Houston investor backs carbon capture startup's series A

promising tech

CarbonQuest, a company with a compact carbon capture technology, announced it received series A funding from Houston-based Riverbend Energy Group. Photo via CarbonQuest

Houston investors are betting on a New York-based carbon capture startup's technology.

CarbonQuest announced it received series A funding from Houston-based Riverbend Energy Group. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2019, the company created its Distributed Carbon Capture technology that captures CO2 from buildings and onsite power generation systems, then liquifies and transports it to local businesses that need carbon for their production processes.

“We are one of the few carbon capture companies with commercial products on the market today, and this investment will enable us to continue bringing distributed carbon capture to a wider swath of the market,” Shane Johnson, president and CEO of CarbonQuest, says in a news release. “We are also excited to attract new talent and expand our North American operations.”

The company's compact, modular carbon capture solution has already been deployed in several New York City buildings and reports that it is focused on natural gas emissions from distributed onsite power generation in 2024. The fresh funding will help CarbonQuest lower its cost for customers and address new market segments, including biogenic sources of CO2, utility infrastructure, and more, per the release.

Additionally, the company plans to advance development of its Carbon Management Software, a platform that provides real-time data and analytics for users. Riverbend's Joe Passanante and Eric Danziger will join CarbonQuest’s board of directors as a part of the deal.

“We are thrilled to partner with CarbonQuest, a company at the forefront of distributed carbon capture technology,” Passanante, managing director at Riverbend, says in the release. “This investment reflects our commitment to advancing solutions that play a critical role in decarbonization.

"CarbonQuest’s innovative approach not only addresses that need, but also offers scalable, economically viable solutions that can be deployed across a wide range of markets," he continues. "We are excited to collaborate with CarbonQuest’s experienced and talented team and believe this partnership will be a game changer in multiple markets, helping to unlock the full potential of distributed carbon capture and significantly contribute to global climate goals.”

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Renewable Parts, an independent supply chain solutions for the wind industry that works with remanufactured and refurbished products, announced that its North American operations will be based in Humble. Photo courtesy of Renewable Parts

Global supply chain solution company to bring plant to Houston area

humble beginnings

A Scottish company has chosen a Houston suburb as its home for North American operations.

"Being close to Houston was important for us as a business. Texas has a thriving wind industry and an abundance of turbines that we have vast experience on," CEO Michael Forbes says in a news release, "And Houston is widely considered the Energy Capital of the World — a great opportunity for us to find good people and collaborate with some of the many great business that are located there.

"We were also helped through the process of establishing our new venture by the Greater Houston Partnership, who gave us a warm welcome and connected us with many of the people who have gone on to play a part in the business set-up, from finding a location to supporting us with the legal side of things," he continues.

For over a decade, Renewable Parts successfully has been recirculating wind turbine component parts at scale for service providers, turbine operators and even turbine OEMs.

Craig Rhodes, senior vice president of economic development for the Greater Houston Partnership hopes the new location will help boost the local economy.

"Renewable Parts' decision to establish their North American operations in Humble, Texas, is further testament to the Houston region's strong infrastructure, skilled workforce and unmatched industry expertise,” Rhodes says in the release.

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Texas-based Tesla posts first quarterly increase in deliveries, but shares slump

mixed feelings

Low interest financing, sweet lease deals, price cuts and free charging boosted Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter, the first increase this year for the electric vehicle maker.

The Austin, Texas, company said Wednesday that it delivered 462,890 vehicles from July through September, bolstered by loans as low as 1.99%, and $299 monthly leases on the Model 3, its least expensive vehicle. It delivered 435,059 vehicles during the same period last year.

The figures for July through September came in slightly higher than analyst estimates of 462,000 for the period, according to data provider FactSet.

However, shares of Tesla Inc. dropped sharply in morning trading, down nearly 4%.

The deliveries were “good and a step in the right direction,” wrote Dan Ives of Wedbush, but that there would be pressure on the company's stock because investors had been hoping for even better.

“Overall, this is a clear improvement from the first half and we believe getting in the range of 1.8 million for the year is still the key and important bogey,” Ives said.

Tesla has struggled much of the year to sell its aging model lineup as growth in electric vehicle sales in the U.S. and Europe slowed due to concerns with range, price and the ability to charge on trips.

Falling sales early in the year led to once-unheard of discounts for the automaker, cutting into its industry leading profit margins. Analysts estimated that Tesla’s average vehicle sales price was $42,500 for the third quarter, the lowest price in four years.

The sales decline likely will pull down third quarter earnings when they are announced on Oct. 23.

