California co. announces fully sustainable, hydrogen-powered data center in Houston

moving in

The 1-gigawatt site will be constructed at a cost of approximately $8 billion. Photo courtesy ECL

The Houston area will soon be home to what's being lauded as the first fully sustainable 1-gigawatt data center on a 600-acres site east of Houston.

Data center-as-a-service company ECL, headquartered in Mountain View, California, announced its plans to build the ECL TerraSite-TX1. Hardware and cloud service company Lambda will serve as its first tenant. Lambda and other AI leaders will get access to necessary space and power for the next wave zero emission innovations.

Phase 1 of TerraSite-TX1 will be complete by summer of 2025 with a cost of approximately $450 million. The 50 megawatt of data center capacity will be utilized by data center cloud and AI cloud operators. The 1-gigawatt site will be constructed at a cost of approximately $8 billion. The funding will come from ECL and financial partners.

ECL Terrasite-TX1 comes at a needed time for Texas with The Electric Reliability Council of Texas stating on June 12 that the state’s power grid needs will grow approximately double by 2030. This is due in part to the growth of data centers and AI. The ECL Terrasite-TX1 is built to help eliminate the stress on the state’s power grid and help facilitate “state-level economic development and growth of the AI industry,” according to a news release.

ECL houston data center The project will span over 600 acres east of Houston. Rendering courtesy ECL

ECL data centers are built to be modular, which allows for expansion in 1-megawatt increments. They are “ built to suit” and delivered in less than 12 months, which is shorter than the industry standard of 36 to 48.

“While others talk about delivering off-grid, hydrogen-powered data centers in five, ten, or 20 years, only ECL is giving the AI industry the space, power, and peace of mind they and their customers need, now,” Yuval Bachar, co-founder and CEO of ECL, says in a news release. “The level of innovation that we have introduced to the market is unprecedented and will serve not only us and our customers but the entire data center industry for decades to come.”

ECL’s ECL-MV1 is the world’s first off-grid, hydrogen-powered modular data center that operates 24/7 with zero emissions, less noise, and a negative water footprint that replenishes water to the community. ECL-MV1 offers a 10x increase in “energy efficiency with a power usage effectiveness of 1.05 and a 7-times improvement in data density per rack, which is ideal for AI high-density demand” according to the release.

“The data center technology committed to by ECL is truly transformative in the industry,” Lambda's Vice President for Data Center Infrastructure Ken Patchett adds. “We believe ECL’s technology could unlock a powerful and eco-conscious foundation for AI advancement. This new infrastructure could give researchers and developers essential computational resources while drastically reducing the environmental impact of AI operations.”

From Your Site Articles

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Solidec secures pre-seed funding from Houston VC firm

fresh funding

Houston-based Flathead Forge Fund 1 has invested in Houston startup Solidec, which specializes in modular onsite chemical manufacturing.

The investment was part of Solidec’s recent round of more than $2 million in pre-seed funding. The amount of Flathead Forge’s investment wasn’t disclosed.

“Flathead Forge brings exactly the kind of domain-specific capital and operational network that a company at our stage needs. Their focus on water and critical minerals makes this a genuinely strategic relationship,” Ryan DuChanois, co-founder and CEO of Solidec, said in a news release.

Other investors in the round included New Climate Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Echo River Capital, Ecosphere Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Safar Partners and Semilla Climate Capital.

Solidec produces industrial chemicals, including hydrogen peroxide, formic acid and acetic acid, using only air, water and electricity. Its modular reactors eliminate the need for energy-intensive production and long-haul distribution.

“Solidec’s platform cuts cost, emissions, and supply-chain fragility at the source,” Douglas Lee, managing director of Flathead Forge, added in the statement.

DuChanois said in an email that the company plans to use the funding to "scale (its) modular chemical manufacturing platform."

Solidec recently announced a pilot project with Lynas Rare Earths, the world’s only commercial producer of separated light and heavy rare earth oxides outside China, for production of hydrogen peroxide for a Lynas facility in Australia.

Solidec, a member of Greentown Labs Houston, spun out of associate professor Haotian Wang’s lab at Rice University in 2024. Wang focuses on developing new materials and technology for energy and environmental uses, such as energy storage and green synthesis.

