Houston sustainable energy company to be acquired by industry giant for $4.1B

big buyout

Houston-based Archaea Energy's RNG facilities capture waste emissions and convert them into low-carbon fuel. Photo via archaeaenergy.com

BP’s proposed $4.1 billion acquisition of Houston-based Archaea Energy promises to dramatically boost the energy giant’s presence in the biogas market.

Publicly traded Archaea is one of the largest producers of renewable natural gas, or RNG, in the U.S. Its RNG facilities capture waste emissions and convert them into low-carbon fuel. Biogas is produced through the conversion of organic matter like animal manure, trash, plant material, food waste, and sewage.

Through the cash-and-debt deal, BP will gain ownership of 50 RNG and landfill gas-to-energy facilities across the U.S. Once the deal is wrapped up, BP anticipates a 50 percent increase in biogas volumes.

Archaea's development pipeline of more than 80 projects holds the potential for a fivefold increase in RNG volumes at BP by 2030. The pipeline includes 40 RNG projects that Archaea plans to develop with Republic Services, a solid waste disposal company based in Phoenix. Republic Services is a rival of Houston-based Waste Management.

BP expects Archaea to double its biogas-driven EBITDA to about $2 billion within the next eight years. Allied Market Research predicts the global market for waste-derived biogas will jump from $52.9 billion in 2020 to $126.2 by 2030.

The Archaea acquisition is set to close later this year. Once the deal is completed, Archaea will operate as subsidiary of BP, whose U.S. headquarters is in Houston. Archaea relocated its headquarters from Pittsburgh to Houston last year.

“Archaea was founded with a mission to build the world’s leading RNG development company to reduce global emissions and make multigenerational sustainability impacts,” Nick Stork, co-founder and CEO of Archaea, says in a news release. “In a very short period of time, we have rapidly become a leading RNG platform in the U.S., and [the BP acquisition] will further enable this business to realize its full potential.”

BP notes that the demand for biogas is rising thanks to the growth of renewable hydrogen, electric-vehicle charging, and other emerging segments of the energy sector.

“Our biogas team is already one of the leading suppliers of renewable natural gas in North America,” Dave Lawler, chairman and president of BP America, says in a news release. “This deal accelerates our ability to deliver cleaner energy, generate significant earnings in a fast-growing sector, and help reduce emissions. This could help BP take a significant stride toward our net-zero ambition.”

BP America employs nearly 4,000 full-time workers in Houston.

More than half of non-Texans think the Lone Star State is great for business. Photo via Getty Images

Here's what non-Texans think about the Lone Star State's business economy

yeehaw

As Houston and the rest of Texas continue to welcome out-of-state businesses, there’s some affirming news from a new poll. More than half of non-Texans believe the Lone Star State is a good place to launch a business.

The survey, conducted earlier this summer by Austin-based Crosswinds Media & Public Relations and Asbury Park, New Jersey-based Rasmussen Reports, a conservative-leaning polling company, found 53 percent of non-Texans had a positive perception of Texas as a place to do business. Only 23 percent of adults outside Texas had a “bad” or “very bad” view of the state’s business environment, while 24 percent said they were unsure.

The survey questioned 845 American adults who don’t live in Texas.

Thomas Graham, president and CEO of Crosswinds, says the survey results demonstrate that “the brand of the Lone Star State remains strong.”

In recent years, a number of out-of-state companies have been lured by that brand as well as the business climate in Houston. Notable examples include Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NRG Energy, and Axiom Space.

Just this year, several companies based outside Texas have revealed headquarters moves to the Houston area. Among them are:

  • Archaea Energy, which was based in Pittsburgh. The company produces renewable natural gas.
  • CDI Engineering Solutions, which was based in Philadelphia. The company provides engineering and architecture services.
  • DarkPulse, which was based in New York City. The company develops fiber-sensor technology.
  • Noodoe EV, which was based in Irvine, California. The company’s cloud-based platform manages charging stations for electric vehicles.

Jennifer Chang, CEO of Noodoe, says her company relocated its headquarters from Southern California to Texas to take advantage of Houston’s central location.

“Houston has the port and airport capacity we need to efficiently meet the unprecedented demand for EV charging stations,” Chang said in a January news release. “Houston has long been the Energy Capital of the World, mostly because of oil and gas extraction. Noodoe will help the city continue its energy legacy, only this time without fossil fuels.”

The poll from Crosswinds and Rasmussen was completed around the same time that CNBC released its ranking of the best states for doing business. Texas landed in fifth place, down one notch from its perch in CNBC’s 2021 study. A day later, CNBC put out a list of the worst states to live, with Texas appearing at No. 2 behind Arizona.

CNBC notes that skilled workers are flooding Texas, even though the quality of life here raises questions. The new arrivals “are finding limited childcare options, a stressed health care system with the highest rate of uninsured, new curbs on voting rights, and few protections against discrimination,” the cable TV network declares.

