TotalEnergies has started up two new solar farms in Texas. Photo by Red Zeppelin/Pexels
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.
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
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).
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.
The GridStor project will boost the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid. It’s GridStor’s first acquisition in ERCOT territory. Photo via gridstor.com
An Oregon startup has purchased a 450-megawatt battery energy storage project in Galveston County.
GridStor, a Portland, Oregon-based developer and operator of battery energy storage systems, bought the project from Moab, Utah-based Balanced Rock Power. The Utah company develops utility-scale solar and energy storage projects.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
GridStor, founded in 2022, is backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The Portland Business Journal reported last November that Goldman Sachs had raised a $410 million fund to fuel its energy storage strategy.
Construction on the Evelyn Battery Energy Storage project is scheduled to get underway this summer, with the system projected to go online in the spring of 2025.
“Battery storage is a scalable and near-term solution to powering historic load growth in Texas,” Chris Taylor, CEO of GridStor, says in a news release. “Every day, batteries are consistently providing energy to stabilize the power system and meet hours of greatest demand in the state.”
The GridStor project will boost the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid. It’s GridStor’s first acquisition in ERCOT territory.
The project will be built near the Hidden Lakes substation, which is owned by Texas-New Mexico Power, which now just serves Texas. This proximity will enable batteries to quickly begin grid-connected operations.
Texas will make up 35 percent of new utility-scale solar capacity in the U.S. this year. Photo via Getty Images
On a state-by-state basis, Texas will account for the biggest share of new utility-scale solar capacity and new battery storage capacity in 2024, a new federal report predicts.
The report, published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 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 (six percent).
In 2024, EIA expects a record-setting addition of 36.4 gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity across the U.S., nearly double last year’s record-setting addition of 18.4 gigawatts. One gigawatt of electric-generating capacity can power an average of 750,000 homes.
“As the effects of supply chain challenges and trade restrictions ease, solar continues to outpace capacity additions from other generating resources,” the report states.
Meanwhile, a new report from the Environment Texas Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group found that Texas ranks third in the U.S. for residential solar power generation. Residential solar power generation in Texas grew 646 percent from 2017 through 2022, according to the report.
A February 2023 poll conducted by the University of Houston indicated that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of Texas homeowners are somewhat or very interested in buying a solar energy system.
“Texas is already soaking up the benefits of rooftop solar,” says Luke Metzger, executive director of the Environment Texas center. “With federal tax credits in place to boost solar adoption in Texas, now is the time to lean in. Every sunny roof without solar panels is a missed opportunity.”
In addition to a spike in utility-scale solar, the EIA report forecasts Texas will lead the way this year in the addition of battery storage capacity, with the expected addition of 6.4 gigawatts. In second place is California, with an expected 5.2 gigawatts of new battery storage capacity. The two states will make up 82 percent of new U.S. battery storage capacity in 2024, says the report.
The federal agency predicts 14.3 gigawatts of U.S. battery storage capacity will be tacked on this year to the existing 15.5 gigawatts.
Overall, EIA anticipates solar will make up 58 percent of all new utility-scale electric-generating capacity this year in the U.S., followed by battery storage at 23 percent.
Houston maintained its No. 3 status this year among U.S. metro areas with the most Fortune 500 headquarters. Fortune magazine tallied 26 Fortune 500 headquarters in the Houston area, behind only the New York City area (62) and the Chicago area (30).
Last year, 23 Houston-area companies landed on the Fortune 500 list. Fortune bases the list on revenue that a public or private company earns during its 2024 budget year.
On the Fortune 500 list for 2025, Spring-based ExxonMobil remained the highest-ranked company based in the Houston area as well as in Texas, sitting at No. 8 nationally. That’s down one spot from its No. 7 perch on the 2024 list. During its 2024 budget year, ExxonMobil reported revenue of $349.6 billion, up from $344.6 billion the previous year.