Tesla’s sales decline comes as competition is increasing from legacy and startup automakers, which are trying to nibble away at the company’s market share.

Nearly all of Tesla’s sales came from the smaller and less-expensive Models 3 and Y, with the company selling only 22,915 of its more expensive models that include X and S, as well as the new Cybertruck.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors Tuesday that third-quarter sales would bring a rebound as China sales continue to increase and price and demand stabilizes.” As China continues to heat up on the demand story for Tesla with favorable leasing/financing terms and pent-up demand in the region, we are confident that we will see a significant growth figure in the region,” he wrote.

Europe will continue to be slow with macroeconomic pressures, and U.S. demand should stabilize, Ives wrote.

But BNP Paribas Exane said in an investor note that long term expectations of the market are somewhat high for Tesla. The company said its sales estimates for 2026 and 2027 “remain 10% to 15% below the street, respectively.”

Tesla is scheduled to unveil a purpose built robotaxi at an event next week.

Houston receives abysmal ranking on list of greenest cities in the US

room for improvement

Bad news, Houston. The Bayou City is the third worst metro when it comes to the country's greenest cities.

According to WalletHub's recently released Greenest Cities in America report, Houston is No. 98 out of 100 of the largest cities that were ranked in the study, which was based on information from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Trust for Public Land, U.S. Department of Energy - The Alternative Fuels Data Center, and more.

“There are plenty of things that individuals can do to adopt a green lifestyle, from recycling to sharing rides to installing solar panels on their homes. However, living in one of the greenest cities can make it even easier to care for the environment, due to sustainable laws and policies, access to locally-grown produce and infrastructure that allows residents to use vehicles less often," says Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst. "The greenest cities also are better for your health due to superior air and water quality.”

Houston scored 36.88 points out of 100, and comes in dead last on the environment ranking. Here's how the city performs when it comes to the other metrics:

No. 87 for transportation
No. 52 for energy sources
No. 61 for lifestyle and policy
No. 91 for greenhouse-gas emissions per capita
No. 30 for percent of green space
No. 86 for median air quality index
No. 97 for annual excess fuel consumption
No. 56 for percent of commuters who drive
No. 39 for walk score
No. 33 for farmers markets per capita

The big winners on the report are mostly on the West Coast. Of the top 10, six cities are from California. These are the greenest cities, per the report:

San Diego, California
Washington, D.C.
Honolulu, Hawaii
San Francisco, California
San Jose, California
Seattle, Washington
Oakland, California
Portland, Oregon
Fremont, California
Irvine, California

Texas isn't seen on the list until Austin, which ranked No. 26. The rest of the major Lone Star State major metros include San Antonio at No. 44, Fort Worth at No. 76, and Dallas at No. 81.

While this report is pretty damning, there's not a general consensus that all hope is lost for Houston when it comes to being green. Last year, the city was ranked as having the lowest carbon footprint, based on a report from Park Sleep Fly.

However, WalletHub's report has pretty consistently ranked Houston low on the list. Last year, Houston was slightly higher up at No. 95. In 2022 and 2021, the city claimed the No. 93 spot.

How this Houston business leader is promoting diversity, nimbleness amid energy transition

voices of energy

For most of her career, Ana Amicarella has been the only person in the room who looks like her. But as CEO of Houston-based EthosEnergy, she's changing that.

"The energy sector for sure is highly dominated by men, but I think it's such an exciting environment," Amicarella says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "What I try to do at every job that I go to is I try to increase representation — diverse representation and females in the company. And I measure that when I started and when I end. I want to be able to make a difference."

Amicarella joined EthosEnergy — which provides rotating equipment services and solutions to the power, oil and gas, and industrial markets — as CEO in 2019 a few years after it was in 2014 as a joint venture between John Wood Group PLC and Siemens Energy AG. Prior to her current role, she served in leadership roles at Aggreko an GE Oil and Gas.

Recently, EthosEnergy announced it's being acquired by New York private equity firm, One Equity Partners, which Amicarella says is very interested in investing into EthosEnergy and its ability to contribute to the energy transition.

"What One Equity Partners will bring is tremendous decisiveness. They won't delay in deciding what is good for the company — I've already seen examples," Amicarella says, adding that the deal hasn't get been finalized. "They are going to make decisions and trust the management team, I think our pace of change will be enormous compared to what it used to be."

While EthosEnergy has customers from traditional oil and gas, she says she leads the company with the energy transition at the top of her mind, and that means being able to grow and evolve.

"One of the behaviors we look to have at EthosEnergy is an ability to be nimble," Amicarella says, "because we know market conditions change. Think of all the things we've had to go through in the last five years."

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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