The Houston-based energy transition nonprofit recently announced that New Climate Ventures will join the newly established program. The Expert-in-Residence partnership aims to connect TEX-E Fellows with "the people and organizations shaping the future of energy and entrepreneurship," the nonprofit previously announced.
Taylor Chapman, an investment principal at New Climate Ventures, sits on TEX-E's board of directors. New Climate Ventures invests in early-stage startups building next-gen technologies in the energy, materials and fuels sectors. The venture capital firm's portfolio includes Houston-based clean energy startups like Solidec, Syzygy Plasmonics and Rheom Materials.
“If you know me, you know that I'm passionate about ensuring that my beloved hometown, Houston, is the energy capital of the future — not just of the past," Chapman said in a LinkedIn post. "TEX-E is building a key piece to ensure that's the case: a strong pipeline of graduate and college students immersed [and] versed in the world of energy [and] climate entrepreneurship."
TEX-E says the partnership with New Climate Ventures will allow its fellows opportunities to learn from investors that work with emerging companies and understand how they evaluate new technologies.
TEX-E announced Houston-based geothermal unicorn Fervo Energy and venture capital firm Mercury Fund as its first experts in residence in August. At the time, it said the partnerships would allow its fellows to network and work with Tim Latimer, CEO of Fervo; Sarah Jewett, COO of Fervo; and Blair Garrou, managing partner of Mercury Fund.
The nonprofit was founded in 2022 through partnerships with MIT Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship and Greentown Labs. It works with university students from six schools: Rice University, University of Houston, Prairie View A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University and MIT.
While hundreds of thousands descend on New York for Climate Week, Houston offered a different proposition: come where the work is being built. And last week Houston proved that it’s solving for more energy and fewer emissions; reliability and affordability; speed and durability. We are solving for the “&.”
That equation sharpened last week. On Sept. 14, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it had repealed most 2024 federal carbon-pollution standards for power plants and proposed rescinding remaining greenhouse-gas requirements. Policy matters, but it can pivot. The need to build does not.
HECW is a proving ground, not another conference stop. As I wrote in the Houston Chronicle, Mayor Sylvester Turner planted the seed by insisting we bring people together across the city and industry to drive Houston’s energy future. He knew false choices have no place here: oil and gas and clean technology; prosperity and stewardship; industry and lower emissions.
ECW joined the Climate Week Network this year, connecting Houston to a growing community of more than 500,000 people across 22-plus cities. We now have a seat at the global table—and a responsibility to use it well, building with other cities and the wider clean-energy-solutions world rather than merely talking at them.
The capital is already moving. Since 2017, Houston Energy Transition Initiative member companies have invested more than $95 billion in low-carbon infrastructure, technologies, and research and development. This is where the transition is financed, engineered, tested and operated. But the work requires more than capital. It requires capital allocators who understand the difference between a promising idea and a project that can scale, hire and endure.
Last week was Houston’s show and tell. At ARTECHOUSE, The &Bassador Reception & Awards brought art, technology, culture, philanthropy and energy together. Then the week went beyond downtown.
Sugar Land Town Square became the launchpad for the Metro Innovation Tour & Market: a place for an ecosystem conversation about smart cities, clean energy, equitable access and next-generation mobility before participants boarded three tour routes across greater Houston. It was also the starting point for the Bay City South Innovation Tour to Erthos Project Bravo in Matagorda County, where small groups saw Earth Mount solar modules being installed in real time. The conversation did not end at a panel. It went to the project site.
The HTX Tech Tours included a visit to the Erthos Project Bravo in Matagorda County. Photo courtesy
Approximately 100 startups from around the world pitched at Rice Alliance, Greentown Labs and Halliburton Labs events. At Astros Night at Daikin Park, builders, backers, and believers traded conference rooms for the diamond, creating an experience, not just another event. That is how this work becomes civic fabric.
Activation also means making the energy story felt, not merely explained. AY Young brought the Battery Tour for live performances. It was a reminder that the “Power of &” is not confined to a boardroom or a laboratory. Art and technology, culture and commerce, a new generation and established industry can share the same stage—and help more people see themselves in the work ahead.
Perhaps no activation made the “Power of &” more immediate and real than the Houston, We Have Solutions open mic night. At Creatopia’s Innovation Studio, people took the mic—or simply listened—to share what they were building, the problem they could not stop thinking about, and the connection they hoped to make. It put founders, artists, community builders, researchers and future-makers in one room. That is collaboration in real time: different kinds of expertise meeting before anyone knows exactly what the solution will be.
