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Dear Friends of Greentown Houston,

What a year 2024 has been for Houston’s energy-transition ecosystem!

A clear highlight of the year was the inaugural Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week in September, which brought together investors, industry leaders, and startups from around the world for a slew of events that showcased climatetech solutions that are transforming the energy industry. We were proud to launch this endeavor in partnership with Halliburton Labs and The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and with engagement from The Houston Energy Transition Initiative, The Ion, Activate, and Digital Wildcatters. This week was a major milestone in Houston’s leadership of the energy transition, and we look forward to seeing it continue to grow in years to come!

During the Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week, we had a chance to spotlight Greentown Houston’s groundbreaking community of 75+ startups through our Climatetech Innovation Festival and Climate Impact Awards Dinner (where Cemvita, Element Resources, and Neuralix took home prizes). And there was so much to celebrate! 2024 was a banner year for our startups—here are just a few of their wins:

Fervo Energy, which is working to deliver next-generation, carbon-free geothermal energy, raised $244M—including from Greentown partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; had a pilot selected as one of three projects to receive up to $60M in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to scale enhanced geothermal systems; announced 320MW of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with utility Southern California Edison; and achieved record-breaking commercial flow rates in a well test—making it the most productive enhanced geothermal system in history.
Ebb Carbon signed a marine-CO2-removal deal with Microsoft that commissions the removal of 350,000 tonnes of CO2 over 10 years.
Kanin Energy signed a PPA for a first-of-its-kind partnership with Tallgrass, the University of Dayton, and the AES Corporation to deliver a sustainable waste-heat-to-power project that offsets the university’s consumption and reduces its carbon footprint.
Haffner Energy signed an agreement with IðunnH2 to integrate its biomass-to-clean-fuels tech in the 65,000 metric tons/year electro-sustainable aviation fuel (e-SAF) facility under development by IðunnH2.
Hertha Metals—a startup reducing the steelmaking process’s emissions by 95 percent—took home the top prize of $100,000 at the DOE’s 2024 Summer Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Startup Pitch Competition.

We continued celebrating our fantastic startups at Greentown’s fifth annual Climatetech Summit, which brought together hundreds of climate champions and featured both a speaking program with top climate leaders and a startup showcase where attendees saw our startups’ work in the prototyping lab. The summit capped off a wonderful year of events at Greentown Houston, including the ACCEL Year 2 Showcase, a career fair with our startups, numerous Transition On Tap networking nights, and more!

We’re also proud of two major initiatives that helped Houston’s energy-transition ecosystem grow and mature this year: the Houston Ion District Investor Activation Program and The Texas Exchange for Energy & Climate Entrepreneurship (TEX-E).

Launched in February and run by Greentown Houston in partnership with the Ion District and with support from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Investor Activation Program is helping build an equitable climatetech industry capable of rapid deployment by addressing a fundamental challenge: the region’s lack of funding for early-stage climatetech startups, and especially for those led by underrepresented founders. This initiative brings early-stage investors from Greater Houston into the fold, offering education on climatetech investing,

channeling a pool of capital to young startups, and catalyzing a thriving climatetech investment ecosystem that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Investor Activation Program program is free to join and open to accredited investors; sign up here to participate in the program in 2025!

Meanwhile, TEX-E—a first-of-a-kind collaboration among local universities powered by Greentown and MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship—continued its efforts to create a powerful, student-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem in Texas. Highlights from 2024 included the second annual TEX-E Prize, a business-plan competition that awarded $50k to student teams; a new cohort of 87 student fellows; and the first-ever TEX-E summer internships, where the program placed four TEX-E fellows as paid interns at Greentown Houston startups.

Truly, there are too many highlights from 2024 to mention—from the DOE’s Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan hosting a roundtable at Greentown Houston, to adding brand-new prototyping resources for our startups, generously donated by Greentown partners Emerson and Puffer.

As our team looks ahead to 2025, we hope that you’ll continue taking action with Greentown and our startups. It’ll be a big year for the energy transition—here’s how you can get involved:

Investors: get connected with our world-changing entrepreneurs.
Corporates: explore partnering with Greentown and our startups.
Industry experts: mentor a startup.
Job seekers: work at one of our startups—there’s a place for you, no matter your background or skill set.
Other climate champions: donate to support Greentown’s mission of bolstering climatetech startups and attend an event in the new year to engage with our member companies and the climatetech ecosystem.

As always, thank you for your commitment to climate action!

Warmly,
The Greentown Houston Team

This Month's Member Milestones

EarthEn, whose CO2 battery stores renewable energy for four to 100 hours, received two awards from the DOE: a High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation grant and two vouchers from the DOE Voucher Program.
Haffner Energy launched its hydrogen production, testing, and training center in Champagne, France.
The 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list featured founders of 10 Greentown member and alumni companies: Carbon Upcycling Technologies, Cyvl, Feon Energy, Fervo Energy, FluxWorks, Heliotrope Photonics, Helix Earth Technologies, Mitico, Oxylus Energy, and Phoenix Tailings.
Carbon to Value Initiative alum Capture6 signed a joint-development agreement with Pilot Energy to install direct-air-capture and water-treatment capacities at Pilot Energy's Mid West Clean Energy Project.
Greentown members and alumni Fleet Robotics, Foray Bioscience, and Seabound received investments from Elemental Impact.
Boxes is deploying its innovative retail devices at Texas A&M University.
Greentown alum Fervo Energy won the Geothermal Special Achievement Award at the Geothermal Rising Conference.
Greentown alum Rheom Materials’s biobased resin for eyewear and accessories, Benree, received USDA certification as a biobased product.

Open Applications

Greentown Go Make 2025 with Evonik will advance sustainable innovations in the personal-care industry that reduce products’ manufacturing-related emissions and end-of-life environmental impact. The selected participants will have the opportunity to explore potential partnership outcomes with Evonik, including joint development, licensing, investment, and more. We’re seeking applications from startups at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4-7 in these technology areas; learn more and apply by Jan. 23, 2025!
ACCEL, an accelerator for BIPOC-led startups run by Greentown and Browning the Green Space, is accepting applications for its third cohort through Jan. 7, 2025. The year-long program combines acceleration with a curated curriculum, incubation at Greentown, and extensive mentorship from Greentown and BGS’s networks of industry experts. Learn more and start your application!

Startup Spotlight

Greentown member NOC Energy is solving heavy industry’s heat problem with technology that electrifies the production of high temperatures while staying cost-competitive with fossil fuels and allowing manufacturers to keep their existing infrastructure. Its NOC Cell delivers hot gas up to 1500°C to power boilers and kilns and can store energy in the form of heat. Read more.

Mark Your Calendar for Our First Event of 2025!

Jan. 30: Canary Live Houston
Canary Media is bringing its live event series to Greentown Houston! Join us at Canary Live Houston for an exploration of Texas’s clean-hydrogen economy and how the state became the United States’s largest clean-energy market.

Thank You to Our Founding + Grand Opening Partners 🌎

December 2024 Houston Newsletter

From The Ecosystem

December 2024 Houston Newsletter