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Oregon energy storage company plans 450-megawatt facility in Galveston County

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The GridStor project will boost the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid. It’s GridStor’s first acquisition in ERCOT territory. Photo via gridstor.com

An Oregon startup has purchased a 450-megawatt battery energy storage project in Galveston County.

GridStor, a Portland, Oregon-based developer and operator of battery energy storage systems, bought the project from Moab, Utah-based Balanced Rock Power. The Utah company develops utility-scale solar and energy storage projects.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

GridStor, founded in 2022, is backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The Portland Business Journal reported last November that Goldman Sachs had raised a $410 million fund to fuel its energy storage strategy.

Construction on the Evelyn Battery Energy Storage project is scheduled to get underway this summer, with the system projected to go online in the spring of 2025.

“Battery storage is a scalable and near-term solution to powering historic load growth in Texas,” Chris Taylor, CEO of GridStor, says in a news release. “Every day, batteries are consistently providing energy to stabilize the power system and meet hours of greatest demand in the state.”

The GridStor project will boost the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid. It’s GridStor’s first acquisition in ERCOT territory.

The project will be built near the Hidden Lakes substation, which is owned by Texas-New Mexico Power, which now just serves Texas. This proximity will enable batteries to quickly begin grid-connected operations.

A national research institute recently opened a new lab and outpost adjacent to the University of Houston's campus. Photo via UH.edu

New research lab opens in University of Houston's tech transfer facility

seeing green

A national organization has opened a new Houston outpost at a local university campus.

The Electrochemical Safety Research Institute, or ESRI, of UL Research Institutes opened the doors to a new laboratory in Houston in November. The new space was established to further research renewable energy technologies.

“As the world transitions from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, we are working with research teams across several organizations to lay the scientific groundwork for safe and reliable energy storage alternatives,” says Judy Jeevarajan, ESRI’s executive director, in a news release. “Since several of our research partners are based in Houston, the natural progression was to open our own laboratory in the area.”

The lab is housed in the University of Houston Technology Bridge, a startup park next to the university’s main campus. A team of ESRI’s research scientists will have access to explore the safety and performance of renewable energy technologies. Per the release, ESRI already has ongoing projects with UH within hydrogen research, solid-state batteries, and the synthesis of magnesium-ion separators.

“We are significantly expanding both our capacity and scope to better meet today’s increasingly urgent safety challenges,” says Christopher J. Cramer, ULRI’s chief research officer. “Our new Houston facility is one element of that expansion. The lab will strengthen the synergies between ESRI and our research partners in the area and accelerate scientific discoveries to help create a safer, more sustainable world.”

The facility will also act as a homebase for all Houston-area collaborations. Per the release, the new lab "will also facilitate ESRI’s research partnership with Rice University on lithium-ion cell recycling and the research institute’s work with NASA’s Johnson Space Center on thermal runaway mitigation and micro-USB lithium-ion battery safety." The organization also collaborates with Houston-based Stress Engineering Services Inc.

“We’re delighted to welcome the Electrochemical Safety Research Institute to its new home in Houston,” says Chris Taylor, executive director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Innovation at the University of Houston, in the release. “Together, we can build upon our research culture of collaboration as we pursue innovations for the greater good.”

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Solar manufacturer announces massive new facility in Houston area

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SEG Solar has announced plans to open a new 1.15 million-square-foot solar module facility in Tomball—its third in the Houston area.

The news comes just weeks after the Houston-based solar manufacturer announced its second facility, which will be located in Cypress. It’s expected to open in August.

The latest 4.6-gigawatt facility in Tomball will include an assembly factory and a warehouse. Construction is slated to wrap in March 2027, with commercial panel production planned to begin in May 2027. Once completed, the facility will bring SEG’s annual U.S. module manufacturing capacity to 10.6 gigawatts, according to a news release from the company, one of the largest totals in the country.

The facility will produce heterojunction technology (HJT) modules, which the company says will add to the number of n-type solar panels made in the U.S. HJT modules are known to be more durable and are well suited for hotter climates.

