GE business to fill order for turbines to power Western Hemisphere's largest wind project

winds in the west

GE Vernova and Pattern Energy, two energy transition companies with Houston ties, are teaming up for a historic wind project. Photo via ge.com

A business to be spun off by General Electric will build hundreds of turbines for what will be the largest wind project in the Western Hemisphere, part of a massive equipment order and long-term service agreement with the global renewable-energy giant Pattern Energy.

GE Vernova, which recently became a high-level partner of Boston and Houston-based Greentown Labs, announced the agreement Tuesday, saying it is the largest onshore wind turbine order received by the company, both in quantity and in the amount of electricity that the 674 turbines will eventually generate when the SunZia Wind Project comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova will tap its factory in Pensacola, Florida, for the large order, as well as tower manufacturing operations in New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas. Overall, 15 suppliers are on board for providing the necessary parts to make each turbine.

Construction already is underway on the SunZia wind farm and an associated multibillion-dollar transmission line that will funnel power to populated markets in the western United States. Pattern Energy, which has a Houston office, just weeks ago announced that it had closed on $11 billion in financing for the projects.

Backers see SunZia — described as an energy infrastructure undertaking larger than that of the Hoover Dam — as a pivotal project. The venture has attracted significant financial capital and stands to boost the percentage of the nation's electricity that comes from renewable sources amid escalating state and federal energy mandates.

Still, some Native American tribes and environmentalists worry about the location of a 50-mile (80-kilometer) segment of the transmission line where it will pass through Arizona's San Pedro Valley. The federal government already had approved the siting, but tribal leaders said there should have been more consultation.

In December, the U.S. Energy Department reported that the private sector over the past three years has announced investments of more than $180 billion in new or expanded clean energy manufacturing projects across the nation, including spending on development of larger, higher capacity wind turbines. GE has been among the companies to take advantage of tax credits included in the federal Inflation Reduction Act.

However, after years of record growth, the industry group American Clean Power expects less land-based wind to be added in the U.S. by year’s end — about enough to power 2.7 million to 3 million homes.

While companies are taking advantage of government incentives now, it can take years to bring projects online, the industry group said.

The SunZia Wind Project will span three counties in rural New Mexico. Crews already are constructing the concrete platforms that will support the turbines, and developers expect the first turbines to rise this autumn.

Pattern Energy CEO Hunter Armistead said the project will serve as a backbone for a cleaner, more reliable grid for customers across the western U.S. The company already has signed long-term power purchase agreements with Shell Energy North America and the University of California for a portion of the electricity that will be generated.

“Construction is in full swing on SunZia, using American-made turbine components and creating thousands of good-paying new jobs — a big win for the growing clean energy economy,” Armistead said in a statement.

Vic Abate, president and CEO of the company's wind business, called the venture historic.

“This project demonstrates GE Vernova’s ability to deliver on our workhorse strategy in onshore wind — producing fewer variants in large quantities at scale to drive quality and reliability across the fleet for our customers," he said in a statement.

In all, the company has more than 55,000 turbines installed worldwide.

The company has been working with Pattern Energy for the past 18 months on site layouts that are designed to maximize the performance of the turbines in central New Mexico and to ensure the supply chain can keep up with manufacturing demands.

GE Vernova consultants also have been working on interconnection with the transmission line, and the company's financial arm provided a tax equity loan commitment that helped to solidify financing for the project.

Pattern Energy, a California-based company with over 150 employees in Houston, revealed its new local office space. Photo courtesy

California renewable energy infrastructure company opens new Houston office

new digs

A company that's developing renewable energy projects has officially opened their new Houston office that will house its 150-person local development team.

Pattern Energy Group LP, headquartered in San Francisco, has moved its Houston operations into the Montrose Collective at 888 Westheimer Road. The new mixed-use complex developed by Radom Capital is home to restaurants, spas, and other retailers.

"We are doubling down on our commitment to Houston with an innovative new office that is designed to foster the collaborative nature of our work to develop some of America's most ambitious clean power projects," says Hunter Armistead, CEO of Pattern Energy, in a June news release. "Leveraging Houston's top-notch energy workforce has been an important component of our success and we look forward to tapping the City's talent base for our continued growth.

Pattern Energy, which develops and operates wind, solar, transmission, and energy storage projects, has a portfolio of 36 renewable energy facilities that have an operating capacity of nearly 6,000 megawatts across the United States, Canada, Japan, and Mexico.

