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Houston energy storage company forms $10M partnership to enhance storage in ERCOT region

teaming up

Quidnet Energy has entered into a strategic partnership with Hunt Energy Network, and the two Texas companies will work on a build-transfer program for 300 MW of storage projects in Texas. Photo via quidnetenergy.com

A Houston-based company that's developing long-duration energy storage solutions announced a $10 million investment and partnership with a Texas corporation.

Quidnet Energy has entered into a strategic partnership with Hunt Energy Network, an affiliate of Dallas-based Hunt Energy that develops and operates distributed energy resources. The two Texas companies will work on a build-transfer program for 300 MW of storage projects that uses Quidnet's Geomechanical Energy Storage technology in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid operating region.

“Hunt Energy Network brings an extensive and proven track record across diverse energy businesses, making them an ideal partner to address the need for large-scale, long-duration energy storage in Texas,” Joe Zhou, CEO of Quidnet Energy, says in a news release. “We’re thrilled to have them as an investor, partner, and board member, and we look forward to jointly advancing the deployment of energy storage solutions, particularly in regions like ERCOT where the need is most pressing.”

Todd Benson, the chief innovation officer of Hunt Energy, will join Quidnet's board of directors as a part of the partnership.

“Quidnet Energy's GES technology presents a unique opportunity to revolutionize energy storage, and we’re excited to invest in a solution that purposefully transforms existing resources to expand access to long-duration storage,” adds Pat Wood, III, CEO of HEN. “ERCOT's growing supply of renewable energy makes this region ideal for the deployment of our technology, and we’re pleased to work with another Texas innovator to build a more resilient grid for all ERCOT customers.”

Quidnet’s technology, which can provide over 10 hours of storage, uses drilling and hydropower machinery to store renewable energy. Essentially, the company, founded in 2013, is using water storage to power carbon-free electric grid approach to energy.

One year ago, Quidnet secured $10 million from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. Just a few months after that, the company received an additional $2 million from the DOE for its project, entitled "Energy Storage Systems for Overpressure Environments," which is taking place in East Texas.

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At Houston event, the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy announced $100 million in cleantech funding. Photos by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

National agency announces $100M in funding for energy advancement at Houston event

seeing green

Rice University played host to the first-of-its-kind event from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, earlier this month in which the governmental agency announced $100 million in funding for its SCALEUP program.

Dubbed “ARPA-E on the Road: Houston,” the event welcomed more than 100 energy innovators to the Hudspeth Auditorium in Rice’s Anderson-Clarke Center on June 8. Evelyn Wang, director of ARPA-E, announced the funding, which represents the third installment from the agency for its program SCALEUP, or Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential, which supports the commercialization of clean energy technology.

The funding is awarded to previous ARPA-E awardees with a "viable road to market" and "ability to attract private sector investments," according to a statement from the Department of Energy. Previous funding was granted in 2019 and 2021.

"ARPA-E’s SCALEUP program has successfully demonstrated what can happen when technical experts are empowered with the commercialization support to develop a strong pathway to market” Wang said. “I’m excited that we are building on the success of this effort with the third installment of SCALEUP, and I look forward to what the third cohort of teams accomplish.”

Rice Vice President for Research Ramamoorthy Ramesh also spoke at the event on how Rice is working to make Houston a leader in energy innovation. Joe Zhou, CEO of Houston-based Quidnet Energy, also spoke on a panel about how ARPA-E funding benefited his company along with Oregon-based Onboard Dynamics’s CEO Rita Hansen and Massachusetts-based Quaise Energy’s CEO Carlos Araque.

Attendees were able to ask questions to Wang and ARPA-E program directors about the agency’s funding approach and other topics at the event.

Houston energy innovators have benefited from programs like SCALEUP.

Quidnet Energy received $10 million in funding from ARPA-E as part of its SCALEUP program in 2022. The company's technology can store renewable energy for long periods of time in large quantities.

In January, Houston-based Zeta Energy also announced that it has secured funding from ARPA-E. The $4 million in funding came from the agency's Electric Vehicles for American Low-Carbon Living, or EVs4ALL, program. Zeta Energy is known for its lithium sulfur batteries

Houston-based Quidnet Energy has secured funding from a Department of Energy program. Image via quidnetenergy.com

Houston energy storage startup secures $10M in federal funding

seeing green

A Houston-based company that's got a solution to renewable energy storage secured funding from a federal entity.