Here are the rankings and 2024 revenue for the 25 other Houston-area companies that made this year’s Fortune 500:
Nationally, the top five Fortune 500 companies are:
Walmart
Amazon
UnitedHealth Group
Apple
CVS Health
“The Fortune 500 is a literal roadmap to the rise and fall of markets, a reliable playbook of the world's most important regions, services, and products, and an indispensable roster of those companies' dynamic leaders,” Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, CEO of Fortune Media, said in a news release.
Among the states, Texas ranks second for the number of Fortune 500 headquarters (54), preceded by California (58) and followed by New York (53).
Three Houston companies claimed spots on LexisNexis's 10 Most Innovative Startups in Texas report, with two working in the geothermal energy space.
Sage Geosystems claimed the No. 3 spot on the list, and Fervo Energy followed closely behind at No. 5. Fintech unicorn HighRadius rounded out the list of Houston companies at No. 8.
LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions compiled the report. It was based on each company's Patent Asset Index, a proprietary metric from LexisNexis that identifies the strength and value of each company’s patent assets based on factors such as patent quality, geographic scope and size of the portfolio.
Houston tied with Austin, each with three companies represented on the list. Caris Life Sciences, a biotechnology company based in Dallas, claimed the top spot with a Patent Asset Index more than 5 times that of its next competitor, Apptronik, an Austin-based AI-powered humanoid robotics company.
“Texas has always been fertile ground for bold entrepreneurs, and these innovative startups carry that tradition forward with strong businesses based on outstanding patent assets,” Marco Richter, senior director of IP analytics and strategy for LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions, said in a release. “These companies have proven their innovation by creating the most valuable patent portfolios in a state that’s known for game-changing inventions and cutting-edge technologies.We are pleased to recognize Texas’ most innovative startups for turning their ideas into patented innovations and look forward to watching them scale, disrupt, and thrive on the foundation they’ve laid today.”
This year's list reflects a range in location and industry. Here's the full list of LexisNexis' 10 Most Innovative Startups in Texas, ranked by patent portfolios.
Fervo Energy fully contracted its flagship 500 MW geothermal development, Cape Station, this spring. Cape Station is currently one of the world’s largest enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) developments, and the station will begin to deliver electricity to the grid in 2026. The company was recently named North American Company of the Year by research and consulting firm Cleantech Group and came in at No. 6 on Time magazine and Statista’s list of America’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2025. It's now considered a unicorn, meaning its valuation as a private company has surpassed $1 billion.
Meanwhile, HighRadius announced earlier this year that it plans to release a fully autonomous finance platform for the "office of the CFO" by 2027. The company reached unicorn status in 2020.
The climate conversation is evolving — fast. It’s no longer just about emissions targets and net-zero commitments. It’s about capital, infrastructure, and execution at industrial scale.
That’s exactly where Yao Huang operates. A seasoned tech entrepreneur turned climate investor, Yao brings sharp clarity to one of the biggest challenges in climate innovation: how do we fund and scale technologies that remove carbon without relying on goodwill or government subsidies?
In this episode of the Energy Tech Startups Podcast, Yao sits down with hosts Jason Ethier and Nada Ahmed for a wide-ranging conversation that redefines how we think about decarbonization. From algae-based photobioreactors that capture CO₂ at the smokestack, to financing models that mirror real estate and infrastructure—not venture capital—Yao lays out a case for why the climate fight will be won or lost on spreadsheets, not slogans.
Her message is as bold as it is practical: this isn’t about saving the planet for the sake of it. It’s about building profitable, resilient systems that scale. And Houston, with its industrial base and project finance expertise, is exactly the place to do it.
The 40-Gigaton Challenge—and a Pandemic Pivot
Yao’s entry into climate wasn’t part of a long-term plan. It was sparked by a quiet moment during the pandemic—and a book.
Reading How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates, she came to two uncomfortable realizations:
The people in power don’t actually have this figured out, and
She would be alive to suffer the consequences.
That insight jolted her out of the traditional tech world and into climate action. She studied at Stanford, surrounded herself with mentors, and began diving into early-stage climate deals. But she quickly realized that most of the solutions she was seeing were still years away from commercialization.