"This new space will help foster the ingenuity of our dedicated employees and their passion for our mission – to transition the world to renewable energy," Armistead, who's based locally, continues.

Hunter Armistead, CEO of Pattern Energy, celebrated the company's new office last month. Photo courtesy

The company's development team is based in Houston and is currently working on the SunZia Transmission and Wind project in New Mexico and Arizona, which Pattern Energy describes as "the largest clean energy infrastructure project in U.S. history."

Also housed in the new office is the company's Operations Control Center, which provides 24/7 remote monitoring and control of Pattern Energy's renewable energy facilities. Other employees in the new space work on the meteorological, transmission, and energy trading teams.

"We chose the Montrose neighborhood based on our employee feedback," says Cary Kottler, chief development officer, who's also based in Houston. "To achieve our mission, we need to be energized – and Montrose has the vibrancy and atmosphere we were looking for. As we move forward with building a pipeline of truly exciting renewable energy projects, we are confident that this is the ideal location for our employees to write a new chapter in our history."

The new office lobby features a mural by local Houston artist DUAL.

The new office is in Montrose, a neighborhood that had the "vibrancy and atmosphere" Pattern Energy was looking for. Photo courtesy

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40+ teams to pitch at annual CERAWeek clean energy competition

energy venture day

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI), the Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy (TEX-E) and the Ion have named the 30-plus energy ventures and teams that will pitch at the 2026 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek this month.

The selected ventures are "driving efficiency and advancements toward the energy transition," according to the Rice Alliance. Each will each present a 3.5-minute pitch before a network of investors and industry partners during CERAWeek's Agora program on Wednesday, March 25, from noon-5:30 p.m.

The competition is divided up into the TEX-E university track, in which Texas student-led energy startups compete for $50,000 in cash prizes, and the industry ventures track.

Teams competing in the TEX-E Prize track include:

GOES
Quantum Power System
Quas
Resonant Thermal Systems
Srijan

The industry track is subdivided into three additional tracks, spanning materials to clean energy and will feature 37 companies. A group of expert judges will name the top three companies from each industry track. The winner of the CERAWeek competition will also have the chance to advance and compete for the $1 million investment prize at the Startup World Cup in November 2026.

Teams come from around the world, including several Houston-based ventures, such as Agellus Tank Robotics, Capwell Services and Corrolytics.

The full list of companies pitching at CERAWeek includes:

Agellus Tank Robotics
Airovation Technologies
Anax Power
Armeta
ATS Energy
Capwell Services
CarbonLume
Cogniprise
Corrolytics
Daphne Technology
Gemini Energy
Grid8
H Quest Vanguard
intcom
Ionada Canada
Junipix
Kunin Technologies
LAVA Power
Licube
LNK Energies
Maverick X
Membravo
Mirico
Mocean Energy
Monitorai
OCOchem
Oleo
Pix Force
PolyJoule
Power to Hydrogen
Sotaog
Spotlight
Tierra Climate
Verdagy
Via Separations
Vycarb
ZettaJoule

Those not attending CERAWeek can catch these companies and more than a dozen others at a pitch preview at the Ion. The free Pitch Preview will be held Tuesday, March 24, from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Click here to register.

Additional companies pitching during the free preview include:

Ammobia
Arolytics
Ayrton Energy
ChainWeave
Cybereum
Energytech
ENP Technologies
KP Labs
Mcatalysis
Mitico
Mote
Nanos
New Horizon Oil and Gas
Predyct
Salem Robotics
Toluai

Two Rice University student teams took home top prizes during last year's TEX-E competition, while ventures from New Jersey, Wyoming and Virgina won in their respective industry tracks. See the full list of last year's winners here.

ExxonMobil to move legal home to Texas, citing business-friendliness

ExxonMobil is poised to move its legal headquarters from New Jersey to Texas in search of a more friendly business environment, the company announced March 10.

The board of directors for the largest U.S.-based oil producing company, which already runs its operations from the Houston suburb of Spring, unanimously recommended to its shareholders that they vote to redomicile the company in Texas.

Shareholders will vote on the change at the company’s annual meeting on May 27. If successful, it will move Exxon’s legal home for the first time since it registered in New Jersey in 1882 as Standard Oil Company — the company later changed its name to Exxon, then merged with Mobil Oil Corp.

“Over the past several years, Texas has made a noticeable effort to embrace the business community,” ExxonMobil Chair and CEO Darren Woods wrote in a statement Tuesday. “In doing so, it has created a policy and regulatory environment that can allow the company to maximize shareholder value. Aligning our legal home with our operating home, in a state that understands our business and has a stake in the company’s success, is important.”

