Hot or not

Austin honored as one of America's hottest startup cities by Inc. magazine

Austin aerial skyline with bridges and Lady Bird Lake

Only San Fran is hotter for startups.

Ryan Conine/Getty Images

It's not just Texas' weather that's hot. Three Lone Star State cities recently made Inc. magazine's list of hot startup cities, with Austin landing at No. 2.

The list came out of the Inc. 5000 report — the magazine's list of the fastest-growing 5,000 privately held companies in the United States — and was ranked by the three-year revenue growth of each of the cities' companies.

Austin boasted a three-year revenue growth of 259 percent, with 87 companies on the 2019 Inc. 5000 list.

The Capital City is praised for its "high rate of entrepreneurship and job creation" in the article, as well as for having outposts for top tech companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google. Inc. also highlights "innovative food businesses," including veggie noodle maker Cece's Veggie Co. (No. 3) and handcrafted chocolatier Maggie Louise Confections (No. 650).

Another Texas city on the list, Houston (No. 9), had a three-year revenue growth rate of 117 percent and 84 Inc. 5000 companies. The article calls out Houston for its construction industry, which "grew tremendously to help rebuild and repair" after Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017.

Right behind Houston is No. 10 Dallas, which had a three-year revenue growth of 113 percent and 74 companies on the 2019 Inc. 5000 list. Inc. calls out Dallas for its "low regulations, zero corporate income taxes, and the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, or DEC, which is a nonprofit organization serving as a hub for startup networking, funding, and mentorship."

Here's the full list:

San Francisco
Austin
New York City
San Diego
Atlanta
Denver
Los Angeles
Chicago
Houston
Dallas

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A version of this story originally was published on InnovationMap.

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Power Up

$1.4 billion Texas project to match 446,000 cars in clean energy yearly

Photo courtesy of SMECI

The San Miguel Electric Cooperative has received a major investment for clean energy.

The United States Department of Agriculture recently announced that San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc., located in Christine, Texas, in Atascosa County, just outside of San Antonio, will transition its operations to produce 600 megawatts of energy using solar panels and a battery energy storage system (BESS).

The project is expected to reduce climate pollution by 1.8 tons annually, the equivalent to removing 446,000 cars from the road each year, says USDA.

The project with the San Miguel Electric Cooperative plans to use the more than $1.4 billion investment to procure 600 megawatts of renewable energy through solar voltaic panels and a battery energy storage system to power 47 counties across rural South Texas. The clean project also hopes to support as many as 600 jobs.

This is part of the more than $4.37 billion in clean energy investments through the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program, which has rural electric cooperatives supporting the economy via job creation, lowering electricity costs for businesses and families, and reducing climate pollution. The New ERA was made possible by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936.

San Miguel plans to convert its operations to a 400-megawatt solar generation facility and 200-megawatt battery storage facility, and the transition should be complete by 2027. Currently, San Miguel produces 391 megawatts of electricity through a contract with South Texas Electric Cooperative (STEC).

“USDA is committed to enhancing the quality of life and improving air and water in our rural communities,” Secretary Tom Vilsack says in a news release. “The Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investments enable USDA to partner with rural electric cooperatives to strengthen America’s energy security and lower electricity bills for hardworking families, farmers and small business owners.”

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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