battery expansion

$135 million in funding secured for new Houston battery storage facility

SMT Energy is expected to bring a new battery storage facility online next year to support the ERCOT grid. Photo via Getty Images

Boulder, Colorado-based SMT Energy has secured $135 million in funding for a 160-megawatt battery energy storage facility, dubbed SMT Houston IV, according to an announcement.

The new facility will work to support the ERCOT grid by providing access to stored energy. The project is expected to be online by 2026 and store and dispatch enough electricity to power 8,800 homes in Texas annually.

Macquarie and KeyBanc Capital Markets were joint lead arrangers in a $100 million project financing facility. Macquarie's Commodities and Global Markets business will also provide a preferred equity investment and are mandated to sell the project's investment tax credits of approximately $62 million, according to SMT. KeyBanc will also act as a financial advisor to SMT.

North Carolina-based battery energy storage integrator FlexGen Power Systems will obtain equipment for the project. The project will also use FlexGen's energy management system software. The software provides site integration, site control and advanced analytics insights to maximize the availability and operating ranges of battery energy storage assets.

"FlexGen is proud to partner with SMT Energy on the deployment of the SMT Houston IV project, which will deliver critical services to the dynamic ERCOT power grid," Jason Abiecunas, Executive Vice President of Business Development with FlexGen said in the release.

In 2023, SMT Energy and joint venture partner SUSI Partners announced plans to add 10 battery storage projects to Texas, doubling capacity from 100 megawatts to 200 megawatts in the Houston and Dallas areas. SMT has a 2 gigawatt per hour pipeline of battery energy storage projects in ERCOT and Southwest Power Pool targeted for commercial operation by 2030, according to the release.

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A View From HETI

A federal judge has thrown out President Trump's executive order blocking wind energy development, calling it 'arbitrary and capricious.' Photo by Moritz Lange via Unsplash.

In a win for clean energy and wind projects in Texas and throughout the U.S., a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s “Day One” executive order that blocked wind energy development on federal lands and waters, the Associated Press reports.

Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s executive order from Jan. 20, declaring it unlawful and calling it “arbitrary and capricious.”

The challenge was led by a group of state attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., which was led by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The coalition pushed back against Trump's order , arguing that the administration didn’t have the authority to halt project permitting, and that efforts would critically impact state economies, the energy industry, public health and climate relief efforts.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Associated Press that wind projects were given unfair treatment during the Biden Administration and cited that the rest of the energy industry suffered from regulations.

According to the American Clean Power Association, wind is the largest source of renewable energy in the U.S. It provides 10 percent of the electricity generated—and growing. Texas leads the nation in wind electricity generation, accounting for 28 percent of the U.S. total in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Several clean-energy initiatives have been disrupted by recent policy changes, impacting Houston projects.

The Biden era Inflation Reduction Act’s 10-year hydrogen incentive was shortened under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, prompting ExxonMobil to pause its Baytown low-carbon hydrogen project. That project — and two others in the Houston region — also lost federal support as part of a broader $700 million cancellation tied to DOE cuts.

Meanwhile, Texas House Democrats have urged the administration to restore a $250 million Solar for All grant that would have helped low-income households install solar panels.

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