Two companies with big presences in Houston are collaborating to provide hybrid intelligence with AI. Photo via Getty Images

Two tech companies have teamed up to accelerate artificial intelligence adaption in the energy industry.

Houston-based Radix announced a strategic partnership with data and artificial intelligence company Cognite, a Norwegian company that's expanded to the U.S. by way of Houston, and will aim to implement AI "to streamline and contextualize data management and asset performance across oil and gas, energy, petrochemicals, and manufacturing industries,” according to a news release.

Radix is a global technology solutions company with expertise in engineering, data and software technology, and operations. The partnership allows Radix to utilize Cognite’s Industrial DataOps platform, and Cognite Data Fusion. The combination of Cognite Data Fusion’s innovative technology and Radix’s engineering intelligence will aim to tackle the problem of extracting information from large data pools in non-integrated systems.

According to Radix, the utilization of hybrid intelligence with AI to sort through data in a more refined manner, companies will be able to more intelligently isolate problem areas and work on solutions. This will help with energy optimization, mass balance for production accounting, and inventory management for critical materials according to Radix. Hybrid intelligence can also help accelerate access to data across various independent systems.

“Our partnership with Cognite has shown that we can bring our unique expertise together to empower companies with the hybrid intelligent tools they need to get to the data that becomes valuable and actionable information," Global Head of Alliances & Practices at Radix Flavio Guimarães says in a news release. “With Cognite Data Fusion, we help businesses streamline their data, thus helping to boost decision-making with real-time insights and drive cost reductions across the organization.”

With Cognite Data Fusionn’s solutions aim to enhance scalability, usability, and overall value for users and businesses, in what Radix has called an Industrial Applications Library. Some solutions will be showcased from October 14-15 at Cognite Impact 2024 in Houston, which will include an operational view on actionable insights, improvement workflows for field process, improvements and operational efficiency, OEE monitoring and control, preventative insights for monitoring.

“The Industrial Applications Library creates added value to the digital transformation journey helping companies to achieve optimal operational excellence and significant cost savings for our customers," Trudi Hable, head of strategic alliances for North America at Radix, adds. “Radix’s expertise and intelligence will ensure that real-time information is being relayed to Cognite Data Fusion in an efficient manner, allowing for the right data to be brought to the right people.”

From left to right: Trudi Hable and Flavio Guimarães of Radix and Laxmi Akkaraji of Cognite. Photos courtesy of Cognite

The two entities will collaborate on work focused on "fields of energy and climate; quantum computing and artificial intelligence; global health and medicine; and urban futures." Photo via Rice University

Houston university inks partnership with giant French research institution

team work

Rice University and Université Paris Sciences & Lettres signed a strategic partnership agreement last week that states that the two institutions will work together on research on some of today's most pressing subject matters.

According to an announcement made on May 13 in Paris, the two schools and research hubs will collaborate on work focused on "fields of energy and climate; quantum computing and artificial intelligence; global health and medicine; and urban futures."

The partnership allows Rice to expand its presence in France, after launching its Rice Global Paris Center about two years ago.

Université PSL consists of 11 top research institutes in France and 2,900 world-class researchers and 140 research laboratories.

“We are honored and excited to partner with Paris Sciences and Lettres University and join forces to advance bold innovation and find solutions to the biggest global challenges of our time,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches said in a statement. “The unique strengths and ambitions of our faculty, students, scholarship and research are what brings us together, and our passion and hope to build a better future for all is what will drive our partnership agenda. Representing two distinct geographic, economic and cultural regions known for ingenuity and excellence, Rice and PSL’s efforts will know no bounds.”

Rice and Université PSL plan to host conferences around the four research priorities of the partnership. The first took place last week at the Rice Global Paris Center. The universities will also biannually select joint research projects to support financially.