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Houston leads Texas with 7 new National Academy of Inventors senior members

top honor

The University of Houston is now home to seven new senior members of the National Academy of Inventors.

The distinction honors active faculty, scientists and administrators from NAI member institutions that have demonstrated innovation and produced technologies that have “brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society,” according to the NAI. The members have also succeeded in patents, licensing and commercialization, and educating and mentoring.

According to UH, its seven new members represent the largest group from any single Texas institution this year, bringing the university's total senior member count to 46.

UH faculty also represented three of Houston's four new senior members in 2025. Six Houstonians were also named to the NIA's class of fellows late last year.

“This recognition affirms what we see every day at the University of Houston—bold, collaborative innovation focused on improving lives," Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president of energy at UH, said in a news release. "Having seven faculty members named Senior Members reflects our momentum and a culture where discovery moves beyond the lab into solutions that strengthen communities and drive economic growth.”

UH’s new senior members include:

  • Haleh Ardebili, endowed professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and assistant vice president for Entrepreneurship and Startup Ecosystem. Ardebili develops flexible lithium batteries and holds four patents
  • Vemuri Balakotaiah, distinguished university chair and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Balakotaiah holds is patents, with five pending, and develops mathematical models for the clean energy research.
  • Jakoah Brgoch, professor of chemistry. Brgoch develops next-generation inorganic materials and holds four patents.
  • Jose L. Contreras-Vidal, distinguished professor in electrical and computer engineering and director of UH’s NSF neurotechnology research center. Conreras-Vidal develops brain-machine interface technologies. He holds five patents, with two technologies advancing through clinical trials.
  • Preethi Gunaratne, professor in the department of biology and biochemistry and director of the UH Sequencing Core in UH’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Gunaratne holds five patents in biology and energy technologies and has made significant large-scale genome discoveries.
  • Jae-Hyun Ryou, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Ryou holds 13 patents and has develops innovative semiconductor materials and devices for flexible electronics.
  • Yingcai Zheng, professor in applied geophysics and director of the UH Rock Physics Lab. Zheng's work focuses on energy production, geothermal development and carbon management strategies. He holds two patents.

Other Texas institutions also had strong showings this year. Additional new Texas senior members from NAI institutions include:

Texas A&M University

  • Guillermo Aguilar
  • Stavros Kalafatis
  • Narendra Kumar
  • Heng Pan
  • Xingyong Song
  • Yubin Zhou

Texas State University

  • Bahram Asiabanpour
  • Martin Burtscher
  • Nihal Dharmasiri
  • Alexander Kornienko
  • Ted Lehr
  • Christopher Rhodes

The University of Texas at Arlington

  • Brian H. Dennis
  • Nicholas Gans
  • Frederick M. MacDonnell
  • Charles Philip Shelor
  • Liping Tang

The University of Texas at San Antonio

  • Robert De Lorenzo
  • Marc Feldman
  • Daohong Zhou

The University of Texas at El Paso

  • XiuJun Li
  • Yirong Lin
  • David Roberson

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

  • Thomas John Abbruscato
  • Annette Louise Sobel
  • Sanjay K. Srivastava

Texas Tech University

  • Gerardo Games
  • Dy Dinh Le

Baylor University

  • David Jack

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

  • Upal Roy

This year's class is the largest since the NAI launched its senior member recognition program in 2018. The new senior members come from 82 NAI institutions ad hoe more than over 2,000 U.S. patents. Accoring to the NAI, it has 945 senior members who hold more than 11,000 U.S. patents today.

“This year’s senior member class is a truly impressive cohort. These innovators come from a variety of fields and disciplines, translating their technologies into tangible impact,” Paul R. Sanberg, president of NAI, added in a news release. “I commend them on their incredible pursuits and I’m honored to welcome them to the Academy.”

The Senior Member Induction Ceremony will honor the 2026 class at NAI’s Annual Conference June 1-4 in Los Angeles.

Texas takes the No. 1 spot on new energy resilience report

Ranking It

A new report by mineral group Texas Royalty Brokers ranks Texas as the No. 1 most energy-resilient state.

The study focused on four main sources of electricity in hydroelectric dams, natural gas plants, nuclear reactors and petroleum facilities. Each state was given an Energy Resilience Score based on size and diversity of its power infrastructure, energy production and affordability for residents.

Texas earned a score of 71.3 on the report, outpacing much of the rest of the country. Pennsylvania came in at No. 2 with a score of 55.8, followed by New York (49.1) and California (48.4).

According to the report, Texas produces 11.7 percent of the country’s total energy, made possible by the state’s 141,000-megawatt power infrastructure—the largest in America.