The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, is granting Quidnet Energy $10 million in funding, the Houston company announced in November. The funding is a part of the ARPA-E Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential, the SCALEUP program. This initiative is aimed at providing funding to previous ARPA-E teams "that have been determined to be feasible for widespread deployment and commercialization domestically," per a news release.

“We’re honored that ARPA-E has selected Quidnet Energy as an awardee of the SCALEUP program,” says Joe Zhou, CEO of Quidnet Energy, in the release. “This funding will support continued work on our Geomechanical Pumped Storage (GPS) project with CPS Energy, which will demonstrate the benefits of using proven pumped hydro technology to create a long-duration energy storage resource that doesn’t require mountainous terrain. We look forward to continuing our partnership with CPS Energy and thank ARPA-E for acknowledging the potential of GPS for long-duration storage.”

The company's technology can store renewable energy for long periods of time in large quantities. The process includes storing pressurized water underground and, when the stored energy is needed, the water propels hydroelectric turbines and produces the electricity to support the grid at a fraction of the cost, per the news release. The concept is similar to existing gravity-powered pumped storage, but with less land required.

The fresh funding will be used toward Quidnet Energy’s ongoing project with San Antonio-based utilitary provider CPS Energy. This collaboration is scaling the company's GPS to a 1 MW/10 MWh commercial system, per the release, that will provide CPS Energy with over 10 hour long-duration energy storage system.

In 2020, Quidnet closed its $10 million series B financing round and secured a major contract with the New York State Energy Development Authority. The series B round included participation from Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Canada-based Evok Innovations, which both previously invested in the company, as well as new investors Trafigura and The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Texas drivers continue to pump the brakes on EVs, shows new report

EV adoption

Even though Texas is home to Tesla, a major manufacturer of electric vehicles, motorists in the Lone Star State aren’t in the fast lane when it comes to getting behind the wheel of an EV.

U.S. Department of Energy data compiled by Visual Capitalist shows Texas has 689.9 EV registrations per 100,000 people, putting it in 20th place for EV adoption among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. A report released in 2023 by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University found that a little over 5 percent of Texans drove EVs.

California leads all states for EV adoption, with 3,025.6 registrations per 100,000 people, according to Visual Capitalist. In second place is Washington, with an EV adoption rate of 1,805.4 per 100,000.

A recent survey by AAA revealed lingering reluctance among Americans to drive all-electric vehicles.

In the survey, just 16 percent of U.S. adults reported being “very likely” or “likely” to buy an all-electric vehicle as their next car. That’s the lowest level of interest in EVs recorded by AAA since 1999. The share of consumers indicating they’d be “very unlikely” or “unlikely” to buy an EV rose to 63 percent, the highest level since 2022.

Factors cited by EV critics included:

  • High cost to repair batteries (62 percent).
  • High purchase price (59 percent).
  • Ineffective transportation for long-distance travel (57 percent).
  • Lack of convenient public charging stations (56 percent).
  • Fear of battery running out of power while driving (55 percent).

“Since AAA began tracking consumer interest in fully electric vehicles, we’ve observed fluctuations in enthusiasm,” said Doug Shupe, corporate communications manager for AAA Texas. “While automakers continue investing in electrification and expanding EV offerings, many drivers still express hesitation — often tied to concerns about cost, range, and charging infrastructure.”

18 Houston-based energy companies land on Forbes Global 2000 list

Forbes 2000

More than 60 Texas-based companies appear on Forbes’ 2025 list of the world’s 2,000 biggest publicly traded companies, and nearly half come from Houston, the majority in the energy sector.

Among Texas companies whose stock is publicly traded, Spring-based ExxonMobil is the highest ranked at No. 13 globally.

Rounding out Texas’ top five are Houston-based Chevron (No. 30), Dallas-based AT&T (No. 35), Austin-based Oracle (No. 66), and Austin-based Tesla (No. 69).

Ranking first in the world is New York City-based J.P. Morgan Chase.

Forbes compiled this year’s Global 2000 list using data from FactSet Research to analyze the biggest public companies based on four metrics: sales, profit, assets, and market value.

“The annual Forbes Global 2000 list features the companies shaping today’s global markets and moving them worldwide,” said Hank Tucker, a staff writer at Forbes. “This year’s list showcases how despite a complex geopolitical landscape, globalization has continued to fuel decades of economic growth, with the world’s largest companies more than tripling in size across multiple measures in the past 20 years.”

The U.S. topped the list with 612 companies, followed by China with 317 and Japan with 180.