So she narrowed her focus: no R&D moonshots, no science experiments—just deployable solutions that could scale now.
Carbon Optimum: Where Algae Meets Infrastructure
That’s how she found Carbon Optimum, a company using algae photobioreactors to remove CO₂ directly from industrial emissions. Their approach is both elegant and economic:
Install algae reactors next to major emitters like coal and cement plants.
Feed the algae with flue gas, allowing it to absorb CO₂ in a controlled system.
Harvest the algae and convert it into valuable commodities like bio-oils, fertilizer, and food ingredients.
It’s a nature-based solution, enhanced by engineering. One acre of tanks can capture emissions and generate profit—without subsidies.
“This is one of the few solutions I’ve seen that can scale profitably and quickly,” Yao says. “And we’re not inventing anything new—we’re just doing it better.”
The Real Problem? It’s Capital, Not Carbon
As an investor, Yao is blunt: most climate startups are misaligned with the capital markets.
They’re following a tech startup playbook—built for SaaS, not steel. But building climate infrastructure requires a completely different approach: project finance, blended capital, debt structures, carbon credit integration, and regulatory incentives.
“Climate tech is more like real estate or healthcare than software,” Yao explains. “You don’t raise six rounds of venture. You build a stack—grants, equity, debt, tax credits—and you structure your project like infrastructure.”
It’s not just theory. It’s exactly how Carbon Optimum is expanding—through partnerships, offtake agreements, and real-world deployments. And it’s why she believes many climate startups fail: they don’t speak the language of finance.
Houston’s Role in the Climate Capital Stack
For Yao, Houston isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a strategic asset.
The city’s deep bench of project finance professionals, commodity traders, lawyers, and infrastructure veterans makes it uniquely positioned to lead the deployment phase of climate solutions.
“We’ve been calling it the wrong thing,” she says. “This isn’t just about climate—it’s an energy transition. And Houston knows how to build energy infrastructure at scale.”
Still, she notes, the ecosystem needs to evolve. Less education, more execution. Fewer workshops, more closers.
“Houston could be the epicenter of this movement—if we activate the right people and get the right projects over the line.”
From Carbon Capture to Circular Economies
The potential applications of Carbon Optimum’s algae platform go beyond carbon capture. Because the output—algae biomass—can be converted into:
Renewable oil
High-efficiency fertilizers (critical in today’s geopolitically fragile supply chains)
Food ingredients rich in protein and nutrients
Even biochar, a highly stable form of carbon sequestration
It’s scalable, modular, and location-agnostic. In island nations, Yao notes, these systems can offer energy independence by turning waste CO₂ into local energy and fertilizer—without needing to import fuels or food.
“It’s not just emissions reduction. It’s economic sovereignty through circular systems.”
Doing, Not Just Talking
One of Yao’s key takeaways for founders? Don’t waste time. Climate startups don’t have the luxury of trial-and-error cycles stretched over years.
“Founders need to get real about what it takes to scale: talent, capital, storytelling, partnerships. If you’re not ready to do that, maybe you should be a CSO, not a CEO.”
She also points out that founders don’t need to hire everyone—they need to tap the right networks. And in cities like Houston, those networks exist—if you know how to motivate them.
“It takes a different kind of leadership. You’re not just raising money—you’re moving people.”
Why This Episode Matters
This conversation is for anyone who’s serious about scaling real solutions to the climate crisis. Whether you’re a founder navigating capital markets, an investor seeking return and impact, or a policymaker designing the frameworks — Yao Huang offers a grounded, urgent, and actionable perspective.
It’s not about hope. It’s about execution.
Listen to the full episode of the Energy Tech Startups Podcast with Yao Huang:
-- Hosted by Jason Ethier and Nada Ahmed, the Digital Wildcatters’ podcast, Energy Tech Startups, delves into Houston's pivotal role in the energy transition, spotlighting entrepreneurs and industry leaders shaping a low-carbon future.