FOX26 helped carry that story beyond the rooms we convened, hosting Erthos COO Jessica Knight, Mars Materials co-founder Aaron Fitzgerald, and investors Taylor Chapman and Juliana Garaizar to discuss building and backing the future in Houston. Our region should be proud—not as self-congratulation, but because the world is beginning to experience energy and climate solutions firsthand.
This was also a week to give back. Allies in Energy awarded $27,500 to nine organizations advancing energy and climate literacy, civil dialogue, workforce pathways and community action. NRG Energy’s Brighter Communities provided a founding gift to expand the week and fund local grants. It took partners, hosts, sponsors, volunteers, funders and community organizations. That is the “Power of &”: collaboration that leaves a stronger community behind.
The “Power of &” cannot stop at Houston’s city limits. Louisiana’s participation—through its support of the Digital Delta Symposium & Expo—made clear that Houston’s builder ecosystem is regional by necessity. Gulf Coast infrastructure, supply chains, talent, and industrial decisions do not recognize state lines. Neither should our collaboration. If we are serious about building more energy with fewer emissions, we must align capital, resources and opportunity across the entire Gulf Coast.
That same commitment to practical collaboration means listening, learning and adjusting. A builder’s mindset does not protect a plan simply because it came first; it improves the conditions for the work to succeed. That is why Houston Energy and Climate Week will move to April 4–10, 2027—better weather, more time and space for connection, and a stronger city-wide experience for the people building what comes next.
But the real test begins now. Can we keep widening the circle? Can we continue to turn research into projects, pilots into infrastructure, capital into good jobs and climate ambition into results that families and communities can see? Can we make every new solution stronger by bringing in the people who must finance it, build it, operate it, live beside it and benefit from it?
That is the work ahead. Turner understood that Houston does not move forward by asking who wins the argument. It moves forward by asking who is ready to solve the problem. His legacy—and the promise of the “&”—is an invitation to choose collaboration over division, action over performance and possibility over false choices.
The future does not need another city to talk about it. It needs Houston to keep building it. And it will only be built if we keep choosing the "&."
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 Pilotathon will also include a keynote from Taylor Chapman, investment manager at New Climate Ventures; Deanna Zhang, CEO at V1 Climate Solutions; and Jolene Gurevich, director of fellowship experience at Breakthrough Energy. The Texas Climate Tech Collective will present its latest study on the Houston climate tech and innovation ecosystem.
CEOs Moji Karimi of Cemvita, Laureen Meroueh of Hertha Metals and others will also participate in a panel on successful pilots. Investors from NetZero Ventures, Halliburton Labs, Chevron, Saudi Aramco, Prithvi VC and other organizations will also be on-site. Find registration information here.
The Texas Climate Tech Collective issued its 2023 report tracking Houston's progress as a climatetech hub. Photo via Getty Images
Three Houston energy tech innovators sought to quantify Houston's growth as an energy tech ecosystem, and, after 200 survey respondents and dozens of interviews, they've created six calls to action for the city.
Taylor Chapman, Gabe Malek, and Deanna Zhang created the Texas Climate Tech Collective to issue the Houston's Climate Tech Ecosystem 2023 report. The trio revealed some of its key takeaways at Greentown Houston's Climatetech Summit last month.
"We wanted to understand how the city has evolved," Malek, who's also chief of staff at Fervo Energy, said at the event. "We went into this project with a shared belief that Houston has unique characteristics that set it apart from the other cities thinking about climate, and if we could really lean into those characteristics, develop them, and amplify them, we could help grow the ecosystem in Houston and build climate solutions ... to accelerate the energy transition."
The full report, which is available online, highlighted six key takeaways paired with six action items.
1. "Houston has a perception problem."
Houston is known as a leader in the energy industry, which positions it well in a lot of ways, but in other ways, as Zhang points out, Houston might be being left out.
"People in this community like to talk about energy because we are the energy capital of the world, so we use a lot of energy-centric terms," she says, using "energy transition" as an example. "We don't use the word climate enough."
It might just be semantics, but it could be a reason the city isn't as regarded as a climatetech leader.
"If other ecosystems are using 'climate' and 'climatetech,' we need to be using these terms," she continues. "It's like SEO but for the ecosystem."
2. "Houston needs more risk capital, especially at the earlier stages."
Money is a huge factor, which comes as no surprise. While the city has a lot of corporations and private equity here, as Zhang explains, there seems to be room for improvement for early-stage resources.
