Houston energy leader Barbara Burger shared her key takeaways from CERAWeek 2025 with InnovationMap. Photo courtesy of CERAWeek

What a difference a year makes.

I have been coming to CERAWeek for as long as I can remember and the Agora track within CERAWeek since it originated. Although freshness likely distorts my thinking, I cannot remember a CERAWeek that seemed so different from the previous year's than this one.

This certainly isn’t a comprehensive summary of the conference, but some of my key take forwards from last week's events.

It’s all about power.

It seemed like everyone associated with the power value chain showed up. Developers, turbine manufacturers, utilities, oil and gas, renewables, geothermal, nuclear, storage, hyperscalers, and lots of innovative companies that aim to squeeze more out of the grid we already have. Most of the companies embraced the “all of the above” sentiment and despite moderators (and some key notes) attempt to force technology picks, most didn’t take the bait.

Practical is in.

Real issues – choke points in supply chains and the workforce, permit timing, cost increases in new generation – were openly discussed both on the stage and in the countless meetings and meet ups in partner rooms and in open spaces throughout the Hilton Americas and the GR Brown.

AI was everywhere.

While there was an understanding that not all the power load growth is coming from AI and Data Centers, that segment was getting all the attention. AI went beyond the retail and human enablement to AI for Optimization and AI for Innovation. The symbiosis of Tech and Energy was evident – power is a constraint, and AI is a game changer. S&P (CERAWeek’s organizer) did a great job of weaving this theme across the conference in both the Executive and Agora sessions.

More gas… and less hydrogen.

Whether it was LNG or gas to power or methane emission management, the US’s dominance in gas was front and center. Hydrogen was largely absent from the Executive talks and where it was topical in the Agora sessions, the need for better economics was made clear.

Consistency and balance are needed for this sector.

I am unsure whether it is a “stay calm and carry on” approach, as one leader fashioned, or rather a “carry on” message and imperative. Phrases like “one extreme to another” were heard on stage and in the hallways. The oil and gas CEOs talked more openly about their base business than they had in the last four years but they also talked about their decarbonization activities as well as commercialization of new technologies and value chains.

The macro-economic picture cast long shadows.

While few talks onstage addressed tariffs, consumer sentiment, inflation and unemployment (including those from government officials), the talks in the halls and private meetings certainly did. And while some argued that “the end justifies the means,” it wasn’t an argument that most seemed to buy into.

There is a lot of tripping up on labels.

Politics makes our sector more polarizing than it should or needs to be. Climatetech, Sustainability, Cleantech – some were labels with broad objectives, and some were meant to be binary or exclusionary. "Energy Transition" for some meant a binary replacement of fossil fuels with renewables, and for others, it meant an evolution of a system in multiple dimensions. In any event, a lot of energy is being spent on the labels and the narratives. I don’t have an easy answer for this other than to fall back to longer discussions and less use of labels that have lots of meanings and can quickly move a constructive discussion onto the third rail.

Collaboration is key and vital in this uncertain world.

The attendance of approximately 10,000 spanned the breadth of energy, those who make, move, and use it from around the globe—in other words, everyone—with a strong tone of inclusion. CERAWeek, after all, is all about convening and collaboration, and this played out in the programming and the networking. The messages about practicality, consistency, balance and “all of the above” and the storm clouds of the extremes seemed to put everyone in a similar boat: Am I being too hopeful that this will lead to more and more collaboration within the sector to advance the multiple aims of affordability, reliability, security, resiliency and sustainability?

The next-generation workforce is a strategic imperative.

The NextGen cohort in Agora was launched with 100+ graduate students from all over coming to see the energy sector close up. Kudos to S&P for making this investment and to all the conference attendees who spent time talking to the students about their research, their interests, and, importantly, sharing their career stories. Relationships were born at CERAWeek.

Houston showed well for the conference and Mother Nature played nice. The days were sunny and dry, and the evening temperatures fit the outdoor events well. The schedule and pace of CERAWeek is exhausting, and most people were worn out by Thursday.

CERAWeek 2025 is in the books; the connections made, and messages heard set the tone for the year ahead.

Until CERAWeek 2026.

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Barbara J. Burger is a startup adviser and mentor. She is the independent Director of Bloom Energy and is an advisor to numerous organizations, including Lazard Inc., Syzygy Plasmonics, Energy Impact Partners and others. She previously led corporate innovation for two decades at Chevron and served on the board of directors for Greentown Labs.

