Strategic Initiatives: Energy

 

HyVelocity Hub

Driving the Future

LOW-Carbon Energy Initiatives

Market Assessment of the Potential of the Houston Region as a Low-Carbon Energy Hub: We recently published a market assessment of the opportunities in the Houston region relating to four critical areas: hydrogen, massive electrification, CCUS and plastics recycling/circular economy. Texas and the Houston region, in particular, have unique strengths and capabilities in these areas.

Houston as a Hydrogen Hub: The project aims to better assess opportunities for hydrogen in the Houston market by quantifying the costs of hydrogen and the potential business models. It also identifies regulatory issues that must be addressed to lower barriers and create opportunities for hydrogen development, as a new regulatory framework is needed for success

Exploration of Houston’s role in creating a low carbon energy ecosystem: For the third year running, the Center will hold the Houston Low-Carbon Energy Summit, set to highlight our region’s progress in accelerating Houston’s development as a leader in the energy transition since last year’s event. The Summit will feature high-profile speakers from energy companies, non-profits, venture capital firms, academia and other thought leaders.

Educating and raising awareness on climate change and the need to accelerate the speed of the energy transition: Educate and raise awareness on climate change topics among the Houston business community and other thought leaders on a broad set of issues ranging from the current state of climate science to how investors are changing their strategies to address climate change.

Reports and Presentations

Webcasts

Upcoming Events from The CEnter and Our Partners

Stay tuned for upcoming events.

Past Events

July 29
How to Build a Hydrogen Hub: Houston
The United States is set to make major investments in the development of a clean hydrogen industry with Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, set to play a key role. Within hubs, hydrogen consumers and producers can leverage existing infrastructure and expertise to accelerate innovation and draw public and private investment. These hubs promise significant benefits for local economies, workers, and enterprises.

In this conversation, Brett Perlman, CEO of the Center for Houston’s Future, is interviewed by Joseph Majkut of CSIS.

June 28-30
Future of Global Energy Conference presented by Chevron
To highlight Houston's role in the global energy transition, Center for Houston's Future and the Greater Houston Partnership hosted a dynamic three-day conference providing global and national context on the changing energy landscape and highlight Houston's leadership in the global energy transition.

Presenters and panelists shared examples of how Houston is building upon its history of leadership in the energy and chemical sectors, leveraging existing assets and talent, while also providing new opportunities for our people, creating the conditions to attract new and innovative talent and capital to enable a low-carbon energy future.

May 24
Energy & Climate Thought Leadership Webcast: Texas Power, Mitigating Climate Risk and Moving to Resilience
On May 24, Center for Houston’s Future and Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) hosted a webinar framed around position papers from HARC's new Climate Risk and Resilience series. The first paper, "Powering the Future: Texas Power Sector Pivoting to Climate Resilience," was released in May.

The virtual panel discussion focused on how the Texas power sector is responding to climate risks in a fast-changing regulatory landscape as well charting a path to a climate-resilient future for the Texas power sector. Points included sector implications around pressures for low-carbon and resilient business operations; what climate-resilience means to power sector stakeholders; and the role of innovation, infrastructure, and incentives.

The panel featured:

  • Jill Cetina, Vice President, Banking Supervision, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

  • Victor Flatt, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (EENR), University of Houston

  • Amanda Hsieh, Vice President, Environmental, Social, and Governance, ClimeCo

HARC's Vice President of Research, Gavin Dillingham, moderated the discussion.

May 10
Energy & Climate Thought Leadership Webcast: Daniel Cohan and Raj Mankad
On May 10, we hosted a virtual conversation with Daniel Cohan, atmospheric scientist and associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, as he discusses his new book, Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future. Raj Mankad, Op-Ed Editor at the Houston Chronicle, moderated the discussion.

Cohan argues that escaping the gravest perils of climate change will first require American diplomacy, technological innovation, and policy to catalyze decarbonization globally. Combining his expertise with insights from more than a hundred interviews with diplomats, scholars, and clean-technology pioneers, Cohan identifies flaws in previous efforts to combat climate change. He highlights opportunities for more successful strategies, including international “climate clubs” and accelerated development of clean energy technologies. Grounded in history and emerging scholarship, Cohan offers a forward-looking vision of solutions to confronting climate gridlock and a clear-eyed recognition of the challenges to enacting them.

October 6, 2021
Energy and Climate Thought Leadership Webcast: Katharine Hayhoe and Lisa Gonzalez
On October 6, we hosted a conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, a globally renowned climate scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is director of the Climate Science Center. She is also Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Lisa Gonzalez, Vice President and Executive Director of Audubon Texas, moderated the discussion.

August 30, 2021
Energy & Climate Thought Leadership Webcast: Amy Myers Jaffe and Raj Mankad
On August 30, Center for Houston’s Future hosted a conversation in our Energy and Climate Thought Leadership Webcast Series with Amy Myers Jaffe, author of Energy's Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security and managing director of the Climate Policy Lab and a research professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. A leading expert on global energy policy and sustainability, Jaffe has previously directed energy and sustainability research at the Council on Foreign Relations, the University of California, Davis, and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Raj Mankad, Op-Ed Editor at the Houston Chronicle, moderated the discussion.

