Houston-based energy transition leader talks new role, shares future predictions

new hire

For some companies, all that’s needed to make a seismic shift toward innovation is to hire the right person to steer the organization in a transcendent direction.

Arcadis, a sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions company, is channeling this concept by hiring Masjood Jafri as its new National Energy Transition Strategic Advisor and Business Development Lead. In the role, Jafri will help lead and develop the company’s energy transition business growth and strategy for its interests in the United States alongside Matthew Yonkin, National Energy Transition Solution Leader, based in New York.

“I have a fairly diverse background, with about a decade in the energy industry with an oil and gas, power and petrochemicals background,” says Jafri, who moved to Houston from the U.K. back in 2012. “But prior to that, I had about a decade in the infrastructure world, looking into the transportation market, and the manufacturing sector, as well as working as a lender's advisor in the capital market. So, in this very transformative period, you need to connect all the dots.”

With just over six months in his new role, Jafri leverages his 20 years of experience in leading the successful delivery of capital programs and projects as the strategic advisor to Arcadis’ own capital projects.

“Arcadis is on a journey to be the sustainability partner or sustainable transformation partner for our clients,” Jafri says. “And the path to sustainability goes through energy transition. Arcadis has been investing quite heavily in that space for us to be a leading consulting services provider for energy companies.

Jafri’s hire comes as Arcadis moves its business operations in Houston to a new centralized office in the Galleria area. According to Jafri, this will bring the company’s expertise under one roof. With Houston being the energy capital of the world, Jafri says Arcadis is positioned to lead and deliver results for the energy demand in the United States and globally.

“Houston is the Silicon Valley of energy,” Jafri says. “The challenge is to continue to drive with that force. … We have the talent in the city, we have the right mindset—very entrepreneurial, and obviously a lot of capital commitment to make these changes.

“And it is not just coming from the private sector, it is also coming from the public sector. So, I think the stars are aligning in the context of what is needed for us to have a planet-positive future and Houston being suitably positioned to deliver to that,” he adds.

And while keeping up with the demand for energy and moving towards clean energy are equally important challenges, Jafri is more focused on addressing the latter.

“Clean energy is certainly a bigger challenge because it requires a very broad area of energy sources to come together and to make it cleaner,” Jafri says. “Technologically, some of those things are not ready yet, at least to be scalable in a commercial and profitable way. So that's the challenge. I think it is a clean energy challenge, but obviously, the demand side makes it a bit more complicated.”

Texans, and more specifically Houstonians, have seen firsthand the complications of demand and the pitfalls of energy security and resilience. Addressing these issues, along with many other sustainability challenges, will also be part of Jafri’s core mission at Arcadis.

“As we saw in severe climate conditions, the grid is vulnerable and so are the people connected to the grid,” Jafri says. “The better we can make the grid more resilient and more adaptive to these changes, the more satisfactory conditions will be on the ground for people who are affected.”

Jafri asserts that the industry is already considering numerous options, including all colors of hydrogen, solar, wind and geothermal, in addition to fossil-based energy (natural gas). These measures are already in progress, but consumers are concerned with climate change and, of course, the impact on their electricity bills. Still, states like California, Washington and Texas are making progress.

“I would say by the year 2030 you would start to see a pretty significant movement in the right direction,” Jafri says. “If you look from a federal policy perspective, we want to produce 100 percent of the electricity clean by 2035. That is an expected goal, but it’s all happening.”

From Your Site Articles

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Energy Tech Nexus announces international startups to pitch at Pilotathon

Ready, Set, Pitch

Energy Tech Nexus will host its Pilotathon and Showcase as part of Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week next Tuesday, Sept. 16, featuring insightful talks from industry leaders and pitches from an international group of companies in the clean energy space.

This year's event will center around the theme "Energy Access and Resilience." Attendees will hear pitches from nine Pilotathon pitch companies, as well as the 14 companies that were named to Energy Tech Nexus' COPILOT accelerator earlier this year.

COPILOT partners with Browning the Green Space, a nonprofit that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the clean energy and climatetech sectors. The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory backs the COPILOT accelerator, where companies are tasked with developing pilot projects for their innovations.

