我在得克萨斯州见证未来 | 盖茨笔记
来自得克萨斯州的问候！这周我将在科珀斯克里斯蒂和休斯顿，会见一些正在构建美国清洁能源未来的杰出创新者。这也将是一次很棒的旅行。
如果你想了解下一代清洁能源创新的最前沿，很难找到比得克萨斯州更好的地方。不仅在得克萨斯州东南部，在全州各地都有令人惊叹的公司在破土动工。每一家公司都代表着对当地经济、美国能源安全和应对气候变化的巨大贡献。
在新型清洁能源技术的开发和应用推动下，世界正在经历能源转型。作为转型核心的创新步伐之快超出了许多人（包括我在内！）的想象。这些进展让我对未来感到乐观，也让我对美国社区将发挥的作用感到兴奋，尤其是在得克萨斯州这样的地方。突破能源（Breakthrough Energy）和我已经向得克萨斯州的企业家、机构和项目投资了超过1.3亿美元。这是一个很大的赌注，但我对此充满信心。
为什么充满信心？因为那里的人。近50万得州人在石油和天然气行业工作，他们的技能可以直接转移到下一代产业中。这支劳动力队伍将帮助构建世界新的清洁能源经济的骨干，并将在未来几代人的时间里巩固得克萨斯州在能源领域的领先地位。
在这次旅行中，我看到的许多公司已经或计划雇佣石油和天然气工人。Infinium公司就是其中之一，该公司正在开发用于卡车、轮船，甚至飞机的下一代清洁燃料。我正在参观他们位于科珀斯克里斯蒂的第一家示范工厂，在那里他们将废弃的二氧化碳和可再生能源转化为用于卡车的电燃料（或称为eFuels）。他们已经与亚马逊签订了协议，不久的将来，如果你住在该地区，很可能就会收到由Infinium eDiseal支持的递送。
Infinium方法的关键在于，他们的燃料可以添加到现有的发动机中。这是巨大的进步，意味着公司无需调整其车队，从而消除了过渡到新燃料的最大障碍之一。我尤其对他们在可持续航空燃料（SAF）方面所做的工作感到兴奋——根据公司的估计，新燃料可能将航空旅行的排放减少高达90%。Infinium正在将得克萨斯州西部的一个旧的液化气工厂改造成新工厂，并使eFuels的产能增加十倍。突破能源（Breakthrough Energy）的催化剂（Catalyst）项目已经投资了这家首创的工厂，我也迫不及待地想看到它建成后的样子。
另一家我要见的公司是Mars Materials。他们是突破能源研究员（Breakthrough Energy Fellows）项目的一员，正在研究一种不同的二氧化碳再利用方式。该公司正在开发一种巧妙的技术，将捕获的碳转化为碳纤维的主要成分之一，碳纤维是一种超轻、超强的材料，可用于从服装到汽车车架的所有领域。(如果你从未用碳纤维球拍打过皮克球，我建议你尝试一下——你会惊讶于你的击球有多强劲！）。Mars Materials团队从加利福尼亚州搬迁到得克萨斯州，部分原因是他们可以在该州找到熟练的石油和天然气人才，他们也不是第一家这样做的突破能源公司。我要去看看他们的实验室，那里的科学家们正在努力优化转换过程。
我刚才提到的两家公司都在将二氧化碳转化为有用的产品。它们的商业模式都假定可以获得大量的碳。幸运的是，得克萨斯州也正在成为直接空气捕集（Direct Air Capture, DAC）之都。DAC是直接从空气中除碳的过程。捕获的碳可以封存在地下，或者被Infinium和Mars Materials这样的公司再利用。最近的一项研究发现，得克萨斯州拥有全国最大的DAC部署潜力，到2050年可创造多达40万个工作岗位。
DAC是清洁能源技术的灭火器：它是你希望永远用不上，但在需要时应该准备好的东西。在理想的世界里，我们会足够快地采用清洁能源，以至于我们不需要从空气中除碳。但现实情况并非如此。我们已经有几十年的遗留排放需要清理，因此我们需要一个规模可观的DAC产业。
访问期间，我将会见参与得克萨斯州金斯维尔一个DAC中心开发项目的当地商界和社区领袖。该中心是西方石油公司旗下子公司1PointFive的构想，在未来五年将为社区带来约2500个工作岗位。我是直接空气捕集技术的早期投资者，看到它从一个概念发展成为当地社区真正的经济机遇，我感到非常高兴。
作为《两党基础设施法案》的成果之一，DAC项目已被选中获得能源部的拨款。几年前，我曾参与过清洁能源法案的一些早期讨论，我惊讶地看到自那时起取得了多大的进展——并且急切地想要会见推动它前进的人。DAC中心是一个完美的例子，说明了创新可以而且应该如何发挥作用。私人投资者承担开发前沿创新的风险，然后通过公共和私人投资相结合的方式扩大创新规模。
这将是令人兴奋的几天。我期待着与该地区许多由突破能源支持的公司的领导人会面。我将在CERAWeek（美国最大的年度能源会议之一）上谈论我所看到的清洁产业的巨大潜力。我还将进一步了解该地区正在开发的区域清洁氢能中心，并参观液化空气集团（Air Liquide）位于拉波特镇的氢气工厂。他们的工厂利用蒸汽甲烷重整技术生产工业用氢燃料，并将在未来几年进行改造，以消除其排放。（正如我之前所写，氢气将在能源转型中发挥关键作用）。
本周我将在得克萨斯州见到的所有公司都是能源转型的核心企业。它们正在推动创新，为社区带来好工作，并促进美国经济的增长。如果你想一睹我们国家清洁能源的未来，你应该去孤星州（注：得克萨斯州别称）。
Hello from Texas! I’m in Corpus Christi and Houston this week to meet with some of the remarkable innovators building America’s clean energy future. It’s going to be a great trip.
If you want to see what the cutting edge of next-gen clean energy innovation looks like, it’d 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’s energy security, and the fight against climate change.
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—and 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’s a big bet, but it’s one I’m confident in.
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’s new clean energy economy, and it will cement Texas’s energy leadership for generations to come.
Many of the companies I’m seeing on this trip already employ or plan to employ oil and gas workers. One of those companies is Infinium, which is working on next-generation clean fuels for trucks, ships, and even planes. I’m visiting their first demonstration plant in Corpus Christi, where they’re turning waste CO2 and renewable energy into electrofuels—or eFuels—for trucks. They’ve already signed a deal with Amazon, and sometime soon, if you live in the area, you might get a delivery supported by Infinium eDiesel.
