s been a hot summer, but this one does stand out in terms of extremes,” said Jackson, the meteorologist.

Earlier this month, about 100 people were sickened and 10 were hospitalized due to extreme heat at a Colorado air show and at least two people have died due to the heat in California's Death Valley National Park.

Globally, a string of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end this past July as the natural El Nino climate pattern ebbed, the European climate agency Copernicus announced Thursday.

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Houston solar manufacturer expands facility, production capacity

houston expansion

Solar tracking and manufacturing company PV Hardware USA is increasing its production capacity and expanding its Houston facility in an effort to meet growing demands.

The move marks the company's third expansion in the Houston area in three years. PV Hardware reports a 400 percent surge in national market growth over the past three years, as solar-based projects have been pivotal in energy resilience efforts.

PV Hardware plans to increase the capacity at its Houston facility by 42 percent, according to a news release. With the additional capacity, PV Hardware expects a 35 percent increase in production of pre-assembled parts. The company has not announced whether any additional employees will be hired or the costs of expansion.

In September, the company completed its new dedicated pre-assembly facility, which will help migrate difficult assembly into an easier manufacturing setting. The new pre-assembly area will also assist with streamlined field installation, enhanced schedule predictability and reduction of manual labor.

Citybiz reports that the expansion totals approximately 34,200 square feet.

PV Hardware USA aims to make solar installation more efficient. For large-scale solar projects, PV Hardware USA’s pre-assembly process helps to relieve assembly work done by installation teams. According to PV Hardware USA, it reduces the number of on-site components by 70 percent.

“Traditionally, manufacturers pushed the assembly burden onto the jobsite,” Rodolfo Bitar, vice president of business development for PVH USA, told Renewable Energy Magazine. “We ask a different question: what work can be done more efficiently before the equipment ever leaves the factory? By managing the assembly of 188 loose parts per row in our controlled manufacturing environment, we remove field complexity and make installation highly predictable.”

PV Hardware USA produces single-axis solar trackers made in Texas and has supplied over 52 gigawatts of solar trackers worldwide.

“The expanded presence in Texas underscores a long-term commitment: bringing world-class solar expertise to local American manufacturing, supporting communities, and serving as a reliable partner through the clean energy transition,” the company said in the release.

In July of 2025, the company opened its 95,000-square-foot facility, which was the second Houston location following its initial $30 million U.S. manufacturing facility, which, at 50,000 square feet, is one of America's largest solar tracker manufacturing facilities.

Gulf of Mexico marine life dramatically declined after BP spill, study says

Gulf Life

In a deep, dark part of the Gulf of Mexico, the number of marine animals plummeted by about 60% in the years following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, a new study found.

In a crucial part of the Gulf between the light surface and the darkest depths, where the BP-operated well failed and dumped 134 million gallons of oil, the number of fish found dropped by 63.5% from the year after the spill to 2015. Crustaceans, including shrimp and krill, a key food for whales, went down 62%, and larger animals like squid and octopuses fell 59.7%, according to a study published Monday in the journal PNAS.

And those populations haven't come close to recovering, the study found.

Researchers focused on the ocean's “twilight zone,” a vast area above the seafloor, where much of the surface marine life, including dolphins and whales, feast on creatures. Yet little is known about this gigantic ecosystem, and this region of the Gulf had not been studied before the 2010 spill, said study lead author Tracey Sutton, a biological oceanographer at Nova Southeastern University.

A 2011 post-spill exploration cited in the research, which used six sets of nets at different depths and acoustic sonar, gave scientists a good sense of how much sea life was in the area between the surface and 5,000 feet deep (1,500 meters). They returned to the same place with the same equipment three-and-a-half years later and found sea life was between one-third and one-quarter of what it was in 2011.

“We saw this big decline,” Sutton said. “The question was then why? So we looked at all of the natural variables we thought could account for it, namely temperature, oxygen supply and food. None of those vary with the decline. The event that did was the oil spill. So we think that’s the most likely cause of the decline.”

Researchers kept on sampling since 2015 and the low populations remained, with a slight rise in 2022 and 2023 that did not prove statistically significant or lasting, Sutton said.

Documenting the decline

Sutton's team documented the population declines with three different lines of evidence: what they caught in the nets, what their acoustic sonar found and genetic studies showing the species losing genetic diversity because of inbreeding.

A lot of marine life died instantly after the explosion, which killed 11 workers, and from nearly five months of leaking oil and gas. Those pollutants got stored in the eggs of survivors and subsequent generations of critters got more compromised and weaker, Sutton said.

BP spokesperson Paul Takahashi said the accident “forever changed” the company: “We have made many changes intended to help prevent an event like this from ever happening again.”

Both the oil and the dispersants used to clean the spill hurt fish, but in different ways, said study co-author Isabel Romero, a chemical oceanographer at the University of South Carolina. Oil is more toxic and an overall threat, but the dispersant breaks the oil into smaller droplets, increasing the exposure of animals that live in the deeper water column, she said.

Dispersants caused many problems, and new studies show that in future accidents, it would be better to avoid those chemicals and instead add agents that increase oil-munching microbes, said former National Science Foundation Director Rita Colwell, a University of Maryland environmental microbiologist who headed a 10-year, $500 million BP-funded program to study spill effects.

Sutton said his team couldn’t prove an exact causal link to the BP oil spill, but by eliminating the other possibilities and looking at the timing, it’s logically clear that the spill caused the problem.