TotalEnergies has started up two new solar farms in Texas. Photo by Red Zeppelin/Pexels

TotalEnergies powers up its largest utility-scale solar farms in Texas

ready to shine

TotalEnergies has begun the commercial operations of two utility-scale solar farms with integrated battery storage located in southeast Texas.

The two farms are located in Cottonwood and Danish Fields, which is TotalEnergies’ largest solar farm in the United States.

“The start-ups of Danish Fields and Cottonwood in the fast-growing ERCOT market showcase TotalEnergies’ ability to deliver competitive renewable electricity to support our clients’ decarbonization goals, as well as our own,” Olivier Jouny, senior vice president of renewables at TotalEnergies, says in a news release.

The new projects have a combined capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. They are part of a portfolio of renewable assets totaling 4 gigawatts in operation or under construction currently in Texas. Danish Fields holds a capacity of 720 megawatts peak and 1.4 million ground-mounted photovoltaic panels.

Cottonwood, with a capacity of 455 megawatts peak featuring over 847,000 ground-mounted photovoltaic panels, will also feature 225 megawatt hours of battery storage supplied by Saft. This is scheduled for commissioning in 2025. The electricity production is contracted under long-term PPAs indexed to “merchant prices through an upside-sharing mechanism with LyondellBasell and Saint-Gobain,” per thenews release. The deal is to help support the companies’ decarbonization efforts.

Seventy percent of Danish’s solar capacity has been contracted through long-term Corporate Power Purchase Agreements signed with Saint-Gobain, which feature an upside sharing mechanism indexed on merchant price. The other 30 percent is intended to support the decarbonization of TotalEnergies’ industrial plants in the Gulf Coast region. The projects will cover the electricity consumption of TotalEnergies’ industrial sites in Port Arthur and La Porte in Texas, and Carville in Louisiana, which include Myrtle Solar that was commissioned in 2023 and the under-construction Hill 1 solar farm.

In addition to the solar farms, TotalEnergies has also added 1.5 gigawatt of flexible power production capacity with three gas-fired power plants they acquired in Texas.

“Thanks to these projects, we are delighted to take another step in delivering our strategy across the entire value chain, from power generation to customer delivery, in order to achieve our profitability target of 12 (percent return on average capital employed) in our Integrated Power business,” Jouny adds in the release.

Greentown Labs has a new Terawatt Partner. Photo courtesy of Greentown Labs

TotalEnergies signs on as top-level partner at climatetech incubator

onboarding

Greentown Labs, dual located in Houston and Somerville, Massachusetts, has named its latest top-level partner.

TotalEnergies has joined the incubator at the the highest level of partnership — the Terawatt level — Greentown Labs announced on January 23. Through the partnership, TotalEnergies will have access to Greentown's membership of clean energy startups and event programming.

Lotfi Hedhli, president at TotalEnergies Research & Technology U.S., will participate on Greentown’s Industry Leadership Council, providing strategic guidance to the incubator.

“We are excited to join Greentown Labs and its ecosystem to catalyze the development of potential decarbonization technologies through collaboration with promising startups,” Hedhli says in a news release. “This partnership with Greentown Labs will focus in particular on the deployment and use of renewables and low-carbon solutions, which are critical to our ambition to achieve carbon neutrality.”

TotalEnergies is among the world's largest utility-scale solar developers with activity in over 30 states in the country, including a Houston-area solar farm that went online in October. Additionally, TotalEnergies announced in November that it signed an agreement with TexGen to acquire $635 million three gas-fired power plants with a total capacity of 1.5 GW in Texas.

“At Greentown Labs, we continue to recognize and appreciate the role energy leaders play in the clean energy transition and we’re proud to have TotalEnergies join us as a Terawatt Partner,” Greentown Labs CEO and President Kevin Knobloch says in the news release. “We applaud the meaningful steps TotalEnergies is taking to expand its renewable energy portfolio and generation, and we’re eager to have their team of experts engaging directly with our climatetech entrepreneurs.”

Greentown last named a Terawatt Partner — GE Vernova — last fall.

TotalEnergies' new solar farm outside of Houston is the size of 1,800 football fields. Photo via totalenergies.com

Global energy company opens solar farm outside of Houston

up & running

A global energy corporation has a new solar farm online and operating just outside of Houston.

