8+ can't-miss events at Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week 2025

where to be

Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week returns Sept. 15-19. Photo via rice.edu

Editor's note: This article may be updated to include additional events.

The second annual Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week is less than a month away—and the calendar of events is taking shape.

The series of panels, happy hours and pitch days will take place Sept. 15-19. The Ion District will host many of the week's events.

Here are the details on some of the can't-miss events of the week:

Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week Kickoff Panel and Block Party

Join fellow innovators, founders, investors and energy leaders at this kick-off event hosted by The Ion and HETI, which will feature brief welcome remarks, a panel discussion and networking, followed by a block party on the Ion Plaza.

This event is Monday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. at The Ion. Register here.

Energytech Nexus Pilotathon

Grab breakfast and take in keynotes and panels by leaders from New Climate Ventures, V1 Climate, Halliburton, Energy Tech Nexus and many others. Then hear pitches during the Pilotathon, which targets startups ready to implement pilot projects within six to 12 months.

This event is Tuesday, Sept. 16, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at GreenStreet. Get tickets here.

Meet the Activate Houston Cohort 2025 Fellows

Meet Activate's latest cohort, which was named this summer, and also learn more about its 2024 group.

This event is Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 5 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

New Climate Ventures Afterparty

Enjoy music, networking and carbon-negative spirits at Axelrad. Houston startups Quaise Energy, Solidec, Dimensional Energy, Rheom Materials, and Active Surfaces will also be on-site.

This event is Tuesday, Sept. 16, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Axelrad. Register here.

Green ICU Conference: Sustainability in Health Care for a Healthier Future

Houston Methodist will host its inaugural Green ICU Conference during Houston Energy & Climate Week. The conference is designed to bring together healthcare professionals, industry leaders, policymakers and innovators to explore solutions for building a more sustainable healthcare system.

This event is Wednesday, Sept. 17. from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at TMC Helix Park. Register here.

Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum

Hear from clean energy startups from nine countries and 19 states at the 22nd annual Energy Tech Venture Forum. The 12 companies that were named to Class 5 of the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator will present during Demo Day to wrap up their 10-week program. Apart from pitches, this event will also host keynotes from Arjun Murti, partner of energy macro and policy at Veriten, and Susan Schofer, partner at HAX and chief science officer at SOSV. Panels will focus on corporate innovation and institutional venture capital.

This event is Thursday, Sept. 18, from 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. Register here.

Shell STCH Open House

Get a behind-the-scenes look at how Shell is leveraging open innovation to scale climate tech. The open house will spotlight two Houston-based startups—Mars Materials, which converts captured CO2 into acrylonitrile, and DexMat, which transforms methane into high-performance carbon nanotube fibers.

This event is Thursday, Sept. 18, from 8:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at Shell Technology Center. Register here.

ACCEL Year 3 Showcase

Celebrate Advancing Climatetech and Clean Energy Leaders Program, or ACCEL, an accelerator program for startups led by BIPOC and other underrepresented founders from Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space. Two Houston companies and one from Austin are among the eight startups to be named to the 2025 group. Hear startup pitches from the cohort, and from Greentown's Head of Houston, Lawson Gow, CEO Georgina Campbell Flatter and others.

This event is Thursday, Sept. 18, from 5-8 p.m. at Greentown Labs. Get tickets here.

Halliburton Labs Finalists Pitch Day

Hear from Halliburton Labs' latest cohort of entrepreneurs. The incubator aims to advance the companies’ commercialization with support from Halliburton's network, facilities and financing opportunities. Its latest cohort includes one company from Texas.

This event is Friday, Sept. 19, from 8 a.m.-noon at The Ion. Register here.

Chevron Energy Innovation Finals

The University of Houston will present the 4th Annual Chevron Innovation Commercialization Competition.

The event is Friday, Sept. 19, from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the University of Houston. Register here.

Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week was founded in 2024 by Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Halliburton Labs, Greentown Labs, Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI), Digital Wildcatters and Activate.

Last year, Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week welcomed more than 2,000 attendees, investors and industry leaders to more than 30 events. It featured more than 100 speakers and showcased more than 125 startups.

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The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, a hybrid program based out of the Ion, has named its latest cohort. Photo courtesy of the Ion

Exclusive: Houston clean energy accelerator names 4th cohort of early-stage tech companies

coming soon to Hou

The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator has named 12 early-stage energy technology companies to its latest cohort.

