Houston-area researchers score $1.5M grant to develop storm response tech platform

fresh funding

OpenSafe.AI, a new platform that utilizes AI, data, and hazard and resilience models to support storm response decision makers, has secured an NSF grant. Photo via Getty Images

Researchers from Rice University have secured a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to continue their work on improving safety and resiliency of coastal communities plagued by flooding and hazardous weather.

The Rice team of engineers and collaborators includes Jamie Padgett, Ben Hu, and Avantika Gori along with David Retchless at Texas A&M University at Galveston. The researchers are working in collaboration with the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center and the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice and A&M-Galveston’s Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas.

Together, the team is developing and hopes to deploy “Open-Source Situational Awareness Framework for Equitable Multi-Hazard Impact Sensing using Responsible AI,” or OpenSafe.AI, a new platform that utilizes AI, data, and hazard and resilience models "to provide timely, reliable and equitable insights to emergency response organizations and communities before, during and after tropical cyclones and coastal storm events," reads a news release from Rice.

“Our goal with this project is to enable communities to better prepare for and navigate severe weather by providing better estimates of what is actually happening or might happen within the next hours or days,” Padgett, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor in Engineering and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says in the release. “OpenSafe.AI will take into account multiple hazards such as high-speed winds, storm surge and compound flooding and forecast their potential impact on the built environment such as transportation infrastructure performance or hazardous material spills triggered by severe storms.”

OpenSafe.AI platform will be developed to support decision makers before, during, and after a storm.

“By combining cutting-edge AI with a deep understanding of the needs of emergency responders, we aim to provide accurate, real-time information that will enable better decision-making in the face of disasters,” adds Hu, associate professor of computer science at Rice.

In the long term, OpenSafe.AI hopes to explore how the system can be applied to and scaled in other regions in need of equitable resilience to climate-driven hazards.

“Our goal is not only to develop a powerful tool for emergency response agencies along the coast but to ensure that all communities ⎯ especially the ones most vulnerable to storm-induced damage ⎯ can rely on this technology to better respond to and recover from the devastating effects of coastal storms,” adds Gori, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice.

Two Houston communities have received funding for programming and workforce development within climate resilience. Photo via Getty Images

Houston Health Department scores $20M grant funding for climate, energy resilience

H-town strong

The city of Houston has secured a $20 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to be used to build climate and energy resilience in two local underserved communities.

The Houston Health Department's funding comes from the EPA's Community Change program and will benefit the Greater Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens, regions that have faced contamination from the neighboring Union Pacific Railroad site. This grant follows two prior EPA grants from the Vulnerable to Vibrant series that were awarded in 2023.

"Through this grant, we will also aim to enhance a state-of-the-art flood alert system that provides advance warning," Loren Hopkins, HHD's chief environmental science officer, says in a news release. "We will promote and provide education regarding an air permit application warning system, plant fruit trees for flood, heat, and pollution mitigation, develop a hyper-local neighborhood resilience plan, and establish a Houston Environmental Justice Advisory Committee."

The initial $1 million grant will span three years and includes several local partners: HHD, Black United Fund of Texas, Houston Community College, My Brother's Keeper - Houston, City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department, and Environmental Defense Fund. It will fund the creation of free solar workforce development program with the hopes of installing and operating a community solar farm.

A second $500,000 grant will find paid internships to residents for solar deployment in the community and will be led by HHD in partnership with BUFTX, University of Houston Center for Sustainability and Resilience, Air Alliance, Houston Wilderness, and Rice University SSPEED Center/Fang Research Group.

The ultimate goal of these freshly funded initiatives, according to the city, is to strengthen HHD and its partners' efforts in establishing a solar energy system for the community in order to advance the neighborhood’s resilience.

Both projects will seek to develop “tracking and evaluation systems for the emerging nature-based carbon credit market.” Photo via Getty Images

Houston researchers launch 2 nature-based carbon credit projects

seeing green

A team at Rice University has announced plans for two research projects that will focus on nature-based carbon credits.

The George R. Brown School of Engineering and the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center reported that the projects will be funded through a gift from Emissions Reduction Corp. with the goal of advancing global decarbonization through a series of carbon sequestration, avoidance and reduction projects.

Both projects will seek to develop “tracking and evaluation systems for the emerging nature-based carbon credit market” according to a news release.

“The Rice School of Engineering is very interested in research into nature-based engineering solutions,” Luay Nakhleh, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering and a professor of computer science and biosciences at Rice, says in the release. “For too long, we have used nature as a platform but not as a partner. This research will hopefully open the door on a new era of nature-based engineering. Moreover, this is a very timely initiative as bringing science to bear on the emergent carbon credit economy is of critical importance to meeting the challenges of a changing climate.”

For the first project, which is expected to take six months, the SSPEED Center will be commissioning the design of a digital monitoring, reporting and verification (dMRV) system for tracking nature-based carbon credits using satellite and drone imagery to monitor coastal blue carbon projects, soil, and forest projects.

The direct input of this data into blockchain and other record-keeping technologies will be the main part of the system. .A Houston-based local nonprofit carbon registry BC Carbon, and blockchain provider Change Code will also take part in the research.

The second project will see the SSPEED Center undertake hydrologic computer modeling, and take 12 to 18 months to complete. This will help determine the effectiveness of restoring native prairie grasslands as a flood control technique where a portion of the Brazos River will be modeled relative to predict increases in the frequency of “100-year floods” via climate change. Overall, it will evaluate whether prairie restoration funded via soil carbon credits could mitigate flooding risk, which could eliminate the need to raise the 30 miles of levees in Fort Bend County downstream of the carbon project. The George Foundation,BCarbon, and Fort Bend County Flood Control District will work together on this project.

“Using nature to solve flooding problems has been discussed but seldom executed at the level of a major river system,” Herman Brown Professor of Engineering and SSPEED Center director at Rice Phillip Bedient adds. “We are excited that carbon credits and prairie restoration might break open this nature-based flood engineering area.”

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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.

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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.

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