Global organization unveils new location in Houston suburb to drive energy transition innovation and beyond

moving in

Plug and Play is opening a Sugar Land hub to accelerate startups and innovation across smart cities, energy, health, and mobility sectors. Photo courtesy of Plug and Play

Leading innovation platform Plug and Play announced the opening of its new flagship Houston-area location in Sugar Land, which is its fourth location in Texas.

Plug and Play has accelerated over 2,700 startups globally last year with corporate partners that include Dell Technologies, Daikin, Microsoft, LG Chem, Shell, and Mercedes. The company’s portfolio includes PayPal, Dropbox, LendingClub, and Course Hero, with 8 percent of the portfolio valued at over $100 million.

The deal, which facilitated by the Sugar Land Office of Economic Development and Tourism, will bring a new office for the organization to Sugar Land Town Square with leasing and hiring between December and January.

The focus will be on “smart cities,” which include energy, health, transportation, and mobility sectors. The official launch is slated for the first quarter of 2025, and will feature 15 startups announced on Selection Day.

"By expanding to Sugar Land, we’re creating a space where startups can access resources, build partnerships, and scale rapidly,” VP Growth Strategy at Plug and Play Sherif Saadawi says in a news release. “This location will help fuel Texas' innovation ecosystem, providing entrepreneurs with the tools and networks they need to drive real-world impact and contribute to the state’s technological and economic growth."

Plug and Play plans to hire four full-time equivalent employees and accelerate two startup batches per year. One Sugar Land City representative will serve as a board member.

“We are excited to welcome Plug and Play to Sugar Land,” Mayor of Sugar Land Joe Zimmerma adds. “This investment will help us connect with corporate contacts and experts in startups and businesses that would take us many years to reach on our own. It allows us to create a presence, attract investments and jobs to the city, and hopefully become a base of operations for some of these high-growth companies.”

The organization originally entered the Houston market in 2019 and now has locations in Bryan/College Station, Frisco, and Cedar Park in Texas.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Houston energy co. accelerates Beaumont storage expansion after key investment deal

deal is in motion

With the acquisition of its Texas business now complete, Houston-based Caliche Development Partners is moving ahead with expansion of a natural gas storage project in Beaumont.

This milestone comes after a previously announced majority investment in Caliche by New York City-based investment firm Sixth Street, which has offices in Houston, Austin, and Dallas. Sixth Street recently closed on the Texas portion of the deal, and it expects to wrap up the California portion of the deal in mid-2025.

The amount of Sixth Street’s investment in Caliche wasn’t disclosed.

Completion of the deal’s Texas component gave Caliche the go-ahead to start spending Sixth Street’s money on the Beaumont project.

Caliche already has started construction on the 14 billion-cubic-feet expansion of its Golden Triangle Storage natural gas storage facilities. Two new caverns, expected to come online in 2026 and 2027, will double total storage capacity to 28 billion cubic feet (Bcf).

The Golden Triangle Storage system connects to seven major pipelines in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area.

Meanwhile, Caliche has started construction on what’s billed as the world’s largest helium storage cavern, also located at the Golden Triangle site. This cavern, along with Caliche’s planned carbon sequestration project just four miles west of Golden Triangle, are expected to begin operating in 2025.

Caliche is an acquisition and development company that specializes in underground storage of natural gas, industrial gasses like hydrogen and helium, and carbon emissions. Caliche’s projects are in the Texas Gulf Coast’s Jefferson County and Northern California’s Colusa County.

3 things you may have missed: Houstonians recognized as top climate leaders, events to attend, and more

taking notes

Editor's note: Dive headfirst into the new week with three quick things to catch up on in Houston's energy transition.

Events not to miss

Put these Houston-area energy-related events on your calendar.

On December 4-5, Reuters is hosting its Energy Transition North America 2024, for key decision makers in the industry wanting to learn how to build collaborative pathways to modernize infrastructure, futureproof assets, and more.
The Greater Houston Partnership is putting on its Upskill Works: Energy & Energy Transition in its workforce-focused series on Wednesday, December 4. It's open to both members and non-members.
On December 9, a uniquely Houston event — Pumps & Pipes — will pull together experts across Houston's core industries, including energy, health care, and aerospace, for a one-day symposium.
Energy Tech Nexus and its partners are putting on its Jingle Mingle and the Houston Tech & Energytech Extravaganza on Dec. 11. Tickets are available online.

Who's who: 3 Houstonians named to Time Magazine's list of climate leaders

These three Houston innovators have been recognized by Time Magazine. Photos courtesy

Three Houston executives — Andrew Chang, Tim Latimer, and Cindy Taff — have been named to Time magazine’s prestigious list of the 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business for 2024.

Read more about what these innovators are doing across geothermal energy, sustainable fuels, and energy storage. Click here.

From Houston to India: Rice University's newest global partnership

Rice University will open a hub in Bengaluru, India, to focus on sustainable energy, AI, biotechnology, and global research collaboration. Photo via Rice University

Rice University is launching Rice Global India, which is a strategic initiative to expand India’s rapidly growing education and technology sectors.

The new hub is expected to help advance research initiatives, student and faculty exchanges and collaborations in artificial intelligence, biotechnology and sustainable energy.

“India is a country of tremendous opportunity, one where we see the potential to make a meaningful impact through collaboration in research, innovation and education,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches says. Read more.

Houston's hydrogen revolution gets up to $1.2B federal boost to power Gulf Coast’s clean energy future

HyVelocity funding

The emerging low-carbon hydrogen ecosystem in Houston and along the Texas Gulf Coast is getting as much as a $1.2 billion lift from the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Energy funding, announced November 20, is earmarked for the new HyVelocity Hub. The hub — backed by energy companies, schools, nonprofits, and other organizations — will serve the country’s biggest hydrogen-producing area. The region earns that status thanks to more than 1,000 miles of dedicated hydrogen pipelines and almost 50 hydrogen production plants.

“The HyVelocity Hub demonstrates the power of collaboration in catalyzing economic growth and creating value for communities as we build a regional hydrogen economy that delivers benefits to Gulf Coast communities,” says Paula Gant, president and CEO of Des Plaines, Illinois-based GTI Energy, which is administering the hub.

HyVelocity, which aims to become the largest hydrogen hub in the country, has already received about $22 million of the $1.2 billion in federal funding to kickstart the project.

Organizers of the hydrogen project include:

Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corp.
Air Liquide, whose U.S. headquarters is in Houston
Chevron, which is moving its headquarters to Houston
Spring-based ExxonMobil
Lake Mary, Florida-based Mitsubishi Power Americas
Denmark-based Ørsted
Center for Houston’s Future
Houston Advanced Research Center
University of Texas at Austin

The hub’s primary contractor is HyVelocity LLC. The company says the hub could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to seven million metric tons per year and create as many as 45,000 over the life of the project.

HyVelocity is looking at several locations in the Houston area and along the Gulf Coast for large-scale production of hydrogen. The process will rely on water from electrolysis along with natural gas from carbon capture and storage. To improve distribution and lower storage costs, the hub envisions creating a hydrogen pipeline system.

Clean hydrogen generated by the hub will help power fuel-cell electric trucks, factories, ammonia plants, refineries, petrochemical facilities, and marine fuel operations.

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