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Houston clean energy startup acquired by battery storage company FlexGen

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Houston-based Clean Energy Services will operate as a subsidiary of FlexGen. Photo via flexgen.com

A North Carolina company has acquired Houston-based Clean Energy Services, a provider of services for battery energy storage systems and utility-scale solar, for an undisclosed amount.

The buyer is Durham, North Carolina-based FlexGen Power Systems, a provider of battery energy storage software and services.

Clean Energy Services (CES), whose offices are at the Ion, will operate as a subsidiary of FlexGen. Existing CES customers will continue to receive services from CES without disruption or change, FlexGen says.

“Demand for reliable, high-performance power is accelerating, and customers need partners who can deliver at scale,” Kelcy Pegler, CEO of FlexGen, said in a news release. “The addition of CES strengthens our service platform and reinforces our leadership in energy storage technology.”

Ahmad Atwan and Constantine Triantafyllides co-founded CES in 2022. As a startup, CES had raised $8 million in venture capital, according to PitchBook.

“CES has achieved a market leadership position in battery storage services by focusing on reliable speed of service delivery and optimizing asset performance,” Atwan, the company’s CEO, added the release. “FlexGen and CES have been strong partners for years, and this transaction enables us to deliver more robust solutions across a complementary set of customers and markets.”

CES will continue to operate its remote operations center in Houston for over 1 gigawatt of solar assets and 4.5 gigawatt-hours of battery assets, while FlexGen will maintain its remote operations center in Durham.

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Lydian Energy has secured financing for three battery storage system projects in Texas. Photo via Getty Images.

D.C. energy company secures $233M for ERCOT battery storage projects

fresh funding

The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas’ grid will get a boost courtesy of Lydian Energy.

The D.C.-based company announced the successful financial close of its first institutional project financing totaling $233 million, backed by ING Group and KeyBank. The financing will support three battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Texas.

Lydian is an independent power producer that specializes in the development, construction and operation of utility-scale solar and battery energy storage projects. The company reports that it plans to add 550 megawatts of energy—which can power approximately 412,500 homes—to the Texas grid administered by ERCOT.

“This financing marks an important step forward as we continue executing on our vision to scale transformative battery storage projects that meet the evolving energy needs of the communities we serve,” Emre Ersenkal, CEO at Lydian Energy, said in a news release.

The projects include:

Pintail

  • Located in San Patricio county
  • 200 megawatts
  • Backed by ING

Crane

  • Located in Crane county
  • 200 megawatts
  • Backed by ING

Headcamp

  • Located in Pecos county
  • 150 megawatts
  • Backed by KeyBank

ING served as the lender for Pintail and Crane projects valued at a combined total of approximately $139 million.

KeyBank provided a $94 million financing package for the Headcamp project. KeyBanc Capital Markets also structured the financing package for Headcamp.

The three projects are being developed under Excelsior Energy Capital’s Fund II. Lydian’s current portfolio comprises 20 solar and storage projects, totaling 4.7 gigawatts of capacity.

“Our support of Lydian’s portfolio reflects ING’s focus on identifying strategic funding opportunities that align with the accelerating demand for sustainable power,” Sven Wellock, managing director and head of energy–renewables and power at ING, said in the release. “Battery storage plays a central role in supporting grid resilience, and we’re pleased to back a platform with strong fundamentals and a clear execution path.”

The facilities are expected to be placed in service by Q4 2025. Lydian is also pursuing additional financing for further projects, which are expected to commence construction by the end of 2025.

“These financings represent more than capital – they reflect the strong demand for reliable energy infrastructure in high-growth U.S. markets,” Anne Marie Denman, co-founding partner at Excelsior Energy Capital and chair of the board at Lydian Energy, added in the news release. “We’re proud to stand behind Lydian’s talented team as they deliver on the promise of battery storage with bankable projects, proven partners, and disciplined execution. In the midst of a lot of noise, these financings are a reminder that capital flows where infrastructure is satisfying fundamental needs of our society – in this case, the need for reliable, sustainable, domestic, and affordable energy.”

Thanks to a new partnership, Engie North America plans to add 'precycling' provisions to power purchase agreements on projects in the Midwest. Photo via Getting Images.

Engie to add 'precycling' agreements for forthcoming solar projects

reduce, reuse

Houston-based Engie North America has partnered with Arizona-based Solarcycle to recycle 1 million solar panels on forthcoming projects with a goal of achieving project circularity.

