DOE names Houston energy transition leader to advisory committee

here to help

Joe Powell has been named to a committee for the United States Department of Energy. Photo courtesy of UH

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm appointed a Houston leader to a prestigious committee.

Joe Powell, founding executive director of the Energy Transition Institute at the University of Houston, has been named to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technology Innovation Advisory Committee (ITIAC), which consists of 18 members of “diverse stakeholders” according to a news release from the university.

“The collaborative work of the ITIAC aligns seamlessly with the mission of the Energy Transition Institute at the University of Houston," Powell says in a news release. “Together, we will endeavor to drive impactful change in the realm of industrial decarbonization and pave the way for a sustainable future.”

Powell brings 36 years of industry experience to the committee, as he is a distinguished member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and former chief scientist at Shell. He was recruited by the University of Houston in 2022 through a matching grant from the Texas Governor’s University Research Initiative (GURI).

The Energy Transition Institute at UH focuses on hydrogen, carbon management, and circular plastics and collaborates closely with the University's Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute and researchers from various disciplines, and other partners in academia and various industries.

Also named to the committee is Chevron Technology Venture's general manager of strategy and technology, Akshay Sahni.

The committee’s mandate includes identifying potential investment opportunities and technical assistance programs. They also assist in helping to bring decarbonization technologies into the marketplace. Committee members will evaluate DOE’s department-wide decarbonization efforts, which includes initiatives that advance the two Energy Earthshots related to industrial decarbonization in the Clean Fuels & Products Shot and the Industrial Heat Shot.

The projects are among 16 other early-stage research projects at U.S. colleges and universities to receive a total of $17.4 million from the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. Photo courtesy of University of Houston

3 Houston energy projects land $17.4M in federal funding for early-stage research

grants granted

Three projects from the University of Houston have been awarded funds from the U.S. Department of Energy for research on decarbonization and emissions.

“These three projects show the relevance and quality of the research at UH and our commitment to making a meaningful impact by addressing society’s needs and challenges by doing critical work that impacts the real world,” Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president for energy and innovation at UH, says in a statement. “The success of these project could attract investment, create jobs, produce clean energy, save costs, reduce carbon emissions, and benefit not only the greater Houston area, but the Gulf Coast and beyond.”

The projects were selected under FECM’s University Training and Research program, which aims to support "research and development opportunities for traditionally underrepresented communities and tap into the innovative and diverse thinking of student researchers," according to an announcement from the DOE.

Here are the projects from UH and their funding amounts:

A Comprehensive Roadmap for Repurposing Offshore Infrastructure for Clean Energy Projects in the Gulf of Mexico, $749,992 — Led by Ram Seetharam, UH Energy program officer, this project looks at ways to prolong the life of platforms, wells and pipelines in the Gulf Coast and will create a plan "covering technical, social, and regulatory aspects, as well as available resources," according to UH.

Houston Hydrogen Transportation Pilot, $750,000— Led by Christine Ehlig-Economides, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen, and managed by Joe Powell, this project will demonstrate the potential for a hydrogen refueling pilot in Houston. The first phase will create a system to optimize hydrogen and the second will create a workforce training network. The project is in collaboration with Prairie View A&M University.

Synergizing Minority-Serving Institution Partnerships for Carbon-Negative Geologic Hydrogen Production, $1.5 million — This project is in collaboration with Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and Texas Tech. The project will create a visiting scholars program for students from UH and TTU, who will spend one month per year at Stanford for three years. While in the program, students will focus on creating carbon-negative hydrogen from rocks beneath the Earth's surface. Kyung Jae Lee, associate professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at UH, is working alongside colleagues at TTU and Stanford on this project.

Other projects in the group come from the University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Tennessee State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Duke University and more.

Last year the DOE also awarded $2 million to Harris and Montgomery counties for projects that improve energy efficiency and infrastructure in the region. Click here to read about those projects.

The DOE also granted more than $10 million in funding to four carbon capture projects with ties to Houston last summer.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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CenterPoint’s Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative makes advancements on progress

step by step

CenterPoint Energy has released the first of its public progress updates on the actions being taken throughout the Greater Houston 12-county area, which is part of Phase Two of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative.

The GHRI Phase Two will lead to more than 125 million fewer outage minutes annually, according to CenterPoint.

According to CenterPoint, they have installed around 4,600 storm-resilient poles, installed more than 100 miles of power lines underground, cleared more than 800 miles of hazardous vegetation to improve reliability, and installed more self-healing automation all during the first two months of the program in preparation for the 2025 hurricane season.

"This summer, we accomplished a significant level of increased system hardening in the first phase of the Greater Houston Resilience Initiative,” Darin Carroll, senior vice president of CenterPoint Energy's Electric Business, says in a news release.

