Clean Energy & Power Technology

The Austin Clean Energy Engine

Austin Energy has been ranked the top green public power utility in the nation for its GreenChoice renewable power program for seven consecutive years by NREL. Austin Energy has collaborated with municipal entities to create the Pecan Street Research Institute, an effort to develop a smart grid and business model for utilities that seamlessly integrates distributed solar and wind power, energy storage, and electric vehicles. Austin is also the headquarters for The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s independent electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 75 percent of Texas. ERCOT provides clean energy companies access to one of the largest independent, deregulated electric grids in the United States.

Our clean energy engine includes:

• An established center for clean technology headquarters, R&D, and manufacturing operations. Austin has over 200 existing clean technology companies that employ 20,000 people.
• University of Texas at Austin: The world’s preeminent energy research institution with concentrations in oil, gas, advanced materials, advanced computing, and cleantech.
• The University of Texas Clean Energy Incubator: a clean energy start-up resource provider.
• Clean TX: a cluster development organization.
• Pecan Street Research Institute: a partnership between the city of Austin, Austin Chamber of Commerce, Austin Energy, Environmental Defense Fund, and the University of Texas at Austin to create a test bead new smart grid technologies.
• Pike Powers Commercialization Lab: a Pecan Street Inc. initiative with a physical building that offers specialized capabilities for developing, testing, and validating consumer electronics and applications that incorporate metrology, building controls, solar PV, natural gas fuel cell, machine-to-machine, vehicle charging, and disaggregation technologies.

Austin's Commitment to Cleantech & the Environment

Austin has made a commitment to clean energy—and to the environment.

Whether you’re working with solar or wind power, fuel cells, biomass and geothermal resources, biofuels, or sustainable energy-saving technologies, Austin is the right place, and now is the right time to plug in to the clean energy industry.

As the capital of Texas, Austin offers unmatched access to the power players of the global energy industry. A community with a strong commitment to the environment, sustainability, and quality of life, Austin is making its mark as the clean energy capital of the world.

The private and public sectors, local utilities, major energy users, non-profits, and educational institutions are all working together to put Austin at the center of the clean energy map. In fact, Austin has been ranked as the top cleantech innovation hub in the nation by CleanEdge, CICE, SustainLane, Forbes, TIME, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and many others. Today in Austin, we have a healthy and diverse cleantech economy, which includes wind turbine manufacturing, solar inverter technologies, advanced batteries, smart grid, biofuels, electric vehicles, green building, and a wide array of energy efficiency technologies.

A recognized center of technology innovation, Austin has the infrastructure and talent to support pioneering clean energy efforts. From major manufacturing to services and start-ups, Austin is a proven location for the knowledge-based economy.

Austin's Green Tech Trend

Austin's Clean Energy Industry

Cleantech Patent Activity 2011-2016

Source: Brookings Institution, April 2017.
Austin ranks in the top 20 among all U.S. metros for the number of cleantech patents awarded from 2011 to 2016.