“Designed to support next-generation HJT technology and FEOC-compliant production, the facility ensures reliable, high-efficiency solar solutions,” Raymond Bailey, sales manager at SEG Solar, said in a LinkedIn post. “ Alongside upstream integration in Indonesia and potential U.S. cell manufacturing, we are strengthening supply chain resilience amid evolving trade policies.”

SEG opened its $60 million, 250,000-square-foot facility in Houston in 2024 to house its production workshops, raw material warehouses, administrative offices, finished goods warehouses, and supporting infrastructure. The continued expansion is part of SEG’s long-term goal of becoming one of the largest 100 percent U.S.-owned module manufacturers.

Houston chemical co. completes successful field trial of cleaner natural gas processing tech

successful trial

Houston-based Merichem Technologies has announced successful results from the field trial of its new hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal technology in the Permian Basin.

The technology, known as ECOTREAT, removed more than 99 percent of hydrogen sulfide gas from natural gas streams, or “sour gas,” without producing solid waste during the month-long trial. It also showed sustained performance even when operating above the unit’s design capacity, according to a news release.

“The industry is continually seeking to reduce both the price and complexity of removing hydrogen sulfide from gas production, especially since oil production has shifted to increasingly sour sources, higher gas ratios, and higher water ratios,” Jeff Gomach, SVP, Merichem Technologies, said in a news release. “ECOTREAT met all its field trial objectives and provides a highly effective method for removing hydrogen sulfide to prevent equipment corrosion, ensure worker safety, meet environmental regulations, and maintain product quality for transport.

H2S found in natural gas can turn the gas toxic or hazardous and lead to corrosion in pipelines and processing equipment. However, standard H2S removal technologies create high levels of solid waste. ECOTREAT resolves many of those issues by using an aqueous-phase proprietary catalytic process that converts H2S into dissolved thiosulfate.

Next, Merichem says it plans to move the technology out of the pilot stage to full-scale commercialization.

Merichem, an 80-plus-year-old company, initially launched as a soap and industrial cleaning company. It eventually transitioned to focus on energy technology.

In 2024, Black Bay Energy acquired a portion of Merichem Process Technologies and Merichem Catalyst Products, which would become Merichem Technologies.

Cemvita reaches breakthrough in sustainable fuel feedstock production

clean fuels

Houston-based biotech company Cemvita announced that it recently reached a critical milestone in the development of its FermOil product, which can be used to create Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and other renewable fuels at industrial scale.

The company shared in a news release that it completed a 75,000-liter industrial fermentation run at Belgium's Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant.

The campaign achieved target technical metrics for the production of FermOil, Cemvita’s renewable natural oil (RNO). FermOil is produced from industrial crude glycerin, an industrial byproduct, as opposed to traditional sugar-based feedstocks used in many bio-oil fermentation processes. It's designed to be a drop-in feedstock for creating SAFs.

Cemvita had previously advanced its FermOil production process through multiple scale-up stages before successfully reaching the 75,000-liter demonstration campaign, according to the company.

“This is not just a fermentation milestone,” Moji Karimi, CEO at Cemvita, said in the release. “It is a blueprint for how existing industrial infrastructure can evolve into circular bioeconomy infrastructure. Every biodiesel plant generating crude glycerin is a potential platform for renewable natural oil production.”

The milestone also supports the deployment of Cemvita’s industrial biomanufacturing platform, FermWorks, which integrates with existing energy and industrial infrastructure to turn waste carbon streams into SAFs and other materials. According to the release, Cemvita plans to move forward with commercial deployment discussions with partners in Brazil, Europe and in the UK. Cemvita already has a partnership with the Brazilian sustainable research institution REMA.

“We are proud to support innovative companies like Cemvita in scaling breakthrough industrial biotechnology solutions,” Hendrik Waegeman, head of business operations at Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, added in the release. “Successfully operating at the 75,000-liter scale using a feedstock such as crude glycerin highlights both the maturity of the technology and the quality of the scale-up execution achieved by the Cemvita team.”

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