TotalEnergies (NYSE: TTE) has started commercial operations of its new solar farm, Myrtle Solar, just south of Houston. The farm has a capacity of 380 megawatts peak of solar production and 225 MWh of co-located batteries. Spread across the space — which is about the size of 1,800 football fields — are 705,000 solar panels producing enough electricity to power 70,000 homes.

Seventy percent of the power generated will be sourced for TotalEnergies' industrial plants in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, and the remaining 30 percent will be used by Kilroy Realty, a publicly traded real estate company, per a 15-year corporate power purchase agreement.

“We are very proud to start up Myrtle, TotalEnergies’ largest-to-date operated utility-scale solar farm with storage in the United States. This startup is another milestone in achieving our goal to build an integrated and profitable position in Texas, where ERCOT is the main electrical grid operator," Vincent Stoquart, senior vice president of renewables at TotalEnergies, says in the release. "Besides, the project will enable the Company to cover the power needs of some of its biggest U.S. industrial sites with electricity from a renewable source."

The farm is part of the company’s Go Green Project that is hoping to enable the company to cover its power needs by 2025, as well as curtail the Scope 1+2 emissions of its industrial sites in the Gulf Coast area, including Port Arthur and La Porte in Texas and Carville, Louisiana.

“Given the advantages that IRA tax exemptions are generating, we will continue to actively develop our 25 GW portfolio of projects in operation or development in the United States, to contribute to the Company’s global power generation target of more than 100 TWh by 2030,” Stoquart continues.

Myrtle Solar is also equipped with 114 high-tech Energy Storage Systems with a total capacity of 225 MWh. The technology was provided by TotalEnergies' affiliate Saft.

The world can't keep on with what it's doing and expect to reach its goals when it comes to climate change. Radical innovations are needed at this point, writes Scott Nyquist. Photo via Getty Images

Only radical innovation can get the world to its climate goals, says this Houston expert

guest column

Almost 3 years ago, McKinsey published a report arguing that limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels was “technically achievable,” but that the “math is daunting.” Indeed, when the 1.5°C figure was agreed to at the 2015 Paris climate conference, the assumption was that emissions would peak before 2025, and then fall 43 percent by 2030.

Given that 2022 saw the highest emissions ever—36.8 gigatons—the math is now more daunting still: cuts would need to be greater, and faster, than envisioned in Paris. Perhaps that is why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted March 20 (with “high confidence”) that it was “likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century.”

I agree with that gloomy assessment. Given the rate of progress so far, 1.5°C looks all but impossible. That puts me in the company of people like Bill Gates; the Economist; the Australian Academy of Science, and apparently many IPCC scientists. McKinsey has estimated that even if all countries deliver on their net zero commitments, temperatures will likely be 1.7°C higher in 2100.

In October, the UN Environment Program argued that there was “no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place” and called for “an urgent system-wide transformation” to change the trajectory. Among the changes it considers necessary: carbon taxes, land use reform, dietary changes in which individuals “consume food for environmental sustainability and carbon reduction,” investment of $4 trillion to $6 trillion a year; applying current technology to all new buildings; no new fossil fuel infrastructure. And so on.

Let’s assume that the UNEP is right. What are the chances of all this happening in the next few years? Or, indeed, any of it? President Obama’s former science adviser, Daniel Schrag, put it this way: “ Who believes that we can halve global emissions by 2030?... It’s so far from reality that it’s kind of absurd.”

Having a goal is useful, concentrating minds and organizing effort. And I think that has been the case with 1.5°C, or recent commitments to get to net zero. Targets create a sense of urgency that has led to real progress on decarbonization.

The 2020 McKinsey report set out how to get on the 1.5°C pathway, and was careful to note that this was not a description of probability or reality but “a picture of a world that could be.” Three years later, that “world that could be” looks even more remote.

Consider the United States, the world’s second-largest emitter. In 2021, 79 percent of primary energy demand (see chart) was met by fossil fuels, about the same as a decade before. Globally, the figures are similar, with renewables accounting for just 12.5 percent of consumption and low-emissions nuclear another 4 percent. Those numbers would have to basically reverse in the next decade or so to get on track. I don’t see how that can happen.

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Credit: Energy Information Administration

But even if 1.5°C is improbable in the short term, that doesn’t mean that missing the target won’t have consequences. And it certainly doesn’t mean giving up on addressing climate change. And in fact, there are some positive trends. Many companies are developing comprehensive plans for achieving net-zero emissions and are making those plans part of their long-term strategy. Moreover, while global emissions grew 0.9 percent in 2022, that was much less than GDP growth (3.2 percent). It’s worth noting, too, that much of the increase came from switching from gas to coal in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; that is the kind of supply shock that can be reversed. The point is that growth and emissions no longer move in lockstep; rather the opposite. That is critical because poorer countries are never going to take serious climate action if they believe it threatens their future prosperity.