Here are the rest of the Texas-based companies in the Forbes 2000, grouped by the location of their headquarters and followed by their global ranking.

Houston area (those in the energy sector are in bold)

  • ConocoPhillips (No. 105)
  • Phillips 66 (No. 276)
  • SLB (No. 296)
  • EOG Resources (No. 297)
  • Occidental Petroleum (No. 302)
  • Waste Management (No. 351)
  • Kinder Morgan (No. 370)
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise (No. 379)
  • Baker Hughes (No. 403)
  • Cheniere Energy (No. 415)
  • Corebridge Financial (No. 424)
  • Sysco (No. 448)
  • Halliburton (No. 641)
  • Targa Resources (No. 651)
  • NRG Energy (No. 667)
  • Quanta Services (No. 722)
  • CenterPoint Energy (No. 783)
  • Coterra Energy (No. 1,138)
  • Crown Castle International (No. 1,146)
  • Westlake Corp. (No. 1,199)
  • APA Corp. (No. 1,467)
  • Comfort Systems USA (No. 1,629)
  • Group 1 Automotive (No. 1,653)
  • Talen Energy (No. 1,854)
  • Prosperity Bancshares (No. 1,855)
  • NOV (No. 1,980)

Austin area

  • Dell Technologies (No. 183)
  • Flex (No. 887)
  • Digital Realty Trust (No. 1,063)
  • CrowdStrike (No. 1,490)

Dallas-Fort Worth

  • Caterpillar (No. 118)
  • Charles Schwab (No. 124)
  • McKesson (No. 195)
  • D.R. Horton (No. 365)
  • Texas Instruments (No. 374)
  • Vistra Energy (No. 437)
  • CBRE (No. 582)
  • Kimberly-Clark (No. 639)
  • Tenet Healthcare (No. 691)
  • American Airlines (No. 834)
  • Southwest Airlines (No. 844)
  • Atmos Energy (No. 1,025)
  • Builders FirstSource (No. 1,039)
  • Copart (No. 1,062)
  • Fluor (No. 1,153)
  • Jacobs Solutions (1,232)
  • Globe Life (1,285)
  • AECOM (No. 1,371)
  • Lennox International (No. 1,486)
  • HF Sinclair (No. 1,532)
  • Invitation Homes (No. 1,603)
  • Celanese (No. 1,845)
  • Tyler Technologies (No. 1,942)

San Antonio

  • Valero Energy (No. 397)
  • Cullen/Frost Bankers (No. 1,560)

Midland

  • Diamondback Energy (No. 471)
  • Permian Resources (No. 1,762)
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A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Hydrogen Technology Expo expected to bring largest event yet to NRG Center

where to be

The Hydrogen Technology Expo North America returns to NRG Center this month, June 25-26, and is slated to be the largest yet with an expected 10,000 attendees, 500 exhibitors, 200 speakers and more than 100 hours of content.

The 2025 event will feature cutting-edge technologies, interactive panel discussions and networking opportunities while targeting industries looking to adopt hydrogen and fuel cell technology to help decarbonize their sectors. The event will be co-located with the Carbon Capture Technology Expo North America.

The 2025 expo will introduce the new Ammonia Zone, a dedicated area fostering collaboration with industries leveraging ammonia as a key component in the hydrogen economy. It will also offer one- and two-day passes for the first time.

The expo is divided into five tracks:

  • Strategic forum
  • Hydrogen and alternative fuel production
  • Infrastructure and integration
  • Mobility and propulsion systems
  • Carbon capture, utilization and storage

Speakers include Martin Perez, former associate director for carbon capture at the office of clean energy demonstrations for the U.S. Department of Energy; Frank Wolak, president and CEO of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association; Seema Santhakumar, hydrogen market development leader –Americas at Baker Hughes; Rich Byrnes, chief infrastructure officer for Port Houston; and many others. A full list of exhibitors can be found here.

Technologies on display will include storage systems, industrial plant technologies, liquefaction technologies, advanced materials and composites, gasification technology, simulation and evaluation, safety systems, hydrogen fuels, hydrogen injectors, line assemblies, fuel-cell control units and more.

“The Hydrogen Technology Expo offers industry leaders a valuable opportunity to network and stay informed about the latest developments in the rapidly evolving world of hydrogen,” Susan Shifflett, Executive Director at Texas Hydrogen Alliance, said. “We’re a proud partner of the show.”

Entry to the exhibition hall is free of charge. Passes start at $450. Find more information about how to register here.

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