ADVERTISEABOUT USSUBMIT A STORYSUBSCRIBETERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY
Visit our family of Brands

Houston clean energy storage facility goes online to power ERCOT grid

green light

Jupiter Power's Callisto I is up and running. Photo courtesy of jupiterpower.io

A new battery energy storage facility in Houston is officially up and running to power the ERCOT grid with a supply of reliable, zero emissions power.

Jupiter Power announced the commercial operations launch of its 400-megawatt-hour battery facility, Callisto I, in central Houston on the site of the former HL&P H.O. Clarke fossil fuel power plant.

"Jupiter couldn't be prouder about bringing the Callisto I project online," Andy Bowman, CEO of Jupiter Power, says in a news release. "This project responds to lawmakers' calls to increase affordable and dispatchable new generation in an area where people need more power. Callisto I is the first energy storage project at this scale in the City of Houston and will help meet Houston's growing power needs while also increasing resiliency from extreme weather events."

The new project is Jupiter Power's ninth project to deliver energy storage to ERCOT — bringing its total ERCOT fleet to 1,375-megawatt-hour capacity — but its the first in the Houston area. The company is currently developing over 11,000 megawatts of projects across the country. Founded in 2017, Jupiter Power is headquartered in Austin and has offices in Houston and Chicago.

"The announcement of Jupiter Power's Callisto I Energy Storage project is significant and exciting for the region, as it's the first large-scale transmission-connected energy storage project in the City of Houston," Jane Stricker, senior vice president at the Greater Houston Partnership and executive director at the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, adds. "This critical project will help address peak power demand and is another great example of our region's leadership in scaling and deploying impactful solutions for an all the above energy future."

Among the company's financial backers is Houston-based EnCap Energy Transition, which invested in Jupiter Power via its Fund II.

From Your Site Articles
EnCap is ready to deploy growth capital to advance the energy transition. Photo via Getty Images

Houston energy transition growth capital firm closes $1.5B fund

A Houston-based energy transition-focused growth capital firm announced the close of its second fund to the tune of $1.5 billion.

EnCap Energy Transition's Fund II, or EETF II, was created to invest in solutions to decarbonize the power industry, and invest in low carbon fuels and carbon management.This second energy transition fund follows EnCap Energy Transition Fund I, a $1.2 billion fund that deployed capital to seven material portfolio company investments and four fund realizations with Broad Reach Power, Jupiter Power, Triple Oak, and Paloma Solar & Wind.

Previously, the company made investment commitments to five portfolio companies through EETF II, including Bildmore Renewables, Linea Energy, Parliament Solar, Power Transitions, and Arbor Renewable Gas. With the Bildmore arm, the EnCap fund aims to fuel development of renewable energy projects that can’t attract traditional tax equity financing.

EnCap expects to have 8-10 portfolio companies in EETF II in total.

"The EnCap Energy Transition team is proud to have raised a sizeable pool of capital to continue to invest in the opportunity created by the shift to a lower-carbon energy system,” EnCap Energy Transition Managing Partner Jim Hughes says in a news release.

“We greatly appreciate the strong support from our existing investor base and are pleased to have added a number of new, high-quality investors, both domestically and internationally," he continues. "Since our inception in 2019, we now manage approximately $2.7 billion of capital commitments to invest in decarbonization and are excited for the opportunities ahead of us."

Recently,EnCap was part of a deal in the battery energy storage business carrying an equity value of more than $1 billion. Engie purchased the majority of a startup . Broad Reach’s battery storage business from EnCap Energy Transition Fund I. Broad Reach launched in 2019 with backing from EnCap.

“We continue to believe all sources of energy are needed to support the world’s growing energy needs and that our Energy Transition Team will build off the significant success achieved to date,” said EnCap Managing Partner Jason DeLorenzo in a news release.

———

This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Bildmore expects to invest in 10 to 15 third-party, utility-scale clean energy projects each year. Photo via Bildmore.com

Houston renewables developer launches platform to invest in energy transition projects

new in Hou

Houston-based EnCap Energy Transition Fund has launched a platform that will take minority equity stakes in battery storage systems, solar energy systems, and other energy transition projects in the U.S.

With its new Bildmore arm, the EnCap fund aims to fuel development of renewable energy projects that can’t attract traditional tax equity financing. Bildmore expects to invest in 10 to 15 third-party, utility-scale clean energy projects each year.