Another implication is that limiting emissions means addressing the use of fossil fuels. As noted, even with the substantial rise in the use of renewables, coal, gas, and oil are still the core of the global energy system. They cannot be wished away. Perhaps it is time to think differently—that is, making fossil fuels more emissions efficient, by using carbon capture or other technologies; cutting methane emissions; and electrifying oil and gas operations. This is not popular among many climate advocates, who would prefer to see fossil fuels “stay in the ground.” That just isn’t happening. The much likelier scenario is that they are gradually displaced. McKinsey projects peak oil demand later this decade, for example, and for gas, maybe sometime in the late 2030s. Even after the peak, though, oil and gas will still be important for decades.

Second, in the longer term, it may be possible to get back onto 1.5°C if, in addition to reducing emissions, we actually remove them from the atmosphere, in the form of “negative emissions,” such as direct air capture and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage in power and heavy industry. The IPCC itself assumed negative emissions would play a major role in reaching the 1.5°C target; in fact, because of cost and deployment problems, it’s been tiny.

Finally, as I have argued before, it’s hard to see how we limit warming even to 2°C without more nuclear power, which can provide low-emissions energy 24/7, and is the largest single source of such power right now.

None of these things is particularly popular; none get the publicity of things like a cool new electric truck or an offshore wind farm (of which two are operating now in the United States, generating enough power for about 20,000 homes; another 40 are in development). And we cannot assume fast development of offshore wind. NIMBY concerns have already derailed some high-profile projects, and are also emerging in regard to land-based wind farms.

Carbon capture, negative emissions, and nuclear will have to face NIMBY, too. But they all have the potential to move the needle on emissions. Think of the potential if fast-growing India and China, for example, were to develop an assembly line of small nuclear reactors. Of course, the economics have to make sense—something that is true for all climate-change technologies.

And as the UN points out, there needs to be progress on other issues, such as food, buildings, and finance. I don’t think we can assume that such progress will happen on a massive scale in the next few years; the actual record since Paris demonstrates the opposite. That is troubling: the IPCC notes that the risks of abrupt and damaging impacts, such as flooding and crop yields, rise “with every increment of global warming.” But it is the reality.

There is one way to get us to 1.5°C, although not in the Paris timeframe: a radical acceleration of innovation. The approaches being scaled now, such as wind, solar, and batteries, are the same ideas that were being discussed 30 years ago. We are benefiting from long-term, incremental improvements, not disruptive innovation. To move the ball down the field quickly, though, we need to complete a Hail Mary pass.

It’s a long shot. But we’re entering an era of accelerated innovation, driven by advanced computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning that could narrow the odds. For example, could carbon nanotubes displace demand for high-emissions steel? Might it be possible to store carbon deep in the ocean? Could geo-engineering bend the curve?

I believe that, on the whole, the world is serious about climate change. I am certain that the energy transition is happening. But I don’t think we are anywhere near to being on track to hit the 1.5°C target. And I don’t see how doing more of the same will get us there.

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Scott Nyquist is a senior advisor at McKinsey & Company and vice chairman, Houston Energy Transition Initiative of the Greater Houston Partnership. The views expressed herein are Nyquist's own and not those of McKinsey & Company or of the Greater Houston Partnership. This article originally ran on LinkedIn.

Learn more about the specific missions the Houston Energy Transition Initiative is focused on — from carbon management to finding funding. Photo via htxenergytransition.com

Houston: Where energy leaders create a low-carbon future

the view from heti

Houston is the energy capital of the world, and it faces a dual challenge: fulfilling growing global energy demand while actively reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

This is why energy leaders have come together at the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, within the Greater Houston Partnership, to strengthen the region’s position for an energy-abundant, low-carbon future. HETI’s impact work is conducted through sector-specific working groups that leverage Houston’s competitive advantage. These working groups include: Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS), Clean Hydrogen, Capital Formation, Power Management, and Industry Decarbonization.

