1984–1999 In 1984, Calpine was founded in
Silicon Valley,
California. Peter Cartwright and four of his co-workers, the Guy F. Atkinson Construction Company of
South San Francisco, and the Electrowatt Corporation struck an investment arrangement. With initial capital of
US$1 million, it was essentially a Silicon Valley startup company. In 1988, the first QF cogeneration plant was commissioned and power production began.
2000–2020 In 2001, the
California electric energy crisis occurred. In 2004, the investment bank
Lehman Brothers begins
shorting Calpine, with researcher Christine Daley lacking confidence in Calpine. This information spreads to clients of Lehman. By the time Calpine goes bankrupt in 2005, Lehman will profit roughly $100,000,000 from the short. In November 2005, CEO Peter Cartwright and CFO Bob Kelly resigned. In 2004, Calpine purchased the Brazos Valley Power Plant in Texas for $175 million. At the time of sale, the natural gas combined cycle plant had a capacity of 570 megawatts. In 2005, the founder and CEO of Calpine, Peter Cartwright, resigned amid severe financial problems for the