Bildmore seeks to capitalize on clean energy incentives tucked into the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, including the ability of projects to sell tax credits. Specifically, the platform says it hopes to address “a chronic short supply” of tax equity deals due to heightened demand triggered by the inflation reduction law.

EnCap is no stranger to utility-scale solar power and battery storage systems. The fund backs Houston-based Broad Reach Power and Austin-based Jupiter Power, two of the largest players in the U.S. market for battery storage.

David Haug leads Bildmore as its CEO. He is co-founder and senior managing director of Houston-based Arctas Capital Group, which invests in energy infrastructure projects.

“Bildmore will focus on … battery storage and solar projects, particularly those which have chosen to leave all or part of their energy output available for ‘merchant’ sale rather than be sold under long-term contracts,” Haug says in a news release. “We want to help those development teams lacking the deep balance sheets typically required by tax equity providers.”

EnCap Investments, sponsor of the EnCap Energy Transition Fund, manages capital from more than 350 U.S. and international investors. Since its founding in 2019, EnCap Investments has raised 25 institutional investment funds totaling about $41 billion to support independent energy businesses in the U.S.

Broad Reach Power's battery storage assets piqued a French company's interest. Photo via broadreachpower.com

French company to acquire Houston-based battery storage startup in $1B deal

M&A Moves

A French utility company is buying the bulk of Houston-based Broad Reach Power’s battery energy storage business in a deal carrying an equity value of more than $1 billion.

Engie, has agreed to purchase the majority of the startup’s battery storage business from EnCap Energy Transition Fund I and three investment partners — New York City-based Yorktown Partners, Switzerland-based Mercuria Energy, and New York City-based Apollo Infrastructure Funds.

“This acquisition is fully in line with Engie’s strategy: It will contribute to the development of a low-carbon, affordable, and resilient energy system where flexible assets will play a critical role alongside renewables,” says Catherine MacGregor, the utility’s CEO.

Broad Reach launched in 2019 with backing from EnCap Energy Transition, an arm of Houston-based private equity firm EnCap Investments. Apollo Global Management, an asset manager that controls Apollo Infrastructure Funds, bought a 50 percent stake in Broad Reach in 2021.

The deal includes 350 megawatts of grid-scale battery assets that already are operating and 880 megawatts of assets under construction, primarily in the territory served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). It also includes a 1.7-gigawatt pipeline of battery storage projects that are in the advanced stage of development and a significant pipeline of early-stage projects.

In July, Broad Reach said it had lined up $435 million in credit facilities to support the 880 megawatts’ worth of systems under construction in Texas and California.

The Broad Reach acquisition does not include the company’s 1.8-gigawatt portfolio of solar and wind power projects, or its four gigawatt-hours’ worth of battery storage in the Mountain West.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but the Bloomberg news service reports the deal will cause Engie to “take a $1.6 billion hit” to it net debt.

Shawn Cumberland, managing partner of EnCap and chairman of Broad Reach, calls Broad Reach “the top battery storage player in the U.S. market.” And Corinne Still, an infrastructure partner at Apollo, refers to Broad Reach as “the leading and most innovative” battery energy storage operator in North America.

“It has been a terrific honor and pleasure to be part of the rapid growth of the U.S. energy storage sector from the very beginning and see our company grow into one of the top developers,” says Doug Moorehead, founder and COO of Broad Reach.

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Texas could topple Virginia as biggest data-center market by 2030, JLL report says

data analysis

Everything’s bigger in Texas, they say—and that phrase now applies to the state’s growing data-center presence.

A new report from commercial real estate services provider JLL says Texas could overtake Northern Virginia as the world’s largest data-center market by 2030. Northern Virginia is a longtime holder of that title.

What’s driving Texas’ increasingly larger role in the data-center market? The key factor is artificial intelligence.

Companies like Google and Microsoft need more energy-hungry data centers to power AI innovations. In a 2023 article, Forbes explained that AI models consume a lot of energy because of the massive amount of data used to train them, as well as the complexity of those models and the rising volume of tasks assigned to AI.

“The data-center sector has officially entered hyperdrive,” Andy Cvengros, executive managing director at JLL and co-leader of its U.S. data-center business, said in the report. “Record-low vacancy sustained over two consecutive years provides compelling evidence against bubble concerns, especially when nearly all our massive construction pipeline is already pre-committed by investment-grade tenants.”

