Greentown Labs names Colombia-owned energy co. as latest top-tier industry partner

looking south

Here's the latest global energy company to sign onto Greentown Labs. Photo via GreentownLabs.com

Greentown Labs has named its latest partner, opening a door to Colombia and South America.

Ecopetrol has joined Greentown as its newest Terawatt Partner, the highest level partner for the incubator. The company, which the Colombian government holds a majority ownership stake in, has integrated business across the hydrocarbon value chain, as well as low emission solutions and energy transmission.

"Accelerating the energy transition and fostering climate action is only possible through innovation, entrepreneurship, and meaningful partnerships," Ecopetrol's Chief Innovation Officer Agostinho João Ramalho Almeida says in a news release. "At Grupo Ecopetrol, we believe in joint efforts, orchestration, and access to technology to push barriers and increase value for our business and sustainability agenda. Partnering with Greentown Labs and working alongside industry leaders is an amazing opportunity to tackle common goals and challenges."

The company has a presence in several other locales throughout South and North America, per the release.

With the new partnership, Ecopetrol will have access to the Greentown community and events. Laura Tobón Díaz, head of innovation ecosystems and strategic partnerships for Ecopetrol, will serve on Greentown's Industry Leadership Council.

"Greentown is excited to partner with Ecopetrol, an energy company taking meaningful action on climate in collaboration with the Colombian government," Greentown CEO and President Kevin Knobloch says in the release. "We look forward to seeing our startups' climate technologies advance Ecopetrol's decarbonization efforts, as well as Ecopetrol sharing its energy expertise, connections, and resources with our entrepreneurs."

Earlier this year, TotalEnergies joined the incubator at the Terawatt level, and before that, GE Vernova was the latest top-level partner, joining last fall.

Greentown Labs has a new Terawatt Partner. Photo courtesy of Greentown Labs

TotalEnergies signs on as top-level partner at climatetech incubator

onboarding

Greentown Labs, dual located in Houston and Somerville, Massachusetts, has named its latest top-level partner.

TotalEnergies has joined the incubator at the the highest level of partnership — the Terawatt level — Greentown Labs announced on January 23. Through the partnership, TotalEnergies will have access to Greentown's membership of clean energy startups and event programming.

Lotfi Hedhli, president at TotalEnergies Research & Technology U.S., will participate on Greentown’s Industry Leadership Council, providing strategic guidance to the incubator.

“We are excited to join Greentown Labs and its ecosystem to catalyze the development of potential decarbonization technologies through collaboration with promising startups,” Hedhli says in a news release. “This partnership with Greentown Labs will focus in particular on the deployment and use of renewables and low-carbon solutions, which are critical to our ambition to achieve carbon neutrality.”

TotalEnergies is among the world's largest utility-scale solar developers with activity in over 30 states in the country, including a Houston-area solar farm that went online in October. Additionally, TotalEnergies announced in November that it signed an agreement with TexGen to acquire $635 million three gas-fired power plants with a total capacity of 1.5 GW in Texas.

“At Greentown Labs, we continue to recognize and appreciate the role energy leaders play in the clean energy transition and we’re proud to have TotalEnergies join us as a Terawatt Partner,” Greentown Labs CEO and President Kevin Knobloch says in the news release. “We applaud the meaningful steps TotalEnergies is taking to expand its renewable energy portfolio and generation, and we’re eager to have their team of experts engaging directly with our climatetech entrepreneurs.”

Greentown last named a Terawatt Partner — GE Vernova — last fall.

GE Verona joins Greentown Labs as a top-tier partner. Photo via gevernova.com

Greentown Labs names GE affiliate as latest top-level partner

new to the crew

Greentown Labs, dually located in Houston and Somerville, Massachusetts, has announced its latest Terawatt Partner, which is the climatetech incubator's highest-level partnership.

Greentown Labs announced this week that GE Vernova, a global energy company that focusing on moving the energy transition through "continuing to electrify the world," has joined its top tier of partners. Greentown has over 20 of these Terawatt Partners, and GE Verona joins the ranks of Chevron, Amazon, Aramco, Microsoft, Shell, and more.

“GE Vernova embodies what we’re looking for in a partner: energy transition expertise with a deep commitment and passion for innovation, collaboration, and decarbonization,” Greentown Labs CEO and President Kevin Knobloch says in a statement. “Equally important, the team at GE Vernova has a real sense of urgency to accelerate global decarbonization and is eager to engage with our community of climatetech startups—I can’t wait to see all that we’ll accomplish together.”

GE Vernova specializes in power, wind, and electrification while keeping decarbonization at the forefront of its business. The company opened its global headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts just down the street from where Greentown got its start in 2011 and only a few miles from the incubator today.

“I am thrilled to join as a new partner with Greentown Labs and look to support the climatetech ecosystem in many different ways,” GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik says in the news release. “Whether it’s innovating new technologies, the industrialization of products, or leveraging our relationships globally, we are eager to collaborate with this unique and important group of entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders.”