"If you're a founder raising pre-seed, seed, or even series A, often times you have to go outside of Houston to meet those investors," she says.
According to the report, about half of survey respondents chose "access to venture capital" as one of the biggest challenges facing the ecosystem.
3. "Houston’s startup scene has improved radically."
The report found that 80 percent of responders agreed to the statement: “the ecosystem has improved dramatically over the last 5 years.” Meanwhile, 75 percent of respondents agreed that “Houston is more innovative than outsiders perceive it to be."
So what's holding the city back? According to the collective, "Shameless self-promotion of ecosystem accomplishments."
"We need to be shouting from the rooftops what is happening in this city. It's really a PR game," Zhang says.
4. "Houston’s energy resources and infrastructure
have massive potential to create change, but are
underutilized by the climate ecosystem."
The collective and survey respondents acknowledge that Houston has a lot of infrastructure already in place, but the call to action is for coordination of these resources.
"Greentown, Ion, Halliburton Labs, HETI — the list goes on and on, but people don't know where to start," Chapman says.
The report says the city's resources are "woefully undertapped" and "29 percent of respondents highlighted partnerships, coordination of existing assets, and Houston’s own future investments in infrastructure as potential accelerants to growth."
5. "Houston’s strong workforce and human capital are
one of its greatest strengths – and it should be investing
in transitioning that workforce to new opportunities."
Cultivating the workforce for the energy transition needs to be a major priority, according to the collective. The city has a talented workforce for engineering, technical, and project management talent.
"How do we reach and transition this workforce?" Chapman asks. "It's a huge opportunity and critical for Houston to ensure that its economic development continues to grow."
6. "Houston knows how to build...but needs to put
expertise that towards climate innovation."
Houston as a major, sprawling city needs to continue to become "greener" in every way. While Chapman praises the city has done with its Climate Action Plan, Houston still lags other major cities like Los Angeles and New York in this way, per the report. Fourteen percent of respondents cited better climate-friendly infrastructure as a priority issue.
Chapman urged the audience to get involved locally to move the needle on more green initiatives for the city.
A new study from Rice’s Kinder Institute shows that Houston is still feeling the economic effects of the 2014-2016 oil crash, more than a decade later.
Though Houston, nicknamed the Energy Capital of the World, has continued to grow over the time period, the city has still fallen behind other comparable metropolitan areas in earnings and job creation, according to the research. The report is one part of a three-part series that will take a look at regional economic mobility and suggest ideas to expand opportunity.
“When you look at what’s happened in other locations, we’re losing ground,” Flávio Cunha, director of the Center for Economic Mobility at Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, said in a release. “Our economy is growing, but it’s no longer growing at the rate it used to.”
Global oil prices fell 70 percent between 2014 and 2016, the report said, marking one of the three largest declines since World War II and the longest-lasting downturn since 1986. The report excluded pandemic-related gaps, and it mentions 2017’s Hurricane Harvey as a possible indicator that economic growth stalled after the 2014-2016 oil price crash recovery.
To understand the long-term impact of the crash, researchers compared Houston’s economic performance with 54 metropolitan areas like San Antonio, Pittsburgh and others with less dependence on the energy industry.
Some of the key findings in the report included:
Job creation: In 2019, Houston had approximately 240,000 fewer private-sector jobs than similar cities. Employment was 15 percent lower in goods-producing industries and 4 percent lower in the services industries than the control group.
Income shifts: Income per resident was 13 percent lower compared to the peer group. Workers who remained employed earned 10 percent less between 2015 and 2019 than in other metros. The 13 percent drop in income equates to roughly $76 billion a year in forgone income, or $10,700 per resident per year in 2025 dollars. The decline was a trend across every age group, education level and sex.
Population changes: The rate of people moving to Houston slowed, rather than a surge of people leaving.
Hiring changes: Hiring fell sharply for young workers ages 19-24.
Cunha says the most surprising finding was that these trends persisted a decade later. According to the report, by 2024, Houston’s wages and income per resident remained about a fifth and a sixth below those in peer cities, and jobs per resident had continued to lose ground.
“What really surprises me is not that there was this change. It’s that this change has been long-lasting,” he added. “We followed it up to 2024, and we still don’t detect that the economy has recovered from that one shock.”
From IPOs to groundbreakings, some of Houston's most innovative companies reached major milestones this year.