The krill population dropped 72%. Lanternfish — odd fish with blue-green lights embedded over their bodies — are a third of what they used to be, Sutton said. The stunning but scary dragonfish — with sharp teeth, light organs and a lure attached to its head — also had big losses, he said.

“These are foundational species,” Sutton said. “They're the things most things eat. So it's no wonder that we had wholesale changes across the community.”

The inner ocean is more unknown than outer space

Scientists learned much about this unexplored area of the Gulf.

“One of our biggest findings from the whole thing is how connected the whole oceanic Gulf is from top to bottom because the animals move up and down,” Sutton said. “There are predators at the top that dive deep. Lots of things that are deep that come up at night. So the system is one very large pulsing system, rather than just a layered system like people might have thought beforehand.”

Outside scientists were especially bothered by where the spill damaged.

“We know more about space in some ways than we do about the inner ocean. Because we can’t see these regions, there is a tendency to assume everything is fine, but here we have a clear result showing that something went very wrong," Scripps Institution of Oceanography marine scientist Kaitlin Frasier said in an email.

Frasier, who wasn't part of the study released Monday, published a post-spill study in 2024 looking at Gulf of Mexico whales and dolphins, finding population drops as high as 83%.

“It’s shocking how a single failure in a drilling rig can have this vast and sustained impact over thousands of square kilometers, with little visible recovery over 13 years after the spill,” said Dalhousie University marine scientist Boris Worm, who wasn't part of the study. “It is important that we see this, because for the longest time these consequences were completely out of sight and out of mind.”

Worm and Colwell said this damage should be kept in mind as the world talks about deep-sea mining and increased oil drilling in deep waters.

These 5 trailblazing Houston startups are leading the energy transition

meet the finalists

Houston is home to a growing number of startups reshaping what it means to be called the "Energy Capital of the World."

As part of the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, our Energy Transition Business category honors those innovative startups that are providing solutions within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy and more.

Five clean energy startups have been named finalists for the 2026 award. The finalists, selected by our esteemed panel of judges, range from a lower-emission steel producer to a diagnostics platform developer working to support batteries used in data centers.

Read more about these innovative businesses, their initiatives, and their inspirational founders below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Capwell Services

Methane capture company Capwell Services works to eliminate vented oil and gas emissions economically for operators. According to the company, methane emissions are vented from most oil and gas facilities due to safety protocols, and operators are not able to capture the gas cost-effectively, leading operators to emit more than 14 million metric tons of methane per year in the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2022, Capwell specializes in low and intermittent flow vents for methane capture.

The company began as a University of Pennsylvania senior design project led by CEO Andrew Lane. It has since participated in programs with Greentown Labs, the Rice Clean Energy Accelerator and the Creative Destruction Lab Energy Cohort at Texas A&M University. The company moved to Houston in 2023 and raised a pre-seed round. It deployed two commercial units this year, according to its application.

FlowCellutions

Energytech startup FlowCellutions is developing a chemistry-agnostic diagnostics platform for flow and metal-air batteries supporting data centers and critical infrastructure. The platform is designed to help reduce operating costs, prevent failures and costly downtime, and extend battery lifetime from approximately seven years to more than 30 years. It has deployed four paid pilots and plans to take insights from the programs to develop its next-gen sensor platform technology.

CEO Becca Segel founded the company in 2022. It is a member of Greentown Labs, and Segel was a 2025 Activate Fellow. The company has raised over $2 million in non-dilutive funding and received a $1.5 million NSF SBIR Fast-Track award earlier this year.

Hertha Metals

Hertha Metals produces lower-cost, lower-emission steel and high-purity iron. The company has developed a single-step process that uses natural gas as a direct reductant instead of metallurgical coal, which cuts production costs by more than 25 percent and emissions by up to 50 percent, according to the company. The same process produces high-purity iron needed for high-purity steels and rare earth magnets. The company says it aims to "re-industrialize America’s production of critical materials."

Hertha Metals was founded by CEO Laureen Meroueh in 2022 and emerged from stealth last year with more than $17 million in venture capital funding. The company closed a $133.65 million Series A this month and also broke ground on its $100M high-purity iron factory known as Chalyx in Conroe.

Mars Materials

Clean chemical manufacturing business Mars Materials is working to convert captured carbon into resources, such as carbon fiber and wastewater treatment chemicals. The company develops and produces its drop-in chemical products in Houston and uses an in-licensed process for the National Renewable Energy Lab to produce acrylonitrile, which is used to produce plastics, synthetic fibers, and rubbers.

Founded in 2019 by CEO Aaron Fitzgerald, CTO Kristian Gubsch, and vice president of operations Trey Sheridan, the company has secured over $7.2M in financing and is backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, Shell, Black & Veatch, and other organizations. It won in the Minority-founded Business Category in last year's Houston Innovation Awards.

Solidec

Chemical manufacturing company Solidec has developed autonomous generators that extract molecules from water and air and convert them into pure chemicals and fuels that are free of carbon emissions on-site, eliminating the need for transport, storage, and permitting. The company was founded around innovations developed by Rice University associate professor Haotian Wang.

The company was selected for the Chevron Technology Ventures’ Catalyst Program, Greentown Labs, NSF I-Corps and was part of the first cohort of the Activate Houston program. It won first place at the 2024 startup pitch competition at CERAWeek. Solidec was founded in 2023 by Wang, who serves as an advisor, CEO Ryan DuChanois, and CTO Yang Xia. It closed a $2.5 million seed round in 2025.

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