Greentown Labs names new COO, appoints new Head of Houston

new leaders

Greentown Labs has reshuffled its leadership, elevating Houston leaders into new roles.

Lawson Gow was named COO of the Houston- and Boston-based climatech incubator in February 2026. In his new role, he will focus on optimizing Greentown's structure, building new internal and external systems and developing a plan for growth.

Gow was named Head of Houston in July. He previously founded The Cannon, a coworking space with eight locations in the Houston area, with additional partner spaces. He also recently served as managing partner at Houston-based investment and advisory firm Helium Capital. Gow is the son of David Gow, founder of Energy Capital's parent company, Gow Media.

Kelsey Kearns, who previously served as Director of Community Strategy at Greentown, was named as Gow's replacement in the Houston-focused role. As the new Head of Houston, she will lead daily operations, work to connect the city's climate and innovation ecosystem and founders, strengthen partnerships and accelerate solutions.

"I'm honored and grateful to step into this new role," Kearns said in an email. "My goal is for Greentown to thrive so our founders can thrive! That means supporting their connection to the capital, pilots, and customers they need to grow while building partnerships across Houston's innovation ecosystem. I want Greentown Houston to become the playbook for every future Greentown expansion."

Before joining Greentown Houston, Kearns served as director of business development at Howdy.com, an Austin-based technology staffing company.

"Kelsey is such a perfect fit to lead Greentown Houston," Gow added in an email. "She's deeply passionate about the entrepreneurial community here and has worked throughout and across the ecosystem for years. She's built an awesome dream team here and has helped reinvigorate Greentown's presence and role in Houston's innovation economy."

Earlier this year, Greentown also named Julia Travaglini as the Head of its Boston incubator. Travaglini has held multiple leadership roles at Greentown since 2016. The organization named Georgina Campbell Flatter as its new CEO in early 2025.

Texas sees 5th highest surge in gas prices in the U.S. since 2025

Pay at the Pump

Residents all around Texas are seeing soaring prices for regular and diesel fuel in 2026.

In fact, the Lone Star State has seen the fifth-highest percentage increase in gas prices in the country from April 2025 to April 2026, a just-released SmartAsset study has found. The current cost of a regular gallon of gas is 36.1 percent higher now than it was a year ago, and diesel is 60.9 percent more expensive.

The report, "Gas Prices Hit Records in 2026: State by State Breakdown," compared average gas prices from AAA from April 1, 2025 and April 1, 2026 and calculated the one-year change across all 50 states. The study looked at the price of a gallon of regular, premium, and diesel.

According to AAA, the cost of a regular gallon of gas in Texas at the start of April was $3.77, while premium is $4.62 per gallon. Diesel ticked over $5 a gallon — ouch — at $5.11.

Houston gas prices aren't much cheaper than the statewide average. A gallon of regular costs up to $3.76 at some Houston-area pumps, and diesel is $5.05 per gallon. AAA says the highest recorded average price for gas in the city was in June 2022, when a gallon of regular cost $4.68 and diesel cost $5.24.

Though Texas' gas prices are continuing to climb, it ranks 35th in the national ranking of states with the highest cost for regular gas as of April 2026. Texas' diesel prices are the 14th highest nationwide.

With the national average price for gas at $4.06, SmartAsset said the sudden surge in prices can be attributed to the United States' war on Iran, and "subsequent pressure on the Strait of Hormuz."

"Many states have experienced a 33 percent year-over-year increase in the cost of a gallon of regular gas – and in some places it’s even higher," the report's author wrote. "Commercial and public programs may be feeling similarly pinched, with diesel prices upwards of $6.00 per gallon in many states."

California currently has the highest average price for regular and diesel — $5.89 per gallon and $7.52 per gallon, respectively.

Arizona leads the nation with the highest one-year increase in gas prices. Regular gas in the Grand Canyon State is nearly 38 percent more expensive than it was last year, at $4.70 per gallon, and diesel is about 69 percent higher at $6.04 for a gallon.

The state with the cheapest gas prices in April is Oklahoma, where regular costs $3.27 per gallon, premium is $3.97, and diesel is $4.49.

---

This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

View All Listings

ENERGYCAPITALHTX EMAILS ARE AWESOME