“This is a global and cross-disciplinary partnership that will benefit from both a bottom-up, research-driven dynamic and a top-down commitment at the highest level,” PSL President Alain Fuchs said in a statement. “The quality and complementarity of the researchers from PSL and Rice who mobilized for this event give us reason to believe that this partnership will get off to a rapid and productive start. It will offer a strong framework to all the PSL schools for developing collaborations within their areas of strength and their natural partners at Rice.”

Rice launched its Rice Global Paris Center in June 2022 in a historic 16th-century building in Le Marais. At the time it, the university shared that it was intended to support Rice-organized student programs, independent researchers, and international conferences, as well as a satellite and hub for other European research activity.

"Rice University's new home in the Marais has gone from an idea to a mature relative with a robust program of faculty research summits, student opportunities, cultural events and community engagement activities," Caroline Levander, Rice's global Vice President, said at the announcement of the partnership last week.

Click here to learn more about the Global Paris Center.

Last month, University of Houston also signed a memorandum of understanding with Heriot-Watt University in Scotland to focus on hydrogen energy solutions.

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Houston venture firm invests in Virginia fusion power plant company in collaboration with TAMU

fusion funding

Houston-based climate tech venture firm Ecosphere Ventures has partnered with Virginia Venture Partners and Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation’s venture capital program to invest in Virginia-based NearStar Fusion Inc., which develops fusion energy power plants.

NearStar aims to use its proprietary plasma railgun technology to safely and affordably power baseload electricity on and off the power grid through a Magnetized Target Impact Fusion (MTIF) approach, according to a news release from the company.

NearStar’s power plants are designed to retrofit traditional fossil fuel power plants and are expected to serve heavy industry, data centers and military installations.

“Our design is well-suited to retrofit coal-burning power plants and reuse existing infrastructure such as balance of plant and grid connectivity, but I’m also excited about leveraging the existing workforce because you won’t need PhDs in plasma physics to work in our power plant,” Amit Singh, CEO of NearStar Fusion, said in a news release.

NearStar will also conduct experiments at the Texas A&M Hypervelocity Impact Laboratory (HVIL) in Bryan, Texas, on prototype fuel targets and evolving fuel capsule design. The company plans to publish the results of the experiments along with a concept paper this year. NearStar will work with The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) to develop computer performance models for target implosions.

NearStar’s MTIF approach will utilize deuterium, which is a common isotope of hydrogen found in water. The process does not use tritium, which NearStar believes will save customers money.

“While avoiding tritium in our power plant design reduces scientific gain of the fusion process, we believe the vastly reduced system complexity and cost savings of eliminating complicated supply chains, regulatory oversight, and breeding of tritium allows NearStar to operate power plants more profitably and serve more customers worldwide, ”Douglas Witherspoon, NearStar founder and chief scientist, said in a news release.

Houston’s Ecosphere Ventures invests in climate tech and sustainability innovations from pre-seed to late-seed stages in the U.S. Ecosphere also supports first-time entrepreneurs and technical founders.

Solar farms are booming and putting thousands of hungry sheep to work

Solar Power

On rural Texas farmland, beneath hundreds of rows of solar panels, a troop of stocky sheep rummage through pasture, casually bumping into one another as they remain committed to a single task: chewing grass.

The booming solar industry has found an unlikely mascot in sheep as large-scale solar farms crop up across the U.S. and in the plain fields of Texas. In Milam County, outside Austin, SB Energy operates the fifth-largest solar project in the country, capable of generating 900 megawatts of power across 4,000 acres.

How do they manage all that grass? With the help of about 3,000 sheep, which are better suited than lawnmowers to fit between small crevices and chew away rain or shine.

The proliferation of sheep on solar farms is part of a broader trend — solar grazing — that has exploded alongside the solar industry.

Agrivoltaics, a method using land for both solar energy production and agriculture, is on the rise with more than 60 solar grazing projects in the U.S., according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The American Solar Grazing Association says 27 states engage in the practice.

"The industry tends to rely on gas-powered mowers, which kind of contradicts the purpose of renewables," SB Energy asset manager James Hawkins said.