The proposed move will not affect the company’s business operations or employee locations, the company said.

ExxonMobil has been headquartered in Texas since 1989, and about 30% of its employees currently work in the state.

The location of a company’s incorporation dictates the legal, tax and regulatory landscape for the business.

Exxon would join Tesla, Space X and Coinbase as major U.S. companies to redomicile in Texas in recent years as the state moves to become more business friendly.

In 2023, the Legislature passed and Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that created the Texas Business Court and the 15th Court of Appeals, specialized legal venues designed to handle business and commercial disputes. Those courts began operating in 2024.

Last year, the Legislature also approved a law that made it more difficult to sue board members of companies incorporated in Texas.

“Freed from the stranglehold of over-regulation, Texas is where global brand leaders thrive and jobs for hardworking Texans grow,” Abbott wrote in a Tuesday statement. “I thank ExxonMobil for their decision to redomicile in Texas and for their long-standing partnership with our state. With this decision, Texas will further dominate the corporate landscape and ensure our economic growth reaches new heights.”

Exxon noted the creation of the business courts and other recent legal reforms made by Texas in its statement announcing the decision.

“In making its recommendation, the Board considered Texas’ legal and regulatory environment, including its modernized business statutes and the Texas Business Court, which is designed to resolve complex disputes efficiently,” the statement said.

Texas has benefited from growing frustration among company executives with traditional corporate havens of New Jersey and Delaware. New Jersey sued Exxon in 2022, alleging the company contributed to climate change, which forced the state to pay for cleanup after natural disasters. The lawsuit was dismissed last year.

Delaware remains the nation’s top state for U.S. companies’ legal home.

Coinbase’s CEO wrote last year that the company was reincorporating from Delaware to Texas because the Lone Star State’s legal framework is more predictable and efficient. Tesla reincorporated from Delaware to Texas after a 2024 court ruling ordered CEO Elon Musk to give up a compensation package, finding that the package’s shareholder approval process was “deeply flawed.”

___

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Texas data center boom could strain water supply, new report warns

thirst for data

As data centers continue to boom throughout Texas, a new report from the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) warns that the trend could strain the state’s water supply.

HARC estimates Texas data centers used 25 billion gallons of water in 2025—and that the demand for water will continue to rise to meet the needs of the 464 data centers currently in Texas, as well as 70 additional sites currently under development.

In the report, titled “Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State: The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply,” The Woodlands-based nonprofit says that water use for cooling data centers is expected to double or triple by 2028 on the national level. If projections hold, the total annual water use for data centers in Texas will increase by 0.5 percent to 2.7 percent by 2030, or to between 29 billion and 161 billion gallons of water consumed.

Data centers often use water for cooling, though water demand is dependent on the type of cooling used, the size and type of the data center. Although used water can be reused, some new water withdrawals are always needed to replace evaporated water and other systems’ water losses. Water is also used to cool the power plants that generate electricity used by the data centers.

The HARC report offers guidance to address the overall concerns of water demands by data centers, including:

Dry cooling methods
Increased reliance on wind and solar energy sources
Alternative water supplies, like treated wastewater or brackish water for cooling
Adjusted operating schedules to accommodate water usage
Partnering with local companies to develop projects that reduce water leaks
Companies creating their own water infrastructure investments

The report goes on to explain that the Texas State Water Plan, produced by the Texas Water Development Board, projects shortages of 1.6 trillion gallons by 2030 and 2.3 trillion gallons by 2070. HARC posits that the recent surge in water demand from AI data centers is not fully reflected in those projections.

"Texas water plans always look backward, not forward," the report reads. "That means the 2027 water plan, which is in development now, will be based on 2026 regional water plans that do not include forecasted data center water use. Data centers that began operation in 2025 will not be added to the State Water Plan until 2032."

Currently, there are no state regulations that require data centers to report how much water they use. However, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) plans to survey operators of data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities on their water consumption, cooling methods and electricity sources this spring. It is expected to release the results by the end of the year. The companies will have six weeks to respond. The Texas Water Development Board will assist the PUCT on the questions.

“I think we all recognize the importance of data centers and the technology they support and what they give to our modern-day life,” PUC Commissioner Courtney Hjaltman said during the last commission meeting. “Texans, regulators and the legislature really need that understanding of data centers, really need to understand the water they’re using so that we can plan and create the Texas we want.”

See the full HARC report here.

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