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From events to a new climate-focused report, here are 3 things to know in Houston energy transition news

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Houston energy transition folks — here's what to know to start your week. Photo via Getty Images

Editor's note: Dive headfirst into the new week with three quick things to catch up on in Houston's energy transition: a roundup of events not to miss, a new study puts a dollar sign to Texas' disasters per capita, and three organizations are teaming up for an August event.

When it comes to weather-related events, Texas is expensive

Texas — home to everything from tornadoes to hurricanes — cracks the top 10 of a new report ranking states based on impact from weather-related events.

SmartAsset's new report factored in a myriad of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to identify which states face the most financial risk due to various weather events. In the report, the states were ranked by the total expected annual financial losses per person. Texas ranked at No. 10. In Texas, the total expected annual loss per person is estimated as $283.15. Click here to see that figure broken down.

3 organizations in Houston receive funding for DOE-backed programming

Later this year, a Wells Fargo Foundation-backed event that's co-administered by the United States Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory will feature programming from three Houston organizations.

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. Read more about the event and grants.

Events not to miss

Put these Houston-area energy-related events on your calendar.

  • Center for Houston’s Future and the Houston Energy Transition Initiative present a panel and attendee Q&A on Wednesday, May 1, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Partnership Tower 701 Avenida de las Americas, Suite 900. The program will be on the National Petroleum Council’s new report on hydrogen: “Harnessing Hydrogen: A Key Element of the U.S. Energy Future.” Register.
  • Offshore Technology Conference returns to Houston May 6 to 9. Register.
  • Greentown Houston's next Transition on Tap, a monthly networking event, is Wednesday, May 8. Register.
  • The University of Houston is hosting a professional-level course focused on hydrogen. The course is open for registration now, and the orientation event will take place on May 15. Learn more.

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 cleantech accelerator names 12 startups to 2025 cohort

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

The hybrid program, which operates in a hybrid capacity based out of the Ion, runs for 10 weeks and provides energy transition startups with training focused on fundraising, pilots, partnerships and sale. It begins July 8 and will be led by executive director Kerri Smith and program director Matthew Peña with support from executives-in-residence Lynn Frostman, John Jeffers, David Horsup and Dev Motiram.

The accelerator will culminate with a demo day on Sept. 18 at the Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum during the Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week.

Members of this year's cohort come from the Houston area as well as across the U.S. and Canada.

Class 5 for the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator includes:

  • Aqua-Cell Energy, which builds industrial-scale overnight batteries to provide affordable solar power
  • Arculus, a company that provides multilayer internal coating for pipelines that lowers friction, extends pipeline life and enables carbon dioxide transport and hydrogen blending
  • AtmoSpark, a Houston-based sustainable cooling and freshwater company that provides an electric field-driven air separation system that reduces dehumidification energy costs for data centers and industrial facilities
  • AtoMe, which delivers durable metallic composites to energy and aerospace companies using an eco-friendly dry blade method that eliminates harmful chemicals
  • ConceptLoop, a company that converts plastic waste into eco-friendly, low-carbon aggregate
  • Fathom Storage, which provides a more solidly embedded and steel-efficient anchoring solution for offshore service providers, wind energy developers and research institutes
  • GeoKiln, a Houston-based company that addresses issues of subsurface hydrogen extraction by applying proven oil and gas techniques to accelerate natural hydrogen reactions, enabling hydrogen production
  • Innowind Energy Solutions, a company that provides nonintrusive, active flow control devices to boost energy production and extend turbine lifespan
  • Lukera Energy, which transforms waste methane into high-value methanol using a breakthrough nanobubble technology
  • Metal Light Inc., which has developed a scalable, cost-effective Metal-Air generator to replace diesel generators
  • Moonshot Hydrogen, a company that converts food and agricultural waste into clean hydrogen and bioethanol
  • Resollant, a Woodlands-based company that delivers compact, zero-emission hydrogen and carbon reactors to refineries, petrochemical plants, steel and cement manufacturers and fuel producers

The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator has supported 55 ventures since it was founded in 2021, collectively raising over $250 million in funding, according to the university. See last year's cohort here.

Texas falls lower on national ranking of greenest states for 2025

room to improve

Texas dropped in the rankings on WalletHub's Greenest States 2025 report.

The report, released last month, considered 28 relevant metrics—from air and water quality to the number of alternative fuel stations and green buildings per capita—to call out states doing the best (and worst) jobs of caring for the environment.

Texas came in at No. 42 out of 50, with a total score of 42.54 out of 100. Last year, the Lone Star State ranked No. 38 with a score of 50.40 based on 25 metrics.

Texas' poor ranking was driven by its last-placed ranking, coming in at No. 50, for overall environmental quality. It was tied for No. 45 for air quality and ranked No. 46 for water quality, which helped comprise the overall environmental quality score.

Other metrics fell closer toward the middle of the pack. The state ranked No. 32 for eco-friendly behaviors and No. 39 for climate-change contributions.

California also fell on the annual report. While the state claimed the top spot in 2024, it came in at No. 7 this year. Vermont, which came in second in 2024, was named the greenest state in 2025.

Hawaii, which didn't crack the top five last year, was ranked No. 2 on the 2025 report. New York, Maryland and Maine rounded out the top five this year.

West Virginia was the country's least green state again this year, followed by Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi.

The report also showed that Democrat-led states ranked around No. 12 on average, whereas Republican states fell at around No. 33.

While the WalletHub report seems bleak for Texas, others have shown more positive signs for the state. Texas was ranked slightly above average in a recent ranking of the best states for sustainable development. A recently released U.S. Energy Storage Monitor shows that Texas led all states and surpassed California in the fourth quarter of 2024 by installing 1.2 gigawatts of utility-scale energy storage for solar and wind power.

Still, WalletHub also recently ranked Houston No. 98 out of 100 of the largest cities on its Greenest Cities in America report. Read more here.

Source: WalletHub

Houston renewables developer and Google agree to second solar collaboration

power purchase

EnergyRe, a developer of large-scale renewable energy projects with headquarters in Houston and New York, has signed a renewable energy agreement that will allow Google to invest in and purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) from its projects under development in South Carolina.

Google will be able to pull from energyRe’s portfolio of more than 600 megawatts of new solar and solar storage projects in the state.

The agreement marks the second partnership between the companies. Last year, energyRe and Google signed a 12-year power purchase agreement in which Google would purchase renewable energy from a 435-megawatt solar project. EnergyRe would supply electricity and RECs generated from the solar project to Google to power the equivalent of more than 56,000 homes.

"Strengthening the grid by deploying more reliable and clean energy is crucial for supporting the digital infrastructure that businesses and individuals depend on," Amanda Peterson Corio, head of data center energy at Google, said in a news release. "Our collaboration with energyRe will help power our data centers and the broader economic growth of South Carolina."

EnergyRe's work includes developing high-voltage transmission, onshore and offshore wind, large-scale solar, distributed generation and storage assets in markets around the United States. Its national onshore utility-scale portfolio includes 1,520 megawatts of contracted solar assets and 398 megawatt-hours of contracted battery storage assets.

"This agreement is a milestone in energyRe's mission to develop innovative and impactful clean energy solutions for the future," Miguel Prado, CEO of energyRe, added in the news release."We're honored to partner with Google to help advance their ambitious sustainability and decarbonization objectives while delivering dependable, locally sourced clean energy to meet growing energy demands."

Google aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030.

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