The companies, which hail from six states and two countries, are providing solutions across carbon management, advanced materials, hydrogen, solar, and more. The program, which operates in a hybrid capacity based out of the Ion, will run for 10 weeks beginning July 9 and culminating in a demo day alongside the 21st Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum on September 12. Throughout the duration, the companies will come to Houston three times.

"As Houston’s preeminent energy startup accelerator, this is an open door to the region’s energy ecosystem for ventures from around the world and puts them through a rigorous curriculum to bolster their fundraising efforts, prepare them for accelerated adoption into the marketplace and expand their connections for potential pilots, partnerships and sales," per a Rice Alliance news release.

This cohort's executives-in-residence, or XiRs, include Tim Franklin-Hensler, John Jeffers, Ritu Sachdeva and Nick Tillmann. In addition to these innovators — who bring their expertise, mentorship, and strategic growth planning — the program is ed by the Rice Alliance’s Kerri Smith and Matt Peña.

Class 4 for the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator includes:

1s1 Energy, based in Portola Valley, California, develops electrolyzers with boron-based materials so that utilities and heavy industry can produce low-cost green hydrogen to decarbonize existing and future businesses.
Houston-based Capwell provides a cost-effective, modular, and easily transportable system that eliminates methane emissions from wells for state governments and oil and as companies.
CarboMat, from Calgary, Alberta, provides a clean technology that produces low-cost, sustainable, and mid-tier grade carbon fibers at a 60 percent reduced production cost and 50 percent reduced GHG emissions to composite manufacturers in industries that require large volumes of inexpensive carbon fibers for production of commodity grade products.
Cleveland, Ohio-headquartered Corrolytics offers cutting-edge technology that detects corrosion on-site and in near real-time, providing accurate insights into microbial corrosion and general corrosion.
Geolabe, from Los Almos, New Mexico, provides an automated methane monitoring system that helps organizations measure environmental performance and introduce and prioritize remedial actions.
Kaizen, which operates in Tomball just outside of Houston, provides hydrogen based microgrids that enable fleet electrification at sites that are grid constrained or off grid. The solutions emit no local emissions and reduce global emissions.
Los Angeles-based Mitico offers services and equipment to capture carbon dioxide with a patent-pending granulated metal carbonate sorption technology captures over 95 percent of the CO2 emitted from post-combustion point sources.
OceanBit, headquartered in Honolulu, provides ocean thermal energy technologies and power plants that delivers abundant, affordable, base load power to utilities and companies who need a firm, dispatchable, and 24/7 carbon-free source of electricity.
From Ontario, Canada, QEA Tech provides detailed building envelope energy audits using drones, thermography, and proprietary AI based software.
Houston-based Sensytec offers patented sensors, delivering real-time, accurate material performance data of concrete and advanced building materials.
Vroom Solar, based in Springfield, Missouri, provides Smart Solar Management technology that optimizes solar and optional AC power differently at a lower cost and smaller footprint for solar customers who need affordable, efficient, and user-friendly power anywhere.
VulcanX, from Vancouver, Canada, provides hydrogen and solid carbon to gas utilities, steel manufacturers and ammonia producers who require low-cost and low-emission hydrogen.

Since launching in 2021, the Clean Energy Accelerator has accelerated 43 ventures that have raised more than $166 million in funding. According to the program, these companies have piloted their technologies, connected with investors, created jobs, and many relocated to Houston.

The 2023 cohort included 15 clean energy companies.

Houston-based Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, as well as Activate Global and Greentown Labs, which each have Houston locations, will provide clean tech workshops at the DOE-backed event. Photo via Getty Images

3 organizations in Houston receive funding for DOE-backed programming

coming soon

A clean technology program backed by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the United States Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has named three Houston organizations as recipients to an annual awards program.

The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator, a $50 million program, announced its eighth cycle of IN2 Channel Partner Strategic Awards. The program is distributing $767,000 across 15 organizations within the Channel Partner network to create impactful workshops at the upcoming Camp Cleantech event in August at CSU Spur in Denver, Colorado.

Houston-based Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, as well as Activate Global and Greentown Labs, which each have Houston locations, have been named among the awards recipients. The organizations will present workshops aimed at providing critical tools and insights for clean tech startups.

"We are celebrating this year's Strategic Award winners and looking forward to Camp Cleantech," says Robyn Luhning, chief sustainability officer at Wells Fargo, in a news release. "As the real economy demands more lower-carbon solutions, Wells Fargo continues to support the scaling of new solutions for a successful shift to a low-carbon economy."

Registration for the event opens May 1. A full itinerary is available online.