The collaboration allows Engie to incorporate "precycling" provisions into power purchase agreements made on 375 megawatts worth of projects in the Midwest, which are expected to be completed in the next few years, according to a news release from Engie.

Engie will use Solarcycle's advanced tracking capabilities to ensure that every panel on the selected projects is recycled once it reaches its end of life, and that the recovered materials are returned to the supply chain.

Additionally, all construction waste and system components for the selected projects will be recycled "to the maximum degree possible," according to Engie.

“We are delighted to bring this innovative approach to life. Our collaboration with Solarcycle demonstrates the shared commitment we have to the long-term sustainability of our industry,” Caroline Mead, SVP power marketing at ENGIE North America, said in the release.

Solarcyle, which repairs, refurbishes, reuses and recycles solar power systems, estimates that the collaboration and new provisions will help divert 48 million pounds of material from landfills and avoid 33,000 tons of carbon emissions.

“ENGIE’s precycling provision sets a new precedent for the utility-scale solar industry by proving that circular economy principles can be achieved without complex regulatory intervention and in a way that doesn’t require an up-front payment," Jesse Simons, co-founder and chief commercial officer at SOLARCYCLE, added in the release. "We’re happy to work creatively with leaders like ENGIE to support their commitment to circularity, domestic energy, and sustainability.”

TotalEnergies has started up two new solar farms in Texas. Photo by Red Zeppelin/Pexels

TotalEnergies powers up its largest utility-scale solar farms in Texas

ready to shine

TotalEnergies has begun the commercial operations of two utility-scale solar farms with integrated battery storage located in southeast Texas.

The two farms are located in Cottonwood and Danish Fields, which is TotalEnergies’ largest solar farm in the United States.

“The start-ups of Danish Fields and Cottonwood in the fast-growing ERCOT market showcase TotalEnergies’ ability to deliver competitive renewable electricity to support our clients’ decarbonization goals, as well as our own,” Olivier Jouny, senior vice president of renewables at TotalEnergies, says in a news release.

The new projects have a combined capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. They are part of a portfolio of renewable assets totaling 4 gigawatts in operation or under construction currently in Texas. Danish Fields holds a capacity of 720 megawatts peak and 1.4 million ground-mounted photovoltaic panels.

Cottonwood, with a capacity of 455 megawatts peak featuring over 847,000 ground-mounted photovoltaic panels, will also feature 225 megawatt hours of battery storage supplied by Saft. This is scheduled for commissioning in 2025. The electricity production is contracted under long-term PPAs indexed to “merchant prices through an upside-sharing mechanism with LyondellBasell and Saint-Gobain,” per thenews release. The deal is to help support the companies’ decarbonization efforts.

Seventy percent of Danish’s solar capacity has been contracted through long-term Corporate Power Purchase Agreements signed with Saint-Gobain, which feature an upside sharing mechanism indexed on merchant price. The other 30 percent is intended to support the decarbonization of TotalEnergies’ industrial plants in the Gulf Coast region. The projects will cover the electricity consumption of TotalEnergies’ industrial sites in Port Arthur and La Porte in Texas, and Carville in Louisiana, which include Myrtle Solar that was commissioned in 2023 and the under-construction Hill 1 solar farm.

In addition to the solar farms, TotalEnergies has also added 1.5 gigawatt of flexible power production capacity with three gas-fired power plants they acquired in Texas.

“Thanks to these projects, we are delighted to take another step in delivering our strategy across the entire value chain, from power generation to customer delivery, in order to achieve our profitability target of 12 (percent return on average capital employed) in our Integrated Power business,” Jouny adds in the release.

Texas has the most utility-scale solar capacity installed and is home to 20 percent of the overall U.S. solar fleet. Photo via Getty Images

Texas passes California on national report of top solar states

by the numbers

For the first time, Texas has passed California in the second quarter of 2024 to become the top solar state in the country.

