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

Meta to buy all power from new ENGIE Texas solar farm

power purchase

Meta, the parent company of social media platform Facebook, has agreed to buy all of the power from a $900 million solar farm being developed near Abilene by Houston-based energy company ENGIE North America.

The 600-megawatt Swenson Ranch solar farm, located in Stonewall County, will be the largest one ever built in the U.S. by ENGIE. The solar farm is expected to go online in 2027.

Meta will use electricity generated by the solar farm to power its U.S. data centers. All told, Meta has agreed to purchase more than 1.3 gigawatts of renewable energy from four ENGIE projects in Texas.

“This project marks an important step forward in the partnership between our two companies and their shared desire to promote a sustainable and competitive energy model,” Paulo Almirante, ENGIE’s senior executive vice president of renewable and flexible power, said in a news release.

In September, ENGIE North America said it would collaborate with Prometheus Hyperscale, a developer of sustainable liquid-cooled data centers, to build data centers at ENGIE-owned renewable energy and battery storage facilities along the I-35 corridor in Texas. The corridor includes Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Waco.

The first projects under the ENGIE-Prometheus umbrella are expected to go online in 2026.

ENGIE and Prometheus said their partnership “brings together ENGIE's deep expertise in renewables, batteries, and energy management and Prometheus' highly efficient liquid-cooled data center design to meet the growing demand for reliable, sustainable compute capacity — particularly for AI and other high-performance workloads.”

Fervo named to prestigious list of climate tech companies to watch

top honor

Houston-based Fervo Energy has received yet another accolade—MIT Technology Review named the geothermal energy startup to its 2025 list of the 10 global climatetech companies to watch.

Fervo, making its second appearance on the third annual list, harnesses heat from deep below the ground to generate clean geothermal energy, MIT Technology Review noted. Fervo is one of four U.S. companies to land on the list.

Fervo “uses fracking techniques to create geothermal reservoirs capable of delivering enough electricity to power massive data centers and hundreds of thousands of homes,” MIT Technology Review said.

MIT Technology Review said it produces the annual list to draw attention to promising climatetech companies that are working to decarbonize major sectors of the economy.

“Though the political and funding landscape has shifted dramatically in the US since the last time we put out this list,” MIT Technology Review added, “nothing has altered the urgency of the climate dangers the world now faces — we need to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.”

In addition to MIT Technology Review’s companies-to-watch list, Fervo has appeared on similar lists published by Inc.com, Time magazine and Climate Insider.

In an essay accompanying MIT Technology Review’s list, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates said his Breakthrough Energy Ventures investment group has invested in more than 150 companies, including Fervo and another company on the MIT Technology Review list, Redwood Materials.

In his essay, Gates wrote that ingenuity is the best weapon against climate change.

Yet climate technology innovations “offer more than just a public good,” he said. “They will remake virtually every aspect of the world’s economy in the coming years, transforming energy markets, manufacturing, transportation, and many types of industry and food production. Some of these efforts will require long-term commitments, but it’s important that we act now. And what’s more, it’s already clear where the opportunities lie.”

In a recent blog post highlighting Fervo, Gates predicted geothermal will eventually supply up to 20 percent of the world’s electricity, up from his previous estimate of as much as 5 percent.

Fervo is one of the pioneers in geothermal energy. Gates and other investors have pumped $982 million into Fervo since its founding in 2017. With an estimated valuation of $1.4 billion, Fervo has achieved unicorn status, meaning its valuation as a private company exceeds $1 billion.

Aside from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, oilfield services provider Liberty Energy is a Fervo investor. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright was chairman and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy before assuming his federal post.

Axios reported on Oct. 1 that Fervo is raising a $300 million series E round, which would drive up the startup’s valuation. News of the $300 million round comes as the company gears up for a possible IPO, according to Axios.

Fervo co-founder and CEO Tim Latimer told Axios this spring that a potential IPO is likely in 2026 or 2027. Ahead of an IPO, the startup is aiming for a $2 billion to $4 billion valuation, Axios reported.

The first phase of Fervo’s marquee Cape Station geothermal energy plant in Utah is scheduled to go online next year, with the second phase set to open in 2028. Once it’s completed, the plant will be capable of generating 500 megawatts of power. This summer, the startup said it secured $205.6 million in capital to finance construction of the plant.

Rice University team develops eco-friendly method to destroy 'forever chemicals' in water

clean water research

Rice University researchers have teamed up with South Korean scientists to develop the first eco-friendly technology that captures and destroys toxic “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, in water.

PFAS have been linked to immune system disruption, certain cancers, liver damage and reproductive disorders. They can be found in water, soil and air, as well as in products like Teflon pans, waterproof clothing and food packaging. They do not degrade easily and are difficult to remove.

Thus far, PFAS cleanup methods have relied on adsorption, in which molecules cling to materials like activated carbon or ion-exchange resins. But these methods tend to have limited capacity, low efficiency, slow performance and can create additional waste.

The Rice-led study, published in the journal Advanced Materials, centered on a layered double hydroxide (LDH) material made from copper and aluminum that could rapidly capture PFAS and be used to destroy the chemicals.

The study was led by Rice professor Youngkun Chung, a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Michael S. Wong. It was conducted in collaboration with Seoktae Kang, professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Keon-Ham Kim, professor at Pukyung National University, who first discovered the LDH material.

The team evaluated the LDH material in river water, tap water and wastewater. And, according to Rice, that material’s unique copper-aluminum layers and charge imbalances created an ideal binding environment to capture PFAS molecules.

“To my astonishment, this LDH compound captured PFAS more than 1,000 times better than other materials,” Chung, lead author of the study and now a fellow at Rice’s WaTER (Water Technologies, Entrepreneurship and Research) Institute and Sustainability Institute, said in a news release. “It also worked incredibly fast, removing large amounts of PFAS within minutes, about 100 times faster than commercial carbon filters.”

Next, Chung, along with Rice professors Pedro Alvarez and James Tour, worked to develop an eco-friendly, sustainable method of thermally decomposing the PFAS captured on the LDH material. They heated saturated material with calcium carbonate, which eliminated more than half of the trapped PFAS without releasing toxic by-products.

The team believes the study’s results could potentially have large-scale applications in industrial cleanups and municipal water treatments.

“We are excited by the potential of this one-of-a-kind LDH-based technology to transform how PFAS-contaminated water sources are treated in the near future,” Wong added in the news release. “It’s the result of an extraordinary international collaboration and the creativity of young researchers.”

---

This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

View All Listings