The key to Infinium’s approach is that their fuels can be dropped into existing engines. That’s huge. It means that companies won’t have to adapt their fleets, removing one of the biggest hurdles to transitioning to a new fuel. I’m especially excited about the work they’re doing on sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF—which 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 gas-to-liquid plant in West Texas into a new facility that will increase the company’s capacity for producing eFuels ten-fold. Breakthrough Energy’s Catalyst program has invested in this first-of-its-kind plant, and I can’t wait to see it when it’s done.
Another company I’ll see is Mars Materials. They’re a Breakthrough Energy Fellows project 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’ve never played pickleball with a carbon fiber racket, I recommend trying it—you won’t 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’t the first Breakthrough Energy company to do that. I’m going to check out their lab, where their scientists are hard at work optimizing the conversion process.
Both of the companies I just mentioned are turning CO2 into useful products. Their business models assume that they’ll 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 recent study found that Texas has the greatest DAC deployment potential in the country and could create as many as 400,000 jobs by 2050.
DAC is the fire extinguisher of clean energy technologies: It’s something you hope you will never need but should have ready if (and when) you do. In an ideal world, we’d adopt clean energy quickly enough that we wouldn’t need to remove carbon from the air. In reality, that hasn’t happened. We already have decades of legacy emissions that we’ll need to clean up, so we need a significant DAC industry.
During my visit, I’ll 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’s 1PointFive, 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’s super cool to see it evolve from a concept to real economic opportunity for a local community.
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’m amazed to see how much progress has been made since then—and 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.
It’s going to be an exciting couple of days. I’m looking forward to catching up with leaders from many of the Breakthrough Energy-supported companies based in the area. I’ll talk about the tremendous potential I see in clean industries at CERAWeek, one of the biggest annual energy conferences in the United States. I’m also going to learn more about the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub being developed in the area, and I’ll tour Air Liquide’s hydrogen facility in the town of La Porte. Their plant uses steam methane reforming to generate hydrogen fuel for industry, and it will be retrofitted in the coming years to eliminate its emissions. (As I’ve written before, hydrogen will play a key role in the energy transition.)
All the companies I’ll see in Texas this week are at the heart of the energy transition. They’re driving innovation, bringing good jobs to their communities, and boosting the American economy. If you want to catch a glimpse of our country’s clean energy future, you should head on down to the Lone Star State.