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Houston PE firm raises $1.4B to invest in sustainable infrastructure

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Five Point Energy closed its oversubscribed Five Point Energy Fund IV at $1.4 billion. Photo via Getty Images

A local private equity firm announced its latest round of funding that it plans on deploying into the energy transition infrastructure space.

Five Point Energy closed its oversubscribed Five Point Energy Fund IV at $1.4 billion in cumulative capital commitments. The new fund continues the firm's strategy of deploying capital into "an undercapitalized market and attractive long-term value generation," per a news release.

The firm is led by David Capobianco, CEO and managing partner, and Matthew Morrow, COO and managing partner.

"The closing of Fund IV is an endorsement of our team's demonstrated strategy of establishing and operating best-in-class sustainable infrastructure platforms, including the highly successful initial public offering of LandBridge," Capobianco says in the release.

Since its founding in 2012, Five Point has worked in midstream water management systems and addressed the produced water needs of our blue-chip clients, Capobianco says, adding that "the demand for energy, land and water resources is accelerating by the day, across all industries – we sit at the intersection of these macro and infrastructure trends."

To date, Five Point has raised around $4 billion across four funds. The fourth fund's limited partners were not disclosed.

The firm is led by David Capobianco (left), CEO and managing partner, and Matthew Morrow, COO and managing partner. Photos via fivepointenergy.com

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This major project will include net-zero hydrogen production to be used onsite to fuel a microgrid, greenhouses, and more. Image courtesy of Fidelis New Energy

Houston company selects site for net-zero hydrogen production facility, low-carbon microgrid

major move

A Houston-based energy transition infrastructure firm has announced where it's planning to build a multiple-phase project that will produce carbon-neutral hydrogen and run a low-carbon microgrid.

Fidelis New Energy selected Mason County, West Virginia, as the site for its carbon neutral hydrogen production facility and low carbon microgrid —The Mountaineer GigaSystem and the Monarch Cloud Campus for data centers powered by net-zero hydrogen.

The facility will be using the company's the proprietary tech, called the FidelisH2, that produces hydrogen using "a combination of natural gas, renewable energy, and carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration," according to a news release.

The four-phase project is estimated to cost $2 billion per phase and will produce over 500 metric tons per day of net-zero carbon hydrogen. The first phase is expected to be completed in 2028.

"I am beyond excited that West Virginia will be the home of the Mountaineer GigaSystem and Monarch Cloud Campus," West Virginia Governor Jim Justice says in a news release. "West Virginia has a long history as an energy powerhouse for our nation, thanks to our hardworking people who know how to get the job done. And now, we're in a great position to make the most of a new fuel – hydrogen – through this incredible project in Mason County.

"There's simply no doubt that Fidelis is going to help shape the future of West Virginia in a major, major way by assisting in the commercial lift-off of some truly exciting new industries," he continues.

The project includes an incentive package from the West Virginia Department of Economic Development.

"The project's four-phase construction plan will not only provide substantial employment opportunities for the local workforce, with 800 full-time jobs and 4,200 construction workers, but it will also have a major positive impact on the region's economy," John Musgrave, the executive director of the Mason County Development Authority, says in the release. "The influx of workers and the establishment of the facility will bring additional business, industry, and new technology to Mason County, the state, and the surrounding region."

In addition to the hydrogen-producing FidelisH2 tool, Fidelis's suite of technologies includes H2PowerCool, which powers and cools data centers, and CO2PowerGrow, which is used for greenhouses to decarbonize and lower the cost of food production.

The new collaborative project is a rising amid the region's bid in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations for the regional clean hydrogen hub Funding Opportunity Announcement. The bid, called the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, was submitted earlier this year by a multi-state effort.

"Our proprietary net-zero solutions using only proven technologies are attracting significant commercial interest from hydrogen users, data center operators, and greenhouse owners," Bengt Jarlsjo, co-founder, president, and COO at Fidelis, says in the release. "This helps the ARCH2 hub to achieve scale across the hydrogen lifecycle from production through consumption."

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Houston clean energy company to develop hybrid renewable project in Port Arthur

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Houston-based clean energy company Diligence Offshore Services has announced a strategic partnership with Florida-based floating solar manufacturing company AccuSolar for the development of a renewable energy project in the Port Arthur area.

Known as the Pleasure Island Power Collective, it will be built on 2,275 acres across Pleasure Island and Sabine Lake. It is expected to generate 391 megawatts of clean power, alongside a utility-scale battery energy storage system. It will also feature a 225-megawatt coastal onshore wind farm, with energy produced on-site used to power a data center for adaptive superintelligence, making it entirely self-sustained by renewable sources, according to the company.

AccuSolar will design and manufacture the project and power will be distributed through the Canaan Energy Corridor

“We are incredibly proud to partner with a fellow U.S. company like AccuSolar,” Harry C. Crawford III, founder and managing member of Diligence Offshore, said in a news release. “Their expertise in American manufacturing and floating solar technology is essential to the success of the Pleasure Island Power Collective.”

