Oxy's cleantech arm scores Amazon DAC investment

carbon capture client

Amazon has agreed to buy 250,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits from 1PointFive’s first DAC plant. Photo via 1pointfive.com

Houston-based cleantech company 1PointFive is among the recipients of e-commerce giant Amazon’s first investments in carbon-fighting direct air capture (DAC).

Amazon has agreed to buy 250,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits from Stratos, 1PointFive’s first DAC plant, over a 10-year span. That commitment is equivalent to the amount of carbon stored naturally across more than 290,000 acres of U.S. forecasts, says Amazon.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

1PointFive is a carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) subsidiary of Houston-based energy company Occidental Petroleum.

The carbon captured for Amazon will be stored deep underground in saline aquifers — large geological rock formations that are saturated in saltwater.

As Amazon explains, DAC technology filters CO2 from the atmosphere and stores it in underground geological formations. Aside from being stored, removed carbon can be used to make building materials like bricks, cement, and concrete.

1PointFive is constructing its first DAC plant in Ector County, which is anchored by Odessa. The facility is expected to be the world’s largest DAC plant, capturing up to 500,000 tons of CO2 per year. Amazon Web Services (AWS) will provide real-time performance data for the plant.

“Amazon’s purchase and long-term contract represent a significant commitment to direct air capture as a vital carbon removal solution,” Michael Avery, president and general manager of 1PointFive, says in a news release. “We are excited to collaborate with Amazon to help them achieve their sustainability goals.”

1PointFive broke ground on the Stratos plant in April. Its project partners include British Columbia-based Carbon Engineering and Australia-based Worley. The plant is expected to be fully operational by mid-2025.

1PointFive envisions establishing more than 100 DAC facilities around the world by 2035.

The Amazon deal isn’t the only major deal for 1Point5 this summer.

In August, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $600 million grant for a 1PointFive-operated DAC hub that will be built in South Texas. The more than 100,000-acre hub, comprising 30 individual DAC projects, eventually may remove and store up to 30 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

Also in August, Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) said it reached an agreement with 1PointFive to buy 10,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits per year over a three-year period starting in 2025. The credits will be generated by 1PointFive’s Stratos plant.

In the U.S., DAC has gotten a huge boost from the federal government. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, includes tax credits for capturing and storing carbon via DAC.

The International Energy Agency says 27 DAC plants have been commissioned around the world, with at least 130 more in the development stage. One forecast predicts the value of the global market for DAC systems will climb past $2.3 billion by 2030.

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Major Houston energy companies join new Carbon Measures coalition

green team

Six companies with a large presence in the Houston area have joined a new coalition of companies pursuing a better way to track the carbon emissions of products they manufacture, purchase and finance.

Houston-area members of the Carbon Measures coalition are:

Spring-based ExxonMobil
Air Liquide, whose U.S. headquarters is in Houston
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, whose U.S. headquarters is in Houston
Honeywell, whose Performance Materials and Technologies business is based in Houston.
BASF, whose global oilfield solutions business is based in Houston
Linde, whose Linde Engineering Americas business is based in Houston

Carbon Measures will create an accounting framework that eliminates double-counting of carbon pollution and attributes emissions to their sources, said Amy Brachio, the group’s CEO. The model is expected to take two years to develop, and between five and seven years to scale up, Bloomberg reported.

The coalition wants to create a system that will “unleash markets and competition,” unlock investments and speed up the pace of emissions reduction, said Brachio, former vice chair of sustainability at professional services firm EY.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” said Darren Woods, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil. “The first step to reducing global emissions is to know where they’re coming from — and today, we don’t have an accurate system to do this.”

Other members of the coalition include BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners, Banco Satanader, EY and NextEra Energy.

“Transparent and consistent emissions accounting is not just a technical necessity — it’s a strategic imperative. It enables smarter decisions and accelerates real progress across industries and borders,” said Ken West, president and CEO of Honeywell Energy and Sustainability Solutions.

Wind and solar supplied over a third of ERCOT power, report shows

power report

Since 2023, wind and solar power have been the fastest-growing sources of electricity for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and increasingly are meeting stepped-up demand, according to a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The report says utility-scale solar generated 50 percent more electricity for ERCOT in the first nine months this year compared with the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, electricity generated by wind power rose 4 percent in the first nine months of this year versus the same period in 2024.

Together, wind and solar supplied 36 percent of ERCOT’s electricity in the first nine months of 2025.

Heavier reliance on wind and solar power comes amid greater demand for ERCOT electricity. In the first nine months of 2025, ERCOT recorded the fastest growth in electricity demand (5 percent) among U.S. power grids compared with the same period last year, according to the report.

“ERCOT’s electricity demand is forecast to grow faster than that of any other grid operator in the United States through at least 2026,” the report says.

EIA forecasts demand for ERCOT electricity will climb 14 percent in the first nine months of 2026 compared with the same period this year. This anticipated jump coincides with a number of large data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities coming online next year.

The ERCOT grid covers about 90 percent of Texas’ electrical load.

Micro-nuclear reactor to launch next year at Texas A&M innovation campus

nuclear pilot

The Texas A&M University System and Last Energy plan to launch a micro-nuclear reactor pilot project next summer at the Texas A&M-RELLIS technology and innovation campus in Bryan.

Washington, D.C.-based Last Energy will build a 5-megawatt reactor that’s a scaled-down version of its 20-megawatt reactor. The micro-reactor initially will aim to demonstrate safety and stability, and test the ability to generate electricity for the grid.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) fast-tracked the project under its New Reactor Pilot Program. The project will mark Last Energy’s first installation of a nuclear reactor in the U.S.

Private funds are paying for the project, which Robert Albritton, chairman of the Texas A&M system’s board of regents, said is “an example of what’s possible when we try to meet the needs of the state and tap into the latest technologies.”

Glenn Hegar, chancellor of the Texas A&M system, said the 5-megawatt reactor is the kind of project the system had in mind when it built the 2,400-acre Texas A&M-RELLIS campus.

The project is “bold, it’s forward-looking, and it brings together private innovation and public research to solve today’s energy challenges,” Hegar said.

As it gears up to build the reactor, Last Energy has secured a land lease at Texas A&M-RELLIS, obtained uranium fuel, and signed an agreement with DOE. Founder and CEO Bret Kugelmass said the project will usher in “the next atomic era.”

In February, John Sharp, chancellor of Texas A&M’s flagship campus, said the university had offered land at Texas A&M-RELLIS to four companies to build small modular nuclear reactors. Power generated by reactors at Texas A&M-RELLIS may someday be supplied to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid.

Also in February, Last Energy announced plans to develop 30 micro-nuclear reactors at a 200-acre site about halfway between Lubbock and Fort Worth.

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