Other key stats in the report for Texas included:

  • Per-capita consumption: 165,300 kWh per year
  • Per-capita expenditures: $5,130 annually
  • Total summer capacity: 141,200 megawatts

Despite recent failures in the ERCOT grid, including the 2021 power grid failure during Winter Storm Uri and continued power outages with climate events like 2024’s Hurricane Beryl that left2.7 million without power, Texas still was able to land No. 1 on an energy resilience list. Texas has had the most weather-related power outages in the country in recent years, with 210 events from 2000 to 2023, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Climate Central. It's also the only state in the lower 48 with no major connections to neighboring states' power grids.

Still, the report argues that “(Texas’ infrastructure) is enough to provide energy to 140 million homes. In total, Texas operates 732 power facilities with over 3,000 generators spread across the state, so a single failure can’t knock out the entire grid here.”

The report acknowledges that a potential problem for Texas will be meeting the demands of AI data centers. Eric Winegar, managing partner at Texas Royalty Brokers, warns that these projects consume large amounts of energy and water.

According to another Texas Royalty Brokers report, Texas has 17 GPU cluster sites across the state, which is more than any other region in the United States. GPUs are specialized chips that run AI models and perform calculations.

"Energy resilience is especially important in the age of AI. The data centers that these technologies use are popping up across America, and they consume huge amounts of electricity. Some estimates even suggest that AI could account for 8% of total U.S. power consumption by 2030,” Winegar commented in the report. “We see that Texas is attracting most of these new facilities because it already has the infrastructure to support them. But we think the state needs to keep expanding capacity to meet growing demand."

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

6+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events in March

where to be

Editor's note: March brings the return of some of Houston’s signature innovation events, plus insightful talks and celebrations in honor of Women's History Month. Here’s what not to miss and how to register. Please note: this article may be updated to include additional event listings.

March 3-4 — Houston MedTech Rodeo

Head to Armadillo Palace for the annual Houston MedTech Rodeo. The casual, Texas-themed conference brings together 350 medtech professionals who come from over 10 countries and 15 states to highlight Houston's growing medtech ecosystem. The event will feature panel discussions, startup showcases, networking sessions—plus, armadillo races, mechanical bull riding and live country music.

The event begins March 3 at Armadillo Palace on Kirby Drive. Register here.

March 4 – Humans of Healthcare

Houston Methodist Center for Innovation will present its new quarterly speaker series, Humans of Healthcare. The series will feature a panel of experts who will share about their career paths and discuss the nuances of the health care industry. This month's session will focus on IT. The panel will be moderated by Houston Methodist's Director of Innovation Murat Uralkan.

The event is Wednesday, March 4, from 5-6 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

March 5 — The Future of Women in STEM

Celebrate Women's History Month at SUPERGirls SHINE Foundation's The Future of Women in STEM event, presented in partnership with the Ion. The event will feature speakers and panelists, including Kalila Winters Hines, senior public affairs advisor for Holland & Knight; Dr. Natacha Chough, NASA Johnson Space Center Flight Surgeon; and Andrea Course, rocket scientist and founder of Course Investments.

The event is Thursday, March 5, from 8:30-10 a.m. at the Ion. Register here.

March 10-12 — World Hydrogen & Carbon Americas

S&P Global Energy brings together two leading events—Carbon Management Americas and World Hydrogen North America—to form a new must-attend event for those in the hydrogen and carbon industries. More than 800 senior leaders from across the energy value chain will attend this event featuring immersive roundtable discussions, hands-on training, real-world case studies and unparalleled networking opportunities.

This event begins March 10 at the Marriott Marquis Houston. Register here.

March 20 — Ideas to Impact Accelerator Graduation and Showcase

Join Impact Hub Houston as it celebrates its inaugural Ideas to Impact Accelerator cohort. The 16-week accelerator is designed to help early-stage entrepreneurs validate their business models, strengthen confidence and gain traction. Hear short pitches and network with founders and mentors.

The event is Friday, March 20, from noon-2 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

March 23-27 — CERAWeek 2026

CERAWeek 2026 will focus on "Convergence and Competition: Energy, Technology and Geopolitics." The industry's foremost thought leaders will convene in Houston to cultivate relationships and exchange transformative ideas during the annual event. CERAWeek 2026 will explore breakthroughs, cross-industry connections and powerful partnerships that are accelerating the transformation of the global energy system. 2026 highlights include an appearance by tech magnate Bill Gates.

This event begins March 23. Register here.

March 24-25 — 2026 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition

The Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition, co-hosted by the Rice Alliance, Ion, HETI and TEX-E, offers two days of exciting pitches from more than 40 global energy ventures that are transforming the industry. On Tuesday, March 24, you can attend a fast-paced pitch preview event at the Ion, followed by the official Pitch Competition at 1 pm on Wednesday, March 25, at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

March 30-April 4 — H-Town Roundup

Celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration at Houston Exponential's sixth-annual H-Town Roundup. During the free event series, previously known as Houston Tech Rodeo, attendees can expect insightful talks, workshops and networking events at venues across the city.

This event begins Monday, March 30. Register here.

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