Houston geothermal company secures major power purchase agreement with Shell

under contract

Shell has entered a 15-year agreement to be the first offtaker to receive electrons from Fervo Energy's flagship geothermal development in Beaver County, Utah, known as Cape Station. Photo via fervoenergy.com

Beginning in 2026, Shell will be able to apply 31 megawatts of 24/7 carbon-free geothermal power to its customers thanks to a new 15-year power purchase agreement with Houston next-gen geothermal development company Fervo Energy.

“This agreement demonstrates that Fervo is stepping up to meet the moment,” Dawn Owens, VP, Head of Development & Commercial Markets at Fervo, said in a news release.

Shell will become the first offtaker to receive electrons from Fervo's flagship geothermal development in Beaver County, Utah’s Phase I of Cape Station. Cape Station is currently one of the world’s largest enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) developments, and the station will begin to deliver electricity to the grid in 2026.

Cape Station will increase from 400 MW to 500 MW, which is considered by the company a major accomplishment due to recent breakthroughs in Fervo’s field development strategy and well design. Fervo is now able to generate more megawatts per well by optimizing well spacing using fiber optic sensing, increasing casing diameter and implementing staggered bench development. This can allow for a 100 MW capacity increase without the need for additional drilling, according to the company.

With the addition of the new Shell deal, all 500 MW of capacity from Fervo’s Cape Station are now fully contracted. The deal also includes existing agreements, like Fervo’s PPAs with Southern California Edison and an expanded deal with Clean Power Alliance that adds 18 MW of carbon-free geothermal energy to the company’s existing PPA with Fervo.

“As customers seek out 24/7 carbon-free energy, geothermal is clearly an essential part of the solution,” Owens said in the release.

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Time named its top innovations of the year — and two Houston-born energy transition inventions made the cut. Photo via Getty Images

2 Houston energy transition companies recognized for creating top inventions of the year

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Innovations from two Houston energy transition companies have been crowned among the top inventions of the year.

Time magazine’s "200 Best Inventions of 2024" identified top innovations across consumer goods, home health, robotics, sustainability, and two dozen other categories.

Fervo Energy, a provider of geothermal power, was recognized the Green Energy category for its FervoFlex system. As Time explains, the system enables horizontal drilling into hot rock under the earth’s surface and pumping in water to generate hot water and steam. The geothermal energy that’s produced can be stored and released for future use by Fervo customers.

Jack Norbeck, Fervo’s co-founder and chief technology officer, predicts that by 2050, geothermal energy will become “the backbone of the decarbonized energy system.”

In September, Fervo secured a $100 million bridge loan for the first phase of its ongoing Cape Station project in Utah, which is being touted as the world’s largest geothermal energy plant. Slated for completion in June 2026, this initial phase is expected to generate 90 megawatts of renewable energy. Ultimately, the plant is supposed to supply 400 megawatts of clean energy by 2028 for customers in California.

Time also lauded NanoTech Materials among its Manufacturing and Materials honorees for its Insulative Ceramic Particle. This powder can be added to materials like drywall or shingles to improve fire resistance and decrease heat penetration, according to Time. NanoTech’s Wildfire Shield coating for buildings contains the powder. Wildfire Shield prevents damage to materials and harm from noxious smoke.

NanoTech’s other product, Cool Roof Coat, is painted on a building to decrease HVAC use. This year, NanoTech moved into a 43,000-square-foot space in Katy, Texas, and brought on new partners that expanded the company's reach in the Middle East and Singapore.

A third Houston company was also praised byTime is BiVACOR — named to its Experimental category of the list. The full list of this year's top inventions is available online.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Baker Hughes has entered into an agreement with an airport manager and operator to introduce cleaner, lower-carbon solutions to the industry. Photo courtesy of Baker Hughes

Houston oilfield services giant makes deal to transition airports to cleaner energy

seeing green

A Houston-headquartered oilfield services company has announced a partnership with an airport manager and operator to develop lower-carbon solutions for the airport industry.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ: BKR) announced today that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Virginia-based Avports. The agreement is "to develop, implement and operate onsite microgrid solutions for the airport industry," according to a news release from Baker Hughes, with a goal of reducing emissions and work toward a future with zero-emission infrastructure, including buildings, vehicles, etc.

"Baker Hughes' commitment to emissions reductions has allowed us to develop and successfully deploy low-carbon and hydrogen technologies to advance the energy transition in many industries," Bob Perez, vice president of project development at Baker Hughes, says in the statement. "The opportunity to bring these solutions to airports, in collaboration with Avports' proven track record in airport management, is very promising as the increasing needs and demands of these infrastructures must be more resilient, efficient and cost-effective."

Avports, which was founded in 1927 as a division of Pan American World Airways, manages and operates small to mid-sized airports across the country, and has already made investments in innovative and sustainable initiatives, including introducing green hydrogen solutions. Baker Hughes will bring its energy technology portfolio, such as hydrogen-ready turbines and heat recovery solutions for grid use, to the table.