The nine Pilotathon pitch companies include:

Ontario-based AlumaPower, which has developed a breakthrough technology that converts the aluminum-air battery into a "galvanic generator," a long-duration energy source that runs on aluminum as a fuel
Calgary-based BioOilSolv, a chemical manufacturing company that has developed cutting-edge biomass-derived solvents
Atlanta-based Cultiv8 Fuels, which creates high-quality renewable fuel products derived from hemp
Newfoundland-based eDNAtec Inc., a leader in environmental genomics that analyzes biodiversity and ecological health
Oregon-based Espiku Inc., which designs and develops water treatment and mineral extraction technologies that rely on low-pressure evaporative cycles
New York-based Fast Metals Inc., which has developed a chemical process to extract valuable metals from complex toxic mine tailings that is capable of producing iron, aluminum, scandium, titanium and other rare earth elements using industrial waste and waste CO2 as inputs
New Jersey-based Metal Light Inc., which is building a circular, solid metal fuel that will serve as a replacement for diesel fuel
Glasgow-based Novosound, which designs and manufactures innovative ultrasound sensors using a thin-film technique to address the limitations of traditional ultrasound with applications in industrial, medical and wearable markets
Calgary-based Serenity Power, which has developed a cutting-edge solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology

The COPILOT accelerator companies include:

Accelerate Wind
Aquora Biosystems Inc.
EarthEn
Electromaim
EnKoat
GeoFuels
Harber Coatings Inc.
Janta Power
NanoSieve
PolyQor Inc.
Popper Power
Siva Powers America
ThermoShade
V-Glass Inc.

Houston energy company to invest $1B in U.S. electric grid manufacturing

grid boost

Hitachi Energy, whose U.S. headquarters is in Houston, has earmarked more than $1 billion to manufacture infrastructure for the U.S. electric grid, which is coping with greater power demand from data centers and AI platforms.

Of that sum, $457 million is dedicated to building a power transformer factory in Virginia. Hitachi Energy said it’ll be the largest facility of its kind in the U.S.

“Power transformers are a linchpin technology for a robust and reliable electric grid and winning the AI race. Bringing production of large power transformers to the U.S. is critical to building a strong domestic supply chain for the U.S. economy and reducing production bottlenecks, which is essential as demand for these transformers across the economy is surging,” said Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO of Switzerland-based Hitachi Energy, which generates revenue of about $16 billion.

The Hitachi announcement aligns with various priorities of the Trump administration. The White House is promoting more U.S.-based manufacturing, more power to accommodate data centers and AI, and greater use of U.S. energy resources.

“If we are going to win the AI race, reindustrialize, and keep the lights on, America is going to need a lot more reliable energy,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.

Texas still has its best solar days ahead of it, even as federal tax credit sunsets

Guest Column

If you follow energy policy, you already know that Congress repealed the 30% residential solar tax credit. This poses a significant challenge for continued growth in the market. It also provides an opportunity for the industry to grow in a smart, consumer-friendly way. That’s why in Texas, the story is what happens next: The state and the market are continuing to make going solar much simpler, better, and cheaper.

Policies are moving in the right direction. For example, starting this month, a bipartisan permitting reform takes effect that will cut red tape for home solar and batteries. It lets licensed third-party professionals review plans and perform inspections, requires agencies to post standardized rules and fees online, and allows homeowners to start work once those third-party approvals are submitted. It also shifts negligence liability to the third-party reviewer, thereby reducing municipal risk while accelerating safe, code-compliant installs. In plain English: fewer bottlenecks, faster installs, and lower “soft costs.”

As a result, Houston is already piloting the National Renewable Energy Lab’s free SolarAPP+ to auto-approve standard solar designs, which cuts roughly 12 days from typical timelines. Independent analyses estimate that these automated permitting rules could trim rooftop solar costs by thousands. In other words, even small, costless policy changes like this can save you almost as much money as the huge solar tax credit did, and these great reforms are happening all the time, and they make the process much more convenient and reliable.

While Texas is making solar simpler, it’s also helping consumers have a good experience when going solar. As of this month, Texas law now also requires solar salespeople to register with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The same bill standardizes contracts and provides for mandatory disclosures of upfront cost and financing terms. The whole solar industry benefits when customers have a good solar experience. Word of mouth is vital to keeping solar shining.

There's yet another pro-solar Texas law that's also going into effect this month: in addition to SB 1202 (streamlining solar permits) and SB 1036 (regulating solar sales tactics), the legislature is also supporting the dissemination of information about your options when going solar via SB 1697. You can read more about these three brand-new pro-solar state laws here.

The end of the solar tax credit is not the end of the solar industry. Far from it.

---

Dori Wolf is Senior Texas Program Associate for Solar United Neighbors, a vendor and neutral nonprofit with more than 15 years helping people go solar. Their free Solar Help Desk walks you through the details. Also check out their Go Solar Guide and Solar Owner’s Manual.

Solar United Neighbors also helps you find the best retail electricity plan through its partnership with Texas Power Guide.

View All Listings

ENERGYCAPITALHTX EMAILS ARE AWESOME