With the arrangement, Limor Spector, president of Ventures and Incubation at GE Vernova, will serve on the Industry Leadership Council.

Founded in 2022, GE Verona is expected to spin off from GE in the second quarter of next year.

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Fervo Energy bumps up IPO target to $1.82B

IPO update

Houston-based geothermal power company Fervo Energy is now eyeing an IPO that would raise $1.75 billion to $1.82 billion, up from the previous target of $1.33 billion.

In paperwork filed Monday, May 11 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Fervo says it plans to sell 70 million shares of Class A common stock at $25 to $26 per share.

In addition, Fervo expects to grant underwriters 30-day options to buy up to 8.33 million additional shares of Class A common stock. This could raise nearly $200 million.

When it announced the IPO on May 4, Fervo aimed to sell 55.56 million shares at $21 to $24 per share, which would have raised $1.17 billion to $1.33 billion. The initial valuation target was $6.5 billion.

A date for the IPO hasn’t been scheduled. Fervo’s stock will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FRVO.

Fervo, founded in 2017, has attracted about $1.5 billion in funding from investors such as Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Google, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Devon Energy (which is moving its headquarters to Houston), Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, CalSTRS, Liberty Mutual Investments, AllianceBernstein, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

Fervo’s marquee project is Cape Station in Beaver County, Utah, the world’s largest EGS (enhanced geothermal system) project. The first phase will deliver 100 megawatts of baseload clean power, with the second phase adding another 400 megawatts. The site can accommodate 2 gigawatts of geothermal energy. Fervo holds more than 595,000 leased acres for potential expansion.

Cape Station has secured power purchase agreements for the entire 500-megawatt capacity. Customers include Houston-based Shell Energy North America and Southern California Edison.

Modular nuclear reactor company opens office in Houston

new to hou

The nuclear energy renaissance continues in Texas with an announcement by NuScale Power. The Oregon-based provider of proprietary and innovative advanced small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology announced in April it would be opening office space in Houston’s CityCentre.

“Opening this space in Houston underscores our commitment to meeting rising energy demand with safe, scalable nuclear technology,” John Hopkins, NuScale president and CEO, said in a news release. “This move expands our presence in a key market for partners, prospective customers, and stakeholders in addition to positioning us for the future as we focus on the near-term deployment of our industry-leading technology. Texas is leading the way in embracing advanced nuclear for grid resilience and industrial decarbonization, and we’re proud to expand our footprint and capabilities in this important region.”

Interest in nuclear power has been growing in recent years thanks to tensions with oil-rich nations, concerns about man-made climate change from fossil fuels, and the rapidly increasing power needs of data centers. Both Dow and Texas A&M University have announced expanded nuclear power projects in the last year, with an eye of changing the face of Texas’s energy industry through smaller, safer fission reactors.

Enter NuScale, founded in 2007 from technology developed at the University of Oregon. Their modular SMR technology generates 77 megawatts and is one of the only small modular reactors (SMR) to receive design approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). These advances have led to runaway success for NuScale, whose stock has risen by more than 1,670 percent since the start of 2024.

The new operations campus in CityCentre is expected to facilitate the movement, installation and coordination of NuScale technology into the various energy systems. Typically, SMRs are used for off-grid installations, desalination operations, mining facilities and similar areas that lack infrastructure. However, the modularity means that they can be easily deployed to a variety of areas.

It comes none too soon. ERCOT projects that Texas data centers alone will require 77,965 megawatts by 2030.

Houston battery recycling company secures $32M in financing

fresh funding

Houston-based Ace Green Recycling has raised $32 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing to support its future plans for growth.

The battery recycling technology company secured the financing with Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. II, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company that Ace previously announced it plans to merge with. Once the merger is completed, Ace will become a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "AGXI."

Ace says the financing will be used to complete the merger and scale the company.

“This investment accelerates our mission to redefine battery recycling at a global scale,” Ace CEO Nischay Chadha said in a news release. “At Ace, we are deploying Greenlead® and LithiumFirst™ as a new standard–fully electrified, Scope 1 emissions-free solutions designed to replace legacy processes and unlock a cleaner supply chain for critical materials. We believe that the future of electrification depends on how efficiently and sustainably we recover these resources, and this milestone brings us meaningfully closer to that future.”

Ace says the funding will also be primarily used to fund capital expenditures related to the development of its planned flagship recycling facility, located outside of Beaumont, Texas. According to a February investor presentation, the facility is expected to launch in 2027. It will recycle lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.

Ace agreed to a 15-year battery material supply agreement with Miami-based OM Commodities last year, in which OM Commodities would supply Ace with at least 30,000 metric tons of lead scrap to be recycled annually. Switzerland-based Glencore plc agreed to a 15-year offtake agreement to purchase up to 100 percent of ACE’s products from four of its planned lead-acid and lithium-ion battery recycling parks back in 2022.

Ace also reported that the funding will be put toward "supporting the expansion of operations and to fund the purchase of other companies," in the release.

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