The American Clean Power Association's quarterly market report found that, by adding 3,293 megawatts of new solar year-to-date, Texas has the most utility-scale solar capacity installed, comprising 20 percent of the overall U.S. solar fleet. The American Clean Power Association, which represents over 800 energy storage, wind, utility-scale solar, transmission, and clean hydrogen companies, found that Texas is home to 21,932 megawatts of capacity,

By utilizing clean energy initiatives, Texas included 1.6 gigawatts of new solar, 574 megawatts of storage, and 366 megawatts of onshore wind. With more than 28,000 megawatts, Texas had the highest volume of clean power development capacity in the second quarter. About 163,000 megawatts of capacity overall are in the works throughout the United States. Texas ranks No. 1 for total operating wind capacity and total operating solar capacity, and comes in second for operating storage capacity.

Texas again led in production levels with clean power construction projects nationally, which boasts more than 19,000 megawatts worth of clean power energy currently under construction. With almost 28.3 gigawatts in advanced development or under construction, Texas continues to come in at No.1, as California is next with over 16.4 gigawatts in the state’s project pipeline.

California added more than 1,900 megawatts of new clean power capacity in the second quarter, with its clean energy development behavior leaning more towards adding storage, which amounts to 60 percent of California’s year-to-date clean power installations.

According to the report from SmartAsset, the Lone Star State has the most clean energy capacity at 56,405 megawatts due to its sheer size for solar capacity, but continues to trail states with similar geographic characteristics in overall clean energy prevalence.

Another report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, says Texas will make up 35 percent of new utility-scale solar capacity in the U.S. this year, followed by California (10 percent) and Florida (6 percent).

While Texas’ solar efforts have shown positive trends, the state ranked No. 38 in a report by WalletHub that determined it was the thirteenth least green state.

Primergy says Gemini is the biggest solar-and-storage duo in the U.S. Photo via primergysolar.com

Houston firm's portfolio co. goes online with solar, energy storage facility in Nevada

powering on

A portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, an energy-focused investment manager with U.S. offices in Houston and New York, has flipped the switch on its solar power and battery energy storage system in Nevada’s Mojave Desert.

The portfolio company, Oakland, California-based Primergy Solar, says its Gemini Solar + Storage project near Las Vegas is now fully operational.

Gemini’s 1.8 million solar panels can generate up to 690 megawatts of power, enough to meet 10 percent of Nevada’s peak power demand. The panels are paired with 380 megawatts of four-hour battery storage.

“Gemini creates a blueprint for holistic and innovative clean energy development at mega scale, and we are proud to have brought this milestone project to life and to have delivered so many positive impacts across job creation, environmental stewardship, and local community engagement,” David Scaysbrook, co-founder and managing partner of Quinbrook, says in a news release.

Primergy says Gemini is the biggest solar-and-storage duo in the U.S.

“Achieving full commercial operations marks a significant technical and financial milestone for our team. We successfully navigated challenging supply chain and inflation issues through proactive planning and collaboration to bring this project online,” Primergy CEO Ty Daul says.

Primergy develops, owns, and operates utility-scale solar power and battery storage projects across the U.S. It manages projects in several U.S. energy markets, including the one served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

As Gemini was taking shape, Primergy and Quinbrook closed on $1.9 billion in debt and tax equity financing for construction and development.

In October 2022, APG, the largest pension asset manager in the Netherlands, acquired a 49 percent ownership stake in Gemini on behalf of pension fund client ABP.

In April 2024, the remaining 51 percent share of the project was acquired by the $600 million Quinbrook Valley of Fire Fund. Funds associated with Blackstone Strategic Partners and Ares Management Infrastructure Secondaries were the lead investors.

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New York energy firm scoops up Houston’s Infinity Power Partners

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Houston-based energy management and consulting firm Infinity Power Partners has been acquired by New York City-based Environ Energy, which also offers energy management and consulting services.

The deal creates a new “anchor segment” for Environ in the multifamily market. With the addition of Infinity Power’s roughly 2,000 clients in the multifamily sector, representing more than 1 million multifamily units under contract, Environ now has more than 8,000 U.S. clients in the commercial real estate, healthcare, manufacturing, education and government sectors.

“This acquisition continues to solidify our presence in key energy markets while aligning with founders who share our deep commitment to client success,” Environ CEO Chris Sternberg said in a news release.

Infinity Power co-founders and managing partners Nick Altman and Peter Selber have joined Environ, a portfolio company of investment firm 424 Capital. Altman and Selber founded Infinity Power in 2011.

“We built our business one relationship at a time,” Selber said, “with a strong commitment to the communities we serve. That same dedication is reflected in Environ’s approach — now delivered at scale.”