Texas Gulf Coast as a hub for carbon management

The International Energy Agency (IEA) states that CCUS is a requirement to any realistic pathway to a low-carbon, even net-zero future. This is especially true in the Houston area, which is home to one of the nation’s largest concentrated sources of carbon dioxide. Houston has the geology, knowledge, and infrastructure to support CCUS at scale. The CCUS Working Group at HETI supports key policy enablers of scaling CCUS, including supporting the state to earn permitting authority (primacy) over carbon capture (Class VI) wells. The working group is also analyzing the cumulative impacts of carbon capture on the region’s existing infrastructure and identifying key infrastructure needs for CCUS to reach scale.

Gulf Coast preparing for clean hydrogen liftoff

The Clean Hydrogen working group has created an ecosystem for Houston to lead the clean hydrogen market. The Texas Gulf Coast region is currently home to the world’s largest hydrogen system. By assessing the impact of hydrogen on the economy and the environment, this working group is positioning Houston to be a leading clean hydrogen hub.

Houston as a leader in Industry decarbonization

Houston needs technologies including but not limited to clean hydrogen and CCUS for decarbonization. The HETI Decarbonization Working Group partners with the Mission Possible Partnership and Rocky Mountain Institute to provide a measurable baseline of emissions and identify recommendations for decarbonization pathways in the Houston region.

An energy-abundant, low-carbon future will impact our region’s power management

It is expected that there will be changes in supply and demand of electricity associated with proposed energy transition and decarbonization projects in the Houston area. HETI has partnered with Mission Possible Partnership and Rocky Mountain Institute to assess the impact of energy transition and decarbonization on the growth and resilience of Houston’s regional power grid and the transmission and distribution of energy.

Making Houston a hub for energy transition finance

Financing energy projects is extremely capital intensive. Houston currently serves as a hub for implementing new technologies, and it has the potential to become a major center for financing innovative energy solutions. This includes everything from more efficient, lower-carbon production of existing resources to technological breakthroughs in energy efficiency, renewables, energy storage, and nature-based solutions. For technological breakthroughs, Houston needs a consistent flow of capital to the region, including sources and financing models from venture capital to growth capital, to debt markets and government grants. HETI’s Capital Formation Working Group has mapped inflows and outflows of capital for the energy transition in Houston and found that we need to grow Houston’s capital inflows ten times by 2040 to $150 billion per year to lead the transition. The Working Group regularly convenes for learning sessions on capital markets.

Over the last year, HETI’s working groups have moved from strategy to impact. To learn more about the outcomes of these working groups, check out these resources.

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This article originally ran 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.

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Chevron names latest cohort of energy transition fellows at Rice University

energy fellowship

Chevron and Rice University have named 10 graduate students to the second cohort of the Chevron Energy Graduate Fellowship.

The students come from various departments at Rice and are working on innovations that reduce emissions or improve upon low-carbon technology. Fellows will each receive a $10,000 award to support their research along with the opportunity to connect with "industry experts who can provide valuable insight on scaling technologies from the lab to commercial application," according to Rice.

The fellows will present projects during a cross-university virtual symposium in the spring.

The 2025-26 Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows and their research topics include:

  • Cristel Carolina Brindis Flores, Molecular Simulations of CO₂ and H₂ for Geostorage
  • Davide Cavuto, Intensification of Floating Catalyst Chemical Vapor Deposition for Carbon Nanotubes Synthesis
  • Jaewoo Kim, Distributed Acoustic Sensing for In-situ Stress Monitoring in Enhanced Geothermal Systems
  • Jessica Hema Persaud, Understanding Tin Perovskite Crystallization Dynamics for All-Perovskite Tandems
  • Johanna Ikabu Bangala, Upcycling Methane-derived Zero-Valent Carbon for Sustainable Agriculture
  • Kashif Liaqat, From Waste to Resource: Increased Sustainability Through Hybrid Waste Heat Recovery Systems for Data Centers and Industry
  • Md Abid Shahriar Rahman Saadi, Advancing Sustainable Structural, Energy and Food Systems through Engineering of Biopolymers
  • Ratnika Gupta, Micro-Silicon/Carbon Nanotube Composite Anodes with Metal-free Current Collector for High Performance Li-Ion Batteries
  • Wei Ping Lam, Electrifying Chemical Manufacturing: High-Pressure Electrochemical CO₂ Capture and Conversion
  • William Schmid, Light-Driven Thermal Desalination Using Transient Solar Illumination

“Through this fellowship program, we can support outstanding graduate students from across the university who are conducting cutting-edge research across a variety of fields,” Carrie Masiello, director of the Rice Sustainability Institute, said in a news release. “This year, our 2026 Chevron Fellows are working on research that reflects the diversity of the sustainability research at Rice … and these scholarly endeavors exemplify the breadth and depth of research enabled by Chevron’s generous support.”

