Partner Tulsa Secures $100K Federal Grant To Attract Clean Energy Companies, Boost Local Jobs

Partner Tulsa is making a big push to bring clean energy companies to Tulsa with the help of $100,000 in federal money.

Tulsa is already known for its energy industry, once being the center of the oil boom in the country.

Now, the City wants to bring in more companies working in energy, but in the battery, technology and manufacturing space.

They hope to bring more high-paying jobs to Tulsa.

"We're not exclusive to just phones or EVs or even the AA batteries that you buy off the shelf. We can work across those chemistries to improve battery performance," Ten-Nine Technologies Founder & CEO Paige Johnson said.

Johnson's company makes materials that go inside batteries. She's a Tulsa and her entire company is based here.

"Tulsa is a great place to found a company and to grow a company, and the cost of living in that really matters. I started my company with $100,000 that would have lasted me, you know, two months in Silicon Valley," Johnson said.

Companies like hers are exactly what Partner Tulsa wants to attract.

"We want to see businesses grow and we want to see jobs created in energy expansion here in Tulsa," Michelle Barnett with Partner Tulsa said.

That expansion is already underway in this part of the state.

Energy start-up StarDust said it will build the largest lithium processing plant in the country just outside Muskogee.

"But they're looking for places where they can really expand and manufacture and Oklahoma is a great place to do that," Barnett said.

Now, in a city known for the oil boom in the early 1900s, another boom could be brewing.

"This is just a new form of energy that really is the foundational technology of the 21st century, much as oil refining was in the 20th century," Johnson said.

The money from the grant will help fund a clean energy summit hosted in Tulsa in 2025.