Hello from Texas! I\u2019m in Corpus Christi and Houston this week to meet with some of the remarkable innovators building America\u2019s clean energy future. It\u2019s going to be a great trip.<\/p>\n
If you want to see what the cutting edge of next-gen clean energy innovation looks like, it\u2019d be hard to find a place better than Texas. Amazing companies are breaking ground not just here in Southeast Texas but across the state. Each one represents a huge boon for the local economy, America\u2019s energy security, and the fight against climate change.<\/p>\n
The world is undergoing an energy transition right now, fueled by the development and deployment of new clean energy technologies. The pace of innovation at the heart of this transition is happening faster than many people (including me!) dared hope. The progress makes me optimistic about the future\u2014and excited about the role that American communities will play, especially in places like Texas. Breakthrough Energy and I have invested more than $130 million into Texas-based entrepreneurs, institutions, and projects. It\u2019s a big bet, but it\u2019s one I\u2019m confident in.<\/p>\n
Why? Because of the people. Nearly half a million Texans work in the oil and gas industry, and their skills are directly transferrable to next-generation industries. This workforce will help form the backbone of the world\u2019s new clean energy economy, and it will cement Texas\u2019s energy leadership for generations to come.<\/p>\n
Many of the companies I\u2019m seeing on this trip already employ or plan to employ oil and gas workers. One of those companies is\u00a0Infinium<\/a>, which is working on next-generation clean fuels for trucks, ships, and even planes. I\u2019m visiting their first demonstration plant in Corpus Christi, where they\u2019re turning waste CO2 and renewable energy into electrofuels\u2014or eFuels\u2014for trucks. They\u2019ve already signed a deal with Amazon, and sometime soon, if you live in the area, you might get a delivery supported by Infinium eDiesel.<\/p>\n The key to Infinium\u2019s approach is that their fuels can be dropped into existing engines. That\u2019s huge. It means that companies won\u2019t have to adapt their fleets, removing one of the biggest hurdles to transitioning to a new fuel. I\u2019m especially excited about the work they\u2019re doing on sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF\u2014which could reduce emissions from air travel by as much as 90 percent, according to company estimates. Infinium is in the process of converting an old\u00a0gas-to-liquid<\/a>\u00a0plant in West Texas into a new facility that will increase the company\u2019s capacity for producing eFuels ten-fold. Breakthrough Energy\u2019s Catalyst program has invested in this first-of-its-kind plant, and I can\u2019t wait to see it when it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n Another company I\u2019ll see is\u00a0Mars Materials<\/a>. They\u2019re a\u00a0Breakthrough Energy Fellows<\/a>\u00a0project working on a different way to reuse CO2. The company is developing a clever technique for turning captured carbon into one of the key components in carbon fiber, an ultra-light, ultra-strong material that is used in everything from clothing to car frames. (If you\u2019ve never played pickleball with a carbon fiber racket, I recommend trying it\u2014you won\u2019t believe how much power you get with your shots!) The Mars Materials team relocated from California to Texas in part because of the skilled oil and gas talent that they could access in the state, and they aren\u2019t the first Breakthrough Energy company to do that. I\u2019m going to check out their lab, where their scientists are hard at work optimizing the conversion process.<\/p>\n Both of the companies I just mentioned are turning CO2 into useful products. Their business models assume that they\u2019ll have access to lots of carbon. Fortunately for them, Texas is also in the process of becoming a capital for direct air capture. DAC is the process of removing carbon directly from the air. The captured carbon can either be sequestered underground or reused by companies like Infinium and Mars Materials. A\u00a0recent study<\/a>\u00a0found that Texas has the greatest DAC deployment potential in the country and could create as many as 400,000 jobs by 2050.<\/p>\n DAC is the fire extinguisher of clean energy technologies: It\u2019s something you hope you will never need but should have ready if (and when) you do. In an ideal world, we\u2019d adopt clean energy quickly enough that we wouldn\u2019t need to remove carbon from the air. In reality, that hasn\u2019t happened. We already have decades of legacy emissions that we\u2019ll need to clean up, so we need a significant DAC industry.<\/p>\n During my visit, I\u2019ll meet with local business and community leaders involved in the development of a DAC Hub in Kingsville, Texas. The Hub is the brainchild of Occidental\u2019s\u00a01PointFive<\/a>, and over the next five years, it will bring an estimated 2,500 jobs to the community. I was an early investor in direct air capture technology, and it\u2019s super cool to see it evolve from a concept to real economic opportunity for a local community.<\/p>\n The DAC project has been selected to receive a grant from the Department of Energy as a result of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Having been involved in some of the early discussions of the clean energy bills a couple years ago, I\u2019m amazed to see how much progress has been made since then\u2014and eager to meet with the people moving it forward. The DAC Hubs are a perfect example of how innovation can and should work. Private investors take on risks in developing cutting-edge innovations, which are then scaled up through a mix of public and private investments.<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be an exciting couple of days. I\u2019m looking forward to catching up with leaders from many of the Breakthrough Energy-supported companies based in the area. I\u2019ll talk about the tremendous potential I see in clean industries at CERAWeek, one of the biggest annual energy conferences in the United States. I\u2019m also going to learn more about the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub being developed in the area, and I\u2019ll tour\u00a0Air Liquide<\/a>\u2019s hydrogen facility in the town of La Porte. Their plant uses\u00a0steam methane reforming<\/a>\u00a0to generate hydrogen fuel for industry, and it will be retrofitted in the coming years to eliminate its emissions. (As I\u2019ve written before,\u00a0hydrogen will play a key role in the energy transition<\/a>.)<\/p>\n All the companies I\u2019ll see in Texas this week are at the heart of the energy transition. They\u2019re driving innovation, bringing good jobs to their communities, and boosting the American economy. If you want to catch a glimpse of our country\u2019s clean energy future, you should head on down to the Lone Star State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello from Texas! I\u2019m in Corpus Christi and Houston this week to meet with some of the remarkable innovators building America\u2019s clean energy future. It\u2019s going to be a great trip. If you want to see what the cutting edge of next-gen clean energy innovation looks like, it\u2019d be hard to find a place better …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n