”Since then, as we have been fully engaged in delivering the additional set of actions in our second phase of GHRI, we continue to make significant progress as we work toward our ultimate goal of becoming the most resilient coastal grid in the country,” he continues.

The GHRI is a series of actions to “ strengthen resilience, enable a self-healing grid and reduce the duration and impact of power outages” according to a news release. The following progress through early November include:

The second phase of GHRI will run through May 31, 2025. During this time, CenterPoint teams will be installing 4,500 automated reliability devices to minimize sustained interruptions during major storms, reduce restoration times, and establish a network of 100 new weather monitoring stations. CenterPoint plans to complete each of these actions before the start of the next hurricane season.

“Now, and in the months to come, we will remain laser-focused on completing these critical resiliency actions and building the more reliable and more resilient energy system our customers expect and deserve," Carroll adds.

CenterPoint also announced that it has completed all 42 of the critical actions the company committed to taking in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. Some of the actions were trimming or removing higher-risk vegetation from more than 2,000 power line miles, installing more than 1,100 more storm-resilient poles, installing over 300 automated devices to reduce sustained outages, launching a new, cloud-based outage tracker, improving CenterPoint's Power Alert Service, hosting listening sessions across the service area and using feedback.

In October, CenterPoint Energy announced an agreement with Artificial Intelligence-powered infrastructure modeling platform Neara for engineering-grade simulations and analytics, and to deploy Neara’s AI capabilities across CenterPoint’s Greater Houston service area.

Greentown launches 3rd round of collaborative accelerator for energy tech founders of color

browning the green space

For the third year, Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space have opened applications for ACCEL, a climatetech accelerator designed to bolster BIPOC-led companies.

The program, which is a year-long commitment providing opportunities across funding, networking connections, resources, and more, has applications open until January 7. Each selected company will receive non-dilutive grant funding up to $25,000, trainings from VentureWell, a desk and membership at Greentown Houston or Boston locations, a BGS membership, and more.

A handful of startups will be selected for the program, which is looking for companies at the two to four Technology Readiness Level (TRL ) stage with a technology solution across agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, resiliency and adaptation, and transportation sectors.

“ACCEL has been amazing," Chidalu Onyenso, founder of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based EarthBond, a member of the 2022 cohort, writes on the website. "I’ve really enjoyed the membership and programming. I think it’s fantastic—if I met another Black or Brown founder focused on climatetech, I’d tell them to apply to this program, 100 percent.”

Earlier this year, the program — which is supported by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center,Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, Equinor, Barr Foundation — named seven companies to its second cohort and six to its inaugural batch in 2022. The 13 companies across two cohorts so far have received $325,000 in grant funding from the program.

"These BIPOC-led startups are developing climate technologies that will lead us to a more equitable and sustainable future," MassCEC CEO Dr. Emily Reichert, the former CEO of Greentown, said of the second cohort in a news release. "We want ALL climatetech innovators and entrepreneurs to thrive here in Massachusetts. We are proud to support the ACCEL accelerator, created and led by Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space. The ACCEL program is helping us build a more diverse innovation ecosystem by breaking down barriers and expanding opportunities."

Interested and qualifying companies can apply online.

Houston university launches global hub to drive innovation in sustainable energy, advanced technologies

incoming, India

Rice University is launching Rice Global India, which is a strategic initiative to expand India’s rapidly growing education and technology sectors.

The new hub will be in the country’s third-largest city and the center of the country’s high-tech industry, Bengaluru, India, and will include collaborations with top-tier research and academic institutions. Rice continues its collaborations with institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru. The partnerships are expected to advance research initiatives, student and faculty exchanges and collaborations in artificial intelligence, biotechnology and sustainable energy.

“India is a country of tremendous opportunity, one where we see the potential to make a meaningful impact through collaboration in research, innovation and education,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches says in a news release. “Our presence in India is a critical step in expanding our global reach, and we are excited to engage more with India’s academic leaders and industries to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.”

India was a prime spot for the location due to the energy, climate change, artificial intelligence and biotechnology studies that align with Rice’s research that is outlined in its strategic plan Momentous: Personalized Scale for Global Impact.

“India’s position as one of the world’s fastest-growing education and technology markets makes it a crucial partner for Rice’s global vision,” vice president for global at Rice Caroline Levander adds. “The U.S.-India relationship, underscored by initiatives like the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, provides fertile ground for educational, technological and research exchanges.”

On November 18, the university hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Bengaluru, India to help launch the project.

“This expansion reflects our commitment to fostering a more interconnected world where education and research transcend borders,” DesRoches says.

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