Altman says the acquisition is part of the “next chapter” in energy management. Energy management services help commercial customers reduce utility bills, improve equipment life, achieve green energy goals, and decrease risk tied to fluctuating energy prices.

“Energy management is a culture for continual improvement of energy performance and efficiency that’s integrated within an organization’s normal business practice,” according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.

In all, Environ has made six acquisitions in the past 17 months.

Last year, Environ acquired another Houston-based energy management and consulting firm, CSD Energy Advisors. In that deal, Environ gained nearly 1,000 clients, including several Fortune 500 companies and three large industrial energy users in Texas. As part of the deal, CSD co-founders Andrew Barth and JB Sowyrda joined Environ.

Also last year, Environ purchased Carrollton-based energy advisory firm Rapid Power Management (RPM).

Houston's PowerBridge partners on 2GW Texas AI data center campus

data center venture

Houston-based PowerBridge has formed a joint venture with Denver-based Liberty Energy to develop large-scale data center campuses.

The joint venture’s initial focus will be PowerBridge’s Alpha Digital Campus, a 2-gigawatt data center operation planned for West Texas. PowerBridge sets up data center campuses to support AI and cloud computing. Liberty is an energy company whose Liberty Power Innovations subsidiary offers distributed power and energy storage services.

Houston-based investment firm Five Point Infrastructure LLC established PowerBridge last year, committing up to $1 billion in equity. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported Five Point is trying to raise $2.5 billion for a new fund targeting water management projects, natural gas treatment systems and data center sites.

Through Five Point subsidiary LandBridge, PowerBridge enjoys access to more than 275,000 acres for infrastructure development as well as low-cost natural gas.

The first phase of PowerBridge’s West Texas campus is expected to offer more than 300 megawatts of generation capacity, with the potential to add more capacity over time. The campus is scheduled to start delivering power in the fourth quarter of 2027.

“By aligning our powered-campus development assets with Liberty’s comprehensive power services and operational expertise, we are creating a model that can be scaled across future gigawatt-scale powered data center campuses in West Texas,” Alex Hernandez, founder and CEO of PowerBridge, said in a release.

Before joining PowerBridge in 2025, Hernandez led Cumulus Data and Talen Energy Corp., a provider of power and energy infrastructure. Amazon Web Services bought Cumulus Data, a subsidiary of Houston-based Talen, in 2024 for $650 million. Cumulus develops nuclear-powered data centers.

Hernandez sits on the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages about 90 percent of the state’s electrical load.

Liberty recently announced a partnership with Houston-based energy technology company SLB to support the expansion of data center capacity.

Energy AI startup chooses Houston for first U.S. office after $20M raise

welcome to houston

London-based AI firm Applied Computing has announced a $20 million Series A round and a new office in Houston.

The new Bayou City office is Applied Computing’s first in the United States and part of its North American expansion. The company is known for its Orbital AI platform, which is tailored for energy operations.

The funding round was led by Houston-based KBR Inc., with participation from San Francisco-based Databricks Ventures. KBR’s investment was first announced in March.

KBR and Applied Computing have also entered into a multi-year agreement to deliver exclusive AI products for the energy sector. KBR already has integrated Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 platform for energy projects, and is also using the product for ammonia production.

Applied Computing’s Orbital platform combines physics-grounded intelligence with models across chemical engineering, time-series forecasting and language, according to the company. The system analyzes sensor readings and can recognize a facility’s equipment constraints and operator activity. The platform can also allow technicians to run simulations of how a change to a facility could affect the rest of its operations.

According to TechCrunch, Applied Computing will use the $20 million to further explore projects and deployments with the energy sector, hire engineering and research positions, and continue to expand internationally, potentially into the Middle East.

The company is also working on deals with a major U.S. stream operator, TechCrunch reports. And Applied Computing shared on LinkedIn that it plans to announce its first partnership with a major European oil company in the coming weeks.

“Yesterday we showed Orbital live in deployments at our demo day at the Energy Institute in London,” Callum Adamson, CEO and co-founder of Applied Computing, posted on LinkedIn on July 16. “Today, we're announcing the capital to scale it globally as well as the launch of our new offices in Houston and Bangalore. In the weeks following, there will be more announcements on our progress, partnerships and deployments.”

The company opened its Bangalore offices in December.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

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