"Providing a technical and economic roadmap to airports to meet their energy needs of the future is key as an airport management and operations company," Jorge Roberts, CEO of Avports, says in the release. "Our partnership with Baker Hughes brings world-class technology and know-how together with our ability to support airport customers to realize these solutions at their facility."

Baker Hughes has entered into a few partnerships this year with energy transition goals. In May, the Houston company announced a partnership with ADNOC to explore green and low-carbon hydrogen solutions. In March, Baker Hughes collaborated with HIF Global, an eFuels company, for a direct air capture project. Additionally in March, Ecopetrol, Baker Hughes, and the hydroelectric power plant Central Hidroeléctrica de Caldas of Grupo EPM, signed an MoU to potentially implement a geothermal power generation project in Colombia.

Fervo Energy has raised additional funding to continue executing on its mission of more reliable geothermal energy production. Photo via FervoEnergy.com

Innovative Houston energy startup secures $10M investment

fresh funding

A next-generation geothermal tech company announced a new investment from an Oklahoma City-based oil and gas producer.

Fervo Energy secured the $10 million strategic investment from Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN) this week. The deal creates a partnership between the two entities.

“We are thrilled to have Devon as a partner,” says Tim Latimer, co-founder and CEO of Fervo, in a news release. “Devon is a technology leader with historic and unparalleled expertise in drilling and completing wells. We expect this partnership will help unlock further potential for geothermal as the primary 24/7 renewable energy source.”

Fervo's technology includes drilling horizontal wells for commercial geothermal production as well as distributed fiber optic sensing to geothermal reservoir development, per the release. The strategy allows for more accessible geothermal power.

“We are excited about this partnership with Fervo, an innovator and leader in the enhanced geothermal space,” says David Harris, chief corporate development officer and executive vice president at Devon. “This investment is a good match for Devon’s new energy ventures strategy.”

Last year, Fervo raised a $138 million series C round to support the completion of power plants in Nevada and Utah and evaluate new projects in California, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, and New Mexico, as well as in other countries. This latest investment brings the company's total funds raised to $187 million since its inception in 2017.

This article originally ran on Innovation Map.

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4 Houston researchers awarded projects in DOE's Genesis Mission

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The U.S. Department of Energy has named the nearly 300 projects selected under the Trump Administration's Genesis Mission, which aims to address some of the largest science and technology challenges in the country. The group features four projects from Houston universities and companies.

The initiative aims to unite government, industry, academia and philanthropy to lead to breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery and national security, according to a release.

The selected projects feature 87 led by DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) National Laboratories, 168 led by universities, 19 led by companies and 4 led by nonprofit organizations—totalling 342 participating institutions.

“America has no shortage of bold ideas or talented scientists, and the response to the Genesis Mission proves that,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a news release. “The 278 projects selected today represent the very best of our nation’s scientific enterprise. The remarkable number of high-quality proposals we received demonstrates that America’s innovation pipeline is strong, and it points to even greater opportunities for future investment and continued expansion of the Genesis Mission portfolio.”

Twelve Texas-based projects were selected among the 278. The Houston projects and their researchers include:

Caroline Ajo-Franklin

Ajo-Franklin recieved a Phase I grant for her project "Predictive AI to Map Point Mutation Effects on Protein Function: Measurement and Biosynthesis of Isoprenoids." Ajo-Franklin is a professor of biosciences at Rice University, a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research and member of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute. The project aims to accelerate the engineering of microbes that can produce isoprenoids, which are natural compounds that could replace petroleum-derived fuels, solvents and materials.

“This project creates a continuous feedback loop in which AI guides experiments and each experiment generates more detailed data to better hone the AI model,” Ajo-Franklin said in a news release. “In addition, it demonstrates the extraordinary star power Rice has recruited in protein engineering and synthetic biology.”

Anastasios Kyrillidis

Kyrillidis recived a Phase I grant for his project "Cracking the VQA Optimization Bottleneck: AI Methods for Quantum Chemistry and Materials." Kyrillidis is the Noah Harding Associate Professor of Computer Science at Rice and a member of the Ken Kennedy Institute. The project aims to develop AI tools to resolve bottlenecks in quantum computing for chemistry and materials research.

“Our goal is to replace fragile, hand-tuned optimization methods with intelligent systems that can learn from quantum computations while still operating within frameworks that provide strong mathematical guarantees,” Kyrillidis added in the release.

Myoungkyu Lee

Lee received a nearly $750,000 Phase I grant for his project "Physics-Informed AI Surrogates for Turbulent Forced Convection in Energy System." Lee is an assistant professor of mechanical aerospace engineering at the University of Houston. Lee will collaborate with researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and University of Pennsylvania on the project and develop artificial intelligence to accelerate the design of materials for advanced nuclear fission and fusion reactors.