The selected participants represent IN²'s broader goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, per the release.

"The significance of this year's awards goes beyond the recognition of innovation; it embodies a concerted effort to elevate collaboration and engagement across the board," adds Sarah Derdowski, IN² program director at NREL. "Through Camp Cleantech, we're setting a new standard in how we gather, inspire, and propel our community forward."

Around $435,000 of the funding will go toward select recipients who will receive additional follow-on funding to enhance and expand their workshop content and insights towards entrepreneurs in their local networks.

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Houston carbon removal company secures $35M in financing

national scale

Houston-based Vaulted Deep, a waste management and carbon removal company, has announced a major $35 million debt facility from Italian investment bank Mediobanca to support its national expansion.

U.K.-based market energy solutions CFP Energy arranged the deal, which is “the largest publicly disclosed U.S. commercial debt deal in durable carbon removal to be secured by long-term purchase contracts,” according to a news release from the companies.

The financing will support new waste disposal sites for Vaulted Deep and advancements of the company’s AI-enabled site development platform. The platform helps identify locations, navigate permitting and optimize injection operations. When candidates are looking for sites, the platform will pull from regulatory, geology and waste-supply data to assist, which Vaulted Deep says will help streamline the permitting process. After the site is operating, the platform helps control algorithms to maximize safe disposal capacity and monitor the process along the way.

"Waste operators across the country need new options as traditional disposal options become limited,” Julia Reichelstein, CEO and co-founder of Vaulted Deep, said in the release. “This financing lets us take on more projects and invest in the tools that help us evaluate and develop new sites faster. This is a meaningful milestone for Vaulted as we move into the next phase of building infrastructure at a much larger scale."

The deal is supported by Vaulted Deep's long-term waste service and carbon removal purchase contracts. The company says it delivered more than 20,000 tons of carbon removal to buyers in the first half of 2026, which is more than it delivered in all of 2025.

"By facilitating these types of transactions, we connect institutional capital with innovative climate technologies, helping accelerate the deployment of high-integrity carbon removal solutions,” Tyler Manchester, head of voluntary carbon for CFP Energy, added in the release. “It reflects growing investor confidence in these solutions, driven by rising demand from corporate buyers seeking permanent pathways to support net-zero commitments and long-term climate strategies."

Beyond the facility, Vaulted Deep has secured $48 million in equity financing in addition to its $8 million from the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, backed by Elon Musk’s charitable organization, The Musk Foundation.

The company's well injection technology is used to store organic waste deep underground in stable geologic formations. In 2025, it inked a 12-year deal with Microsoft to remove up to 4.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the environment.

Houston's power future report and more top energy transition headlines

Hot News

Editor's note: It's time to look back at the top Houston energy transition news in recent weeks, from a report that examines Houston's power future, to exciting funding raises for a local startup and a member of a local incubator. Here are the five most-read EnergyCapitalHTX stories from September 16-30, 2026:

Houston’s power future: The role of energy efficiency and demand response

A new report from the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, “Role of Efficiency & Demand Response to Meet Near-Term Regional Power Demand,” examines how Houston can get more from the grid it has today. Its central finding: energy efficiency (EE) and demand response (DE) can create measurable grid “headroom” while new major infrastructure projects are being planned, financed, permitted and built. Explore the key takeaways from the report. Continue reading.

ExxonMobil secures approval for $5B East Texas carbon capture project

Spring-based ExxonMobil has won approval from the Texas Railroad Commission for a $5 billion carbon capture and storage project in East Texas. The project will enable the company to inject about 53 metric tons of industrial customers’ carbon emissions into three underground wells it drilled in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area. Over a 13-year period, ExxonMobil plans to inject about 4 million metric tons per year into the Fleming and Upper Frio rock formations, according to Carbon Herald. Continue reading.

Houston-based ‘grid in a box’ provider Branch Energy raises $33M

Houston-based startup Branch Energy, which offers a self-contained “grid in a box,” has collected $33 million in a Series B round. Piva Capital and Clean Energy Ventures led the round. Active Impact Investments, Whitecap Venture Partners, Prelude Ventures, Zero Infinity Partners and Inovia Capital also contributed to the round. In 2024, Branch raised $10.8 million in an oversubscribed Series A round. Continue reading.

Kanin Energy raises up to $100M for waste-heat-to-power projects

Kanin Energy, a member of the Greentown Labs climatech and energy incubator in Houston, recently raised as much as $100 million in capital to grow its energy-as-a-service platform. S2G Investments led a round of up to $50 million, and the Canada Growth Fund chipped in an additional $50 million. The money will primarily support Kanin’s development and operation of waste-heat-to-power projects. Continue reading.