The Chevron Fellows program launched at Rice last year, naming 10 graduate students to the inaugural cohort. It is funded by Chevron and was created through a partnership between the Rice Sustainability Institute. Chevron launched a similar program at the University of Houston in 2023.

“Rice University continues to be an exceptional partner in advancing energy innovation,” Chris Powers, director of exploration commercial and portfolio at Chevron, added in the release. “The Chevron Energy Fellows program showcases the brilliance and drive of Rice graduate students, whose research in areas like carbon conversion, solar materials and geothermal sensing is already shaping the future of sustainable energy. We’re proud to celebrate their achievements and look forward to the impact they’ll continue to make across the energy landscape.”

Houston clean energy company to develop hybrid renewable project in Port Arthur

power project

Houston-based clean energy company Diligence Offshore Services has announced a strategic partnership with Florida-based floating solar manufacturing company AccuSolar for the development of a renewable energy project in the Port Arthur area.

Known as the Pleasure Island Power Collective, it will be built on 2,275 acres across Pleasure Island and Sabine Lake. It is expected to generate 391 megawatts of clean power, alongside a utility-scale battery energy storage system. It will also feature a 225-megawatt coastal onshore wind farm, with energy produced on-site used to power a data center for adaptive superintelligence, making it entirely self-sustained by renewable sources, according to the company.

AccuSolar will design and manufacture the project and power will be distributed through the Canaan Energy Corridor

“We are incredibly proud to partner with a fellow U.S. company like AccuSolar,” Harry C. Crawford III, founder and managing member of Diligence Offshore, said in a news release. “Their expertise in American manufacturing and floating solar technology is essential to the success of the Pleasure Island Power Collective.”

The project is expected to bring economic growth and a significant number of manufacturing jobs to the area during the construction phase and long-term operations.

Diligence Offshore is pursuing a DPA Title 1 DX rating under the Defense Production Act to help advance the project's development schedule, according to the release, which could lead to immediate manufacturing jobs.

“This partnership not only strengthens our domestic supply chain but also accelerates our vision to bring economic freedom and climate resilience to the Gulf Coast,” Crawford added in the release.

Houston organization proposes Gulf Coast index for hydrogen market

hydrogen index

The Clean Hydrogen Buyers Alliance has proposed an index aimed at bringing transparency to pricing in the emerging hydrogen market.

The Houston-based alliance said the Gulf Coast Hydrogen Index, based on real-time data, would provide more clarity to pricing in the global market for hydrogen. The benchmarking effort is being designed to benefit clean hydrogen buyers, sellers and investors. The index would help position the U.S. “as the trading anchor for hydrogen’s next chapter as a globally traded commodity,” the alliance said.

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global market for clean hydrogen was valued at $200 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $700 billion by 2040.

John Flory, president of the alliance, said the lack of a pricing index has relegated hydrogen to niche-market status.

“Capital is waiting. Buyers are ready. But until now, there’s been no credible, transparent pricing signal to guide clean hydrogen investing or contracting,” Edward Morse, co-chairman of the Clean Hydrogen Transaction Advisory Committee, said in a news release.

The index would treat the Gulf Coast as the primary delivery hub for pipeline-grade hydrogen in three categories: basic, low-carbon and ultra-low-carbon. It would be similar to the Henry Hub index for pricing of natural gas.

Roger Ballentine, co-chairman of the clean energy advisory committee, said the hydrogen index would build confidence in this energy source among government agencies, companies and investors. A Henry Hub-style benchmark for hydrogen “provides clarity, reduces risk, and lays the foundation for clean energy to become a globally traded commodity critical to decarbonization,” he said.

The Gulf Coast, with Texas as the focal point, is key to the evolution of the U.S. clean hydrogen economy, according to the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association.

At the core of the Gulf Coast’s role is the U.S. Department of Energy's selection of the Gulf Coast as one of the country’s seven regional hubs for clean hydrogen. However, the DOE has proposed cutting funding for the HyVelocity Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub, a $1.2 billion development in Texas and Louisiana by AES, Air Liquide, Chevron, ExxonMobil, MHI Hydrogen Infrastructure and Ørsted, according to a new list of proposed DOE funding cancellations.