patent progress

Houston sustainability startup secures major milestone for energy efficient tool

This innovative window treatment startup announced new global patents. Photo courtesy of INOVUES

A Houston company that retrofits windows with smart glass innovations to reduce energy use is celebrating a handful of patents across North America and China.

INOVUES announced it secured several new patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Patent Office, and the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

“These newly awarded patents reinforce our commitment to innovation and position us as a trusted partner for investors and industry partners,” says Anas Al Kassas, INOVUES founder and CEO, in a news release.

The company now has a total of four patents granted in the United States, Canada, and China, and four more patents pending in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. Additionally, INOVUES has trademark protection granted in the EU, United Kingdom, and China.

INOVUES's unique window treatment — its Insulating Glass Retrofit (IGR) and Secondary Glass Retrofit (SWR) technologies — directly impacts the built environment. The process includes 70 percent fewer materials compared to traditional methods and building owners see a 40 percent reduction in reduction in energy consumption following installation.

Last year, the company raised $2.75 million in venture funding. Kassas said at the time that the funding was slated o be used to scale up the team and identify the best markets to target customers, adding that he was looking for regions with rising energy rates and sizable incentives for companies making energy efficient changes.

"We were able to now implement our technology in over 4 million square feet of building space — from Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, and very soon in Canada," he said in a December episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast.

Anas Al Kassas is the CEO and founder of INOVUES. Photo courtesy

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A View From HETI

The deal builds upon an existing partnership between Fervo and Google. Photo courtesy Fervo Energy

In its largest-ever purchase agreement, Houston-based geothermal company Fervo Energy will supply 396 megawatts of power to tech powerhouse Google.

The deal includes an option for Google to expand capacity by about 600 megawatts, for a total of 1 gigawatt, by June 2030, according to a news release from Fervo. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Google will purchase carbon-free energy from Fervo for a potential data center in Utah, where Fervo is building its more than $2 billion Cape Station geothermal project.

Fervo applies oil-and-gas fracking technology to create geothermal reservoirs and generate electricity.

The first phase of Cape Station is expected to begin delivering geothermal power by late 2026, reaching about 100 megawatts of capacity by early 2027. The second phase, set for completion in 2028, will add 400 megawatts of capacity.

Fervo co-founder and CEO Tim Latimer said in a release that the Google agreement supports enhanced geothermal systems as a key power source for “the next generation of computing infrastructure.”

“The next chapter of advanced power generation technology is being written in Utah,” said Lucia Tian, director of advanced energy technologies at Google.

The Fervo-Google agreement builds on an existing partnership. Fervo’s Project Red pilot development in Nevada, which came online in 2023, supplies power to the local grid. Users of the grid power include Google’s data centers in Nevada.

Fervo subsequently signed a 115-megawatt purchase agreement with Google and NV Energy. The deal enabled Google to bring more geothermal energy to the Nevada grid while insulating everyday customers from the project’s costs.

The latest Google deal is part of the ongoing expansion of Cape Station beyond its initial 100-megawatt phase. Fervo says Cape Station will be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal facility.

The Google agreement comes during a milestone year for Fervo, which was founded in 2017. In May, Fervo’s IPO raised $2.2 billion. The company, whose early investors include Bill Gates, is now valued at $5.65 billion.

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