As part of InnovationMap's 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, the Scaleup of the Year category honors innovative later-stage startups that have recently reached a significant milestone in company growth. Three scaleups have been named finalists for the 2026 award, two of which are in the energy transition sector.
Read more about these businesses, their founders and their breakthrough technologies below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.
Erock
Energy infrastructure company Erock, previously known as Enchanted Rock, develops dual-purpose microgrids that rely on natural gas and renewable natural gas to produce lower carbon emissions and air pollutants than diesel generators. Its products can provide bridge power before grid interconnection, backup power during outages and dispatchable capacity that supports long-term grid reliability. The company has more than 1,100 megawatts of installed capacity and over 20 years of experience serving commercial, municipal and large-scale technology customers.
Erock completed its initial public offering this year, raising approximately $600 million in gross proceeds. It also grew its contracted power system sales backlog to approximately $1.7 billion, up tenfold year-over-year, with production sold out through 2028, according to the company's application. The company secured a major equipment order from Anthropic, began construction of the 366-megawatt El Paso Electric project supporting Meta's data center campus, and started assembly operations at its Hyperion facility in Cypress, Texas.
Hertha Metals
Hertha Metals produces lower-cost, lower-emission steel and high-purity iron. The company has developed a single-step process that uses natural gas as a direct reductant instead of metallurgical coal, which cuts production costs by more than 25 percent and emissions by up to 50 percent, according to the company. The same process produces high-purity iron needed for high-purity steels and rare earth magnets. The company says it aims to "re-industrialize America’s production of critical materials."
Hertha Metals was founded by CEO Laureen Meroueh in 2022 and emerged from stealth last year with more than $17 million in venture capital funding. The company closed a $133.65 million Series A last month and also broke ground on its $100M high-purity iron factory known as Chalyx in Conroe.
Venus Aerospace
Spacetech company Venus Aerospace is developing a high-thrust rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) that replaces the subsonic combustion used in conventional rocket engines. The RDRE is a compact, simpler engine that can deliver up to 15 percent greater efficiency for defense and space applications. It completed its first U.S. flight test of the engine last summer.
Venus Aerospace was founded in 2020 by CEO Cassie Duggleby and CTO Andrew Duggleby. It raised a $20 million Series A in 2022 and $42 million Series A2 in 2025. It closed a $91 million Series B earlier this year and expanded its leadership team. The company is working toward longer-duration and higher-thrust testing and advancing its flight program.
Houston-based Occidental has made two long-term agreements that will expand its carbon management business in the Delaware Basin and the Permian Basin.
Oxy announced Nov. 9 that it has signed agreements with two unnamed project developers to capture and transport approximately 2 million metric tons of CO2 from their existing and new natural gas processing facilities in the Delaware Basin in West Texas annually. The CO2 will be transported for use in Oxy's enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations in the Permian Basin.
“Securing reliable, long-term sources of CO2 supports Occidental’s advanced recovery strategy to extend the productive life of existing fields and enhance recovery across our conventional and unconventional resource base,” Vishal Gupta, president and general manager of EOR Ventures at Occidental, said in a news release. “The projects, once operational, will help diversify our CO2 supply, improve access to cost-effective resources and create infrastructure that can connect additional carbon capture projects over time. Federal 45Q incentives are an important support for these investments.”
According to the release, the projects have the potential to expand to handle up to 4 million metric tons of C02 per year combined. The first shipments to Oxy are expected in 2029. The unnamed developers will fund and build the infrastructure to capture, transport and deliver the CO2 to Oxy, the company shared in the release.
Additionally, the agreement stipulates that the projects will also include the build-out of nearly 100 miles of new CO2 pipeline infrastructure. The new pipeline is planned to connect with the existing CO2 pipeline network in the Permian Basin. Oxy adds that the pipelines are being designed to handle additional future capacity to "support future conventional and unconventional recovery opportunities" of CO2.
Oxy uses the EOR process to inject stored CO2 back into a producing oil fields to boost the site's performance. The recycled CO2 displaces trapped oil and gas and is then secured in the reservoir. Oxy says that EOR combined with Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology "remove[s] an amount of CO2 equivalent to that emitted during the production and consumption of [its] products."
Oxy subsidiary 1PointFive is developing a $1.3 billion DAC project in the Midland-Odessa area that is slated to be the largest facility of its kind in the world. Known as STRATOS, it's designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. After a component delay, 1PointFive shared in May that it would ramp up operations at the project throughout 2026.
The HTX Tech Tours included a visit to the Erthos Project Bravo in Matagorda County. Photo courtesy