Dallas-Fort Worth has long dominated the Texas data-center market. But in recent years, West Texas has emerged as a popular territory for building data-center campuses, thanks in large part to an abundance of land and energy. Nearly two-thirds of data-center construction underway now is happening in “frontier markets” like West Texas, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin, the JLL report says.

Northern Virginia, the current data-center champ in the U.S., boasted a data-center market with 6,315 megawatts of capacity at the end of 2025, the report says. That compares with 2,423 megawatts in Dallas-Fort Worth, 1,700 megawatts in the Austin-San Antonio corridor, 200 megawatts in West Texas, and 164 megawatts in Houston.

Fervo taps into its hottest-ever geothermal reservoir

heat record

Things are heating up at Houston-based geothermal power company Fervo Energy.

Fervo recently drilled its hottest well so far at a new geothermal site in western Utah. Fewer than 11 days of drilling more than 11,000 feet deep at Project Blanford showed temperatures above 555 degrees Fahrenheit, which exceeds requirements for commercial viability. Fervo used proprietary AI-driven analytics for the test.

Hotter geothermal reservoirs produce more energy and improve what’s known as energy conversion efficiency, which is the ratio of useful energy output to total energy input.

“Fervo’s exploration strategy has always been underpinned by the seamless integration of cutting-edge data acquisition and advanced analytics,” Jack Norbeck, Fervo’s co-founder and chief technology officer, said in a news release. “This latest ultra-high temperature discovery highlights our team’s ability to detect and develop EGS sweet spots using AI-enhanced geophysical techniques.”

Fervo says an independent review confirms the site’s multigigawatt potential.

The company has increasingly tapped into hotter and hotter geothermal reservoirs, going from 365 degrees at Project Red to 400 degrees at Cape Station and now more than 555 degrees at Blanford.

The new site expands Fervo’s geologic footprint. The Blanford reservoir consists of sedimentary formations such as sandstones, claystones and carbonates, which can be drilled more easily and cost-effectively than more commonly targeted granite formations.

Fervo ranks among the top-funded startups in the Houston area. Since its founding in 2017, the company has raised about $1.5 billion. In January, Fervo filed for an IPO that would value the company at $2 billion to $3 billion, according to Axios Pro.

Acquisitions and agreements fuel Houston energy news to know right now

Trending Topics

Editor's note: The top Houston energy news for the first half of February includes acquisitions, agreements, and must-attend events. Below are the five most-read EnergyCapitalHTX stories from Feb. 1-15, 2026:

Here are 5 must-attend Houston energy events for February 2026

Acquisitions and agreements fuel the top Houston energy news to knowCatch up on our top news for the first half of February. Courtesy photo

The second half of February is buzzing with must-attend events for those in the Houston energy sector. We've rounded up a host of events to put on your calendar for the month, with topics ranging from AI in energy to emissions management for a sustainable future. Continue reading.

ERCOT to capture big share of U.S. solar power growth through 2027

A new report predicts solar power supplied to the ERCOT grid will jump by 89 percent by the end of 2027. Photo by Red Zeppelin/Pexels

Much of the country’s growth in utility-scale solar power generation will happen in the grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), according to a new forecast. Continue reading.

Syzygy inks long-term offtake agreement for first commercial SAF plant

Syzygy Plasmonics has secured an offtake agreement for 100% of the production from its first commercial SAF plant. Photo courtesy of Syzygy.

Houston-based Syzygy Plasmonics has secured a six-year official offtake agreement for the entire production volume of its first commercial-scale biogas-to-sustainable aviation fuel project in Uruguay, known as NovaSAF-1. Continue reading.

Spring-based private equity firm acquires West Texas wind farm

Spring-based Arroyo Investors has purchased Whirlwind Energy Center in Amarillo, Texas. Photo by Sam LaRussa on Unsplash.

Spring-based private equity firm Arroyo Investors has teamed up with ONCEnergy, a Portland, Oregon-based developer of clean energy projects, to buy a 60-megawatt wind farm southeast of Amarillo. Continue reading.

$21.5 billion merger will create Houston-based energy powerhouse

Devon Energy will buy Houston-based Coterra Energy. Photo via Coterra Energy

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based Devon Energy has agreed to buy Houston-based Coterra Energy in a $21.5 billion all-stock deal, forming an energy powerhouse that will be headquartered in Houston. The combined company, boasting an enterprise value of $58 billion, will adopt the Devon brand name. Continue reading.

View All Listings