A sunny opportunity
Putting the animals to work on solar fields also provides some help to the sheep and wool market, which has struggled in recent years. The inventory of sheep and lamb in Texas fell to 655,000 in January 2024, a 4% drop from the previous year, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Because solar fields use sunny, flat land that is often ideal for livestock grazing, the power plants have been used in coordination with farmers rather than against them.

Sheepherder JR Howard accidentally found himself in the middle of Texas' burgeoning clean energy transition. In 2021, he and his family began contracting with solar farms — sites with hundreds of thousands of solar modules — to use his sheep to eat the grass.

What was once a small business has turned into a full-scale operation with more than 8,000 sheep and 26 employees.

"Just the growth has been kind of crazy for us," said Howard, who named his company Texas Solar Sheep. "It's been great for me and my family."

Following the herd
Some agriculture experts say Howard's success reflects how solar farms have become a boon for some ranchers.

Reid Redden, a sheep farmer and solar vegetation manager in San Angelo, Texas, said a successful sheep business requires agricultural land that has become increasingly scarce.

"Solar grazing is probably the biggest opportunity that the sheep industry had in the United States in several generations," Redden said.

The response to solar grazing has been overwhelmingly positive in rural communities near South Texas solar farms where Redden raises sheep for sites to use, he said.

"I think it softens the blow of the big shock and awe of a big solar farm coming in," Redden said.

Fielding more research
Agrivoltaics itself isn't new. Solar farms are land-intensive and require a lot of space that could be used for food production. Agrivoltaics compensates by allowing the two to coexist, whether growing food or caring for livestock.

There is a lot still unknown about the full effects of solar grazing, said Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, an assistant professor in regenerative system ecology at Texas A&M University.

Not enough studies have been done to know the long-term environmental impacts, such as how viable the soil will be for future agriculture, although Gomez-Casanovas suspects solar grazing may improve sheep productivity because the panels provide shade and can be more cost-efficient than mowing.

"We really have more questions than answers," Gomez-Casanovas said. "There are studies that show that the land productivity is not higher versus solar alone or agriculture alone, so it's context-dependent."

As one of Texas' largest solar sheep operators, Howard has more clients than he can handle. He expects to add about 20 more employees by the end of this year, which would nearly double his current workforce. As for the sheep, he has enough already.

Chevron and partners to develop innovative power plants to support AI-focused data centers

power partners

Houston-based Chevron U.S.A. Inc., San Francisco investment firm Engine No. 1, and Boston electric service company GE Vernova have announced a partnership to create natural gas power plants in the United States. These plants support the increased demand for electricity at data centers, specifically those developing artificial intelligence solutions.

“The data centers needed to scale AI require massive amounts of 24/7 power. Meeting this demand is forecasted to require significant investment in power generation capacity, while managing carbon emissions and mitigating the risk of grid destabilization,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, shared in a LinkedIn post.

The companies say the plants, known as “power foundries,” are expected to deliver up to four gigawatts, equal to powering 3 million to 3.5 million U.S. homes, by the end of 2027, with possible project expansion. Their design will allow for the future integration of lower-carbon solutions, such as carbon capture and storage and renewable energy resources.

They are expected to leverage seven GE Vernova 7HA natural gas turbines, which will serve co-located data centers in the Southeast, Midwest and West. The exact locations have yet to be specified.

“Energy is the key to America’s AI dominance, “ Chris James, founder and chief investment officer of investment firm Engine No. 1, said in a news release. “By using abundant domestic natural gas to generate electricity directly connected to data centers, we can secure AI leadership, drive productivity gains across our economy and restore America’s standing as an industrial superpower. This partnership with Chevron and GE Vernova addresses the biggest energy challenge we face.”

According to the companies, the projects offer cost-effective and scalable solutions for growth in electrical demand while avoiding burdening the existing electrical grid. The companies plan to also use the foundries to sell surplus power to the U.S. power grid in the future.