They discussed a central theme in Jaffe’s book: If the U.S. doesn’t lead on the energy transition, China will. China could set the rules of the engagement governing the digital energy future, including embedding and exporting its surveillance technology across the world. Jaffe and Mankad explored how the U.S. once had an electricity-based transportation system; how we ended up shifting to gasoline; and what lessons that holds for us today, as well as why collaboration between Silicon Valley and Texas is imperative.

July 27, 2021
Energy & Climate Thought Leadership Webcast: Peter Fox-Penner and Gavin Dillingham
Join us on July 27 for a conversation with Peter Fox-Penner, Founder and Director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy and Professor of Practice at the Questrom School of Business. Gavin Dillingham, Director for Clean Energy Policy at Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), will moderate the discussion. They will dive into issues Fox-Penner raises in his book, Power after Carbon: Building a Clean, Resilient Grid. That incudes challenges and opportunities around net-zero emissions, renewables and ensuring that the power is reliable. They will also touch on the unique issues surrounding the ERCOT power market.

June 29 - July 1, 2021
The Future of Global Energy: Houston’s Role in Leading the Energy Transition
Houston has long been recognized as the Energy Capital of the World. To maintain that standing and realize sustained economic growth, the region must play a lead role in driving the global energy transition to a low-carbon future. 

The Greater Houston Partnership and Center for Houston's Future hosted a three-day conference featuring industry leaders offering expert insight on the changing energy business.

During this event, the Partnership revealed its blueprint for how Houston can lead the global energy transition—leveraging the region's knowledge and infrastructure in the energy and chemical sectors while providing new opportunities for our workforce, companies and capital to position Houston as a leading hub of new industrial innovation.

The Center provided one full day of content, taking a deep dive into Houston’s potential to lead in hydrogen as a solution for a low-carbon future.

June 22, 2021
Energy & Climate Thought Leadership Webcast Series: Rebecca Henderson
Our energy and climate series features four webcasts with exciting and high visibility speakers focused on how Houston companies and individuals can lead on climate and energy transition. Our speakers are industry leaders, academic experts, journalists and activists who will shape our thinking about the shape of our energy future by discussing local, national or world trends in areas such sustainability, climate, the role of ESG, the environmental justice movement and breakthrough technologies.

We kicked off the first webcast in this series on June 22 with Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson. Her recent book, Reimaging Capitalism in a World on Fire, was awarded the Financial Times/McKinsey Book of the Year for its focus on the need for companies to reframe their missions to address climate change and sustainability. Prof. Henderson’s teaching and writing on climate change have made her class the most sought after among HBS students, and her provocative perspective that capitalism is unsustainable without reinvention raised many interesting questions.

May 5 - 6, 2021
S&P Global Platts Second Annual Hydrogen Markets Americas Conference
CHF CEO Brett Perlman will serve as a panelist for a discussion focused on regional initiatives to support the growth of hydrogen. The panel will be moderated by James B. Curry, Attorney, Babst Calland, and feature additional panelists Mark Kirby, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association, and Charles Myers, President, Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition.

March 16 - 19, 2021
2021 Port of the Future Conference
Ports can play a pivotal role in the world’s decarbonization challenge. The 2021 Port of the Future Virtual Conference offered corporate leaders, trade and logistics professionals, government officials, and leading researchers the opportunity to examine an expanding and evolving vision of global ports and the opportunities that ports present to lead the charge in decarbonizing the world’s industrial sectors. As part of the conference, CHF served as an industry partner and CEO Brett Perlman led a panel discussion on the electrification of ports on March 17.

March 16, 2021
Houston Low-Carbon Energy Webcast Series: Houston as a Low-Carbon Energy Hub
This discussion dives into Greater Houston’s opportunities to lead on carbon capture and hydrogen in a low-carbon economy.

CHF and UH released last year Houston Low Carbon Market Assessment: Four Ways Forward. That market assessment outlines four areas — carbon capture, hydrogen, the low-carbon grid and advanced plastics recycling — in which the Houston region can lead the global energy transition. We quantified the scope, size and challenge required to decarbonize Houston's industrial energy sector and to envision what new industries might emerge from those efforts.

Out of that work, we released two white papers offering an expanded look into CCUS and hydrogen: Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage – Lynchpin for the Energy Transition and Houston Region: Becoming a Global Hydrogen Hub. Center CEO Brett Perlman moderated a discussion on our research findings with panelists Chuck McConnell, Energy Center Officer at University of Houston's Center for Carbon Management in Energy; Andy Steinhubl, Retired Partner at KPMG; and Cindy Yeilding, Retired Senior Vice President at BP America.

February 18, 2021
Houston Low-Carbon Energy Webcast Series: Hydrogen Council Executive Director Daryl Wilson
CHF is excited to announce the launch of our 2021 Houston Low-Carbon Energy Webcast Series. The first installment, Leading in the Low-Carbon Economy: Houston as a Hydrogen Hub, features Hydrogen Council Executive Director Daryl Wilson discussing Houston’s potential to help lead the energy transition as a low-carbon hydrogen hub.

February 24, 2021
Houston Climate Action Plan: The Role of Public-Private Partnerships
CHF CEO Brett Perlman will moderate a discussion with Jane Stricker from bp and Lara Cottingham, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Houston, about this important public-private partnership.

2020 Houston Low-Carbon Energy Innovation Summit
2019 Houston Low-Carbon Energy Summit