“The goal is to develop a tool that runs much faster than today’s most detailed simulations while keeping errors small,” Lee said in a news release. “If successful, the approach could support better heat-transfer predictions for molten-salt reactor design and provide a starting point for studying heat removal in fusion blankets. This is one contribution among many toward reliable, carbon-free energy.”

Amit Padhi

Padhi recieved a grant for his project "Probabilistic Inference of Subsurface Fracture Connectivity for Stimulation Control with Physics-Informed AI." Padhi is a scientific advisor for Halliburton.

The DOE first called for applications for the Genesis Mission in March. At the time, the DOE shared that it would grant approximately $293 million to the selected teams via Phase I awards, ranging from $500,000 to $750,000 for nine-month project periods, and Phase II awards, for $6 million to $15 million over a three-year project period.

Since then, however, the initiative has grown with 15 federal agencies now granting research awards and funding opportunities under the Genesis umbrella. The White House announced this week that it had secured more than $5 billion in federal commitments to expand the initiative.

SLB teams with Liberty Energy on modular power for AI data centers

ai alliance

Houston-headquartered SLB and Denver-based Liberty Energy Inc. announced a strategic agreement this month to support the rapid growth of new data center capacity.

Under the agreement, SLB will supply modular data center infrastructure and oversee large-scale execution, while Liberty will provide modular power generation systems and behind-the-meter power management technology for developers looking to add capacity. According to Reuters, the power will come from natural gas generation.

“The bottleneck in AI infrastructure is no longer just compute. It is the ability to deliver infrastructure and power on the timelines the market now demands,” Gavin Rennick, president of SLB’s New Energy and Industrial business, said in a news release. “By bringing together complementary infrastructure and power capabilities, we will help developers accelerate deployment of new data center capacity.”

The companies seek to specifically offer the modular technologies in areas without traditional grid connections or where grid capacity is limited.

They also aim to improve the "efficiency, flexibility and environmental performance of future data center energy systems," potentially through solutions like hybrid power systems and digital energy management, according to the news release.

Goldman Sachs estimates that U.S. data center capacity will more than double from 31 gigawatts in 2025 to 66 gigawatts in 2027. Other reports predict that Houston and Texas will be home to a significant portion of the data center boom, with capacity in the city and the state also expected to double in the next few years.

“The scale and complexity of AI energy infrastructure is fundamentally changing how power systems are built and deployed,” Ron Gusek, CEO of Liberty Energy, added in the release. “Liberty’s comprehensive power service platform is engineered to meet this transition, as customers increasingly prioritize tailored, integrated solutions. Building on our long-standing relationship with SLB, we are excited to bring power solutions that address immediate capacity constraints while supporting the next generation of energy systems.”

SLB sold its onshore hydraulic fracturing business in the United States and Canada to Liberty Energy in December 2020 in exchange for a 37 percent equity interest in the company.

New Rice study details how carbon capture could reduce AI data center emissions

by the numbers

A new study out of Rice University points to carbon capture and storage methods as pivotal solutions to addressing emissions from AI-driven data centers.

The study was authored by Hon Chung Lau, an adjunct professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University and founder of Low Carbon Energies LLC, and Steve C. Tsai, an energy transition consultant at Low Carbon Energies LLC, and published in the journal Energy & Fuels.

According to the study, U.S. data center power capacity could more than quadruple in five years, growing from 40 gigawatts in 2025 to 169 gigawatts by 2030. Without proper regulation of emissions, the report estimates that carbon dioxide produced by fossil-fuel power plants supplying electricity to data centers could grow at the same scale, increasing from 90 million metric tons to more than 404 million metric tons over the same time period.

The researchers analyzed publicly available data on announced U.S. data centers, which included energy sources, locations, and projected power capacity before estimating data center-related carbon emissions based on each state’s electricity mix. From there, they examined whether those emissions could be captured and stored underground in saline aquifers.

The team estimates that 34 states have enough saline aquifer storage capacity to store more than 100 years of projected data center-related carbon dioxide emissions beyond 2030. Aquifers could store an estimated 59 million metric tons of data center-related carbon dioxide, or about 66 percent of the sector’s emissions in 2025. However, that calculation could grow to 299 million metric tons, or about 74 percent of projected data center-related emissions by 2030.

The researchers found that more than 90 percent of data center-related carbon dioxide emissions could potentially be mitigated through carbon capture and storage when out-of-state storage options are included, even though they note that carbon capture isn’t the only solution.

“It does show that the geology exists to make a meaningful impact, especially in states where data center growth is strongest,” Lau said in a news release.

Rapid growth in states including Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Illinois was considered in the study. According to the findings, Texas would need to add 25 gigawatts of power capacity by 2030 to meet projected data center demand, as data centers require reliable electricity 24/7.

“Data centers are becoming one of the defining energy challenges of the AI era,” Lau added in the news release. “The question is not only whether we can build enough computing infrastructure, but whether we can power it in a way that is reliable, affordable and compatible with decarbonization goals.”

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