Houston-based ENGIE wins national award for clean energy leadership

Houston-based ENGIE has been recognized for its work in the clean energy space. The battery storage and energy infrastructure company recently won the 2026 Green Power Leadership Award in the Market Innovation category for its work advancing 24/7 renewable energy solutions. The awards honor individuals and companies advancing sustainability and renewables in the energy industry through innovation and leadership. Continue reading.

8+ must-attend Houston energy transition events in October 2026

Must-Attend Meetings

Editor's note: October is here, and there are many energy events to plug into in Houston this month. From summits and forums to exhibitions and networking opportunities, these are the top events to put on your calendar. Learn more below, and register now.

Oct. 6-7: Hydrogen Americas Summit and Exhibition

Hydrogen Americas delivers an unparalleled opportunity to explore how hydrogen integrates with CCUS and other energy solutions under the new U.S. and Americas energy paradigm. This event moves to Houston in 2026, providing unmatched access to industry leaders and opportunities. The summit will include CCUS dedicated sessions integrated directly into the conference programming, providing deeper insights into carbon capture, utilization, and storage. Look forward to networking opportunities to connect with global suppliers, regional developers, and key policymakers.

This event begins Oct. 6 at George R. Brown Convention Center. Register here.

Oct. 6-7: Annual Energy Summit — Energy, Risk, and Geopolitics

The 10th annual energy summit is co-hosted by Baker Botts and the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute. This year's summit, “Energy, Risk, and Geopolitics,” will explore how a changing geopolitical landscape and shifts in supply chain risks are impacting investment, innovation, and market dynamics. The two-day program will include discussions spanning petroleum and LNG markets, critical minerals, electricity reliability, AI, and power demand.

This event begins Oct. 6 at 7:30 am at James A Baker III Hall. The event will also be livestreamed. Register here.

Oct. 7: Industrial Data Forward Forum 2026

Houston continues to sit at the intersection of energy, chemical production, and advanced manufacturing. Industrial data experts, automation engineers, and enterprise architects will gather for this one-day forum to address one of the region's biggest operational challenges: modernizing massive, legacy industrial plants without incurring high costs.

This event takes place Oct. 7 at Norris Conference Center. Register here.

Oct. 14: Houston Engineering, Energy & Transportation Networking Event

Connect with leading engineers, energy experts, environmental innovators, and transportation professionals during an evening of collaboration, insight, and opportunity. This exclusive event is designed for engineers, project developers, renewable energy specialists, urban planners, environmental consultants, and infrastructure leaders eager to expand their networks, exchange ideas, and explore solutions driving the future of sustainable development.

This event takes place on Oct. 14 at 7 pm at SOHO Garden. Get tickets here.

Oct. 14: Future of Global Energy Conference

This October, the sixth annual Future of Global Energy Conference kicks off, convening influential leaders from across energy, technology, finance and public policy who will come together to explore the forces defining the next era of global energy and Houston’s role in shaping it. Ryan Lance, Executive Chairman of ConocoPhillips and 2027 Chair of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Board of Directors, is the keynote speaker, bringing a global perspective on rising demand, market volatility and Houston’s role in the next era of energy growth.

This event takes place Oct. 14 at Marriott Marquis. Register here.

Oct. 17: Energy Day 2026

Energy Day Houston is the nation’s largest free, family-friendly STEM festival. It features over 50 interactive exhibits and live demonstrations focused on traditional and emerging energy career paths to power up your curiosity.

This event begins at 11 am on Oct. 17 at Sam Houston Park. Get details here.

Oct. 22: Geophysical Society of Houston Fall Forum

This one-day event will explore how geophysics continues to drive value in hydrocarbon development while opening new opportunities in geothermal, critical minerals, mining, microseismic monitoring, and other emerging subsurface applications. The forum will highlight both the technologies and business strategies needed to succeed in a rapidly evolving energy landscape.

This event begins at 7 am on Oct. 22 at SLB. Get details here.

Oct. 28-29: Energy Council Houston 2026

Energy Council Houston is a private executive forum for leaders across the U.S. upstream oil and gas sector. Over two days, operators, investors, financiers, and strategic partners will come together to discuss the issues shaping capital allocation, energy security, M&A activity, and energy investment across North America.

This event begins Oct. 28 at the Four Seasons Hotel Houston. Register here.

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