The project is expected to bring economic growth and a significant number of manufacturing jobs to the area during the construction phase and long-term operations.

Diligence Offshore is pursuing a DPA Title 1 DX rating under the Defense Production Act to help advance the project's development schedule, according to the release, which could lead to immediate manufacturing jobs.

“This partnership not only strengthens our domestic supply chain but also accelerates our vision to bring economic freedom and climate resilience to the Gulf Coast,” Crawford added in the release.

Houston organization proposes Gulf Coast index for hydrogen market

hydrogen index

The Clean Hydrogen Buyers Alliance has proposed an index aimed at bringing transparency to pricing in the emerging hydrogen market.

The Houston-based alliance said the Gulf Coast Hydrogen Index, based on real-time data, would provide more clarity to pricing in the global market for hydrogen. The benchmarking effort is being designed to benefit clean hydrogen buyers, sellers and investors. The index would help position the U.S. “as the trading anchor for hydrogen’s next chapter as a globally traded commodity,” the alliance said.

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global market for clean hydrogen was valued at $200 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $700 billion by 2040.

John Flory, president of the alliance, said the lack of a pricing index has relegated hydrogen to niche-market status.

“Capital is waiting. Buyers are ready. But until now, there’s been no credible, transparent pricing signal to guide clean hydrogen investing or contracting,” Edward Morse, co-chairman of the Clean Hydrogen Transaction Advisory Committee, said in a news release.

The index would treat the Gulf Coast as the primary delivery hub for pipeline-grade hydrogen in three categories: basic, low-carbon and ultra-low-carbon. It would be similar to the Henry Hub index for pricing of natural gas.

Roger Ballentine, co-chairman of the clean energy advisory committee, said the hydrogen index would build confidence in this energy source among government agencies, companies and investors. A Henry Hub-style benchmark for hydrogen “provides clarity, reduces risk, and lays the foundation for clean energy to become a globally traded commodity critical to decarbonization,” he said.

The Gulf Coast, with Texas as the focal point, is key to the evolution of the U.S. clean hydrogen economy, according to the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association.

At the core of the Gulf Coast’s role is the U.S. Department of Energy's selection of the Gulf Coast as one of the country’s seven regional hubs for clean hydrogen. However, the DOE has proposed cutting funding for the HyVelocity Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub, a $1.2 billion development in Texas and Louisiana by AES, Air Liquide, Chevron, ExxonMobil, MHI Hydrogen Infrastructure and Ørsted, according to a new list of proposed DOE funding cancellations.

2 Houston energy giants appear on Fortune’s inaugural AI ranking

AI Leaders

Two Houston-area energy leaders appear on Fortune’s inaugural list of the top adopters of AI among Fortune 500 companies.

They are:

  • No. 7 energy company ExxonMobil, based in Spring
  • No. 47 energy company Chevron, based in Houston

They are joined by Spring-based tech company Hewlett Packard Enterprise, No. `9.

All three companies have taken a big dive into the AI pool.

In 2024, ExxonMobil’s executive chairman and CEO, Darren Woods, explained that AI would play a key role in achieving a $15 billion reduction in operating costs by 2027.

“There is a concerted effort to make sure that we're really working hard to apply that new technology to the opportunity set within the company to drive effectiveness and efficiency,” Woods told Wall Street analysts.

At Chevron, AI tools are being used to quickly analyze data and extract insights from it, according to tech news website VentureBeat. Also, Chevron employs advanced AI systems known as large language models (LLMs) to create engineering standards, specifications and safety alerts. AI is even being put to work in Chevron’s exploration initiatives.

Bill Braun, Chevron’s chief information officer, said at a VentureBeat-sponsored event in 2024 that AI-savvy data scientists, or “digital scholars,” are always embedded within workplace teams “to act as a catalyst for working differently.”

The Fortune AIQ 50 ranking is based on ServiceNow’s Enterprise AI Maturity Index, an annual measurement of how prepared organizations are to adopt and scale AI. To evaluate how Fortune 500 companies are rolling out AI and how much they value AI investments, Fortune teamed up with Enterprise Technology Research. The results went into computing an AIQ score for each company.

At the top of the ranking is Alphabet (owner of Google and YouTube), followed by Visa, JPMorgan Chase, Nvidia and Mastercard. Aside from ExxonMobil, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Chevron, two other Texas companies made the list: Arlington-based homebuilder D.R. Horton (No. 29) and Austin-based software company Oracle (No. 37).

“The Fortune AIQ 50 demonstrates how companies across industry sectors are beginning to find real value from the deployment of AI technology,” Jeremy Kahn, Fortune’s AI editor, said in a news release. “Clearly, some sectors, such as tech and finance, are pulling ahead of others, but even in so-called 'old economy' industries like mining and transport, there are a few companies that are pulling away from their peers in the successful use of AI.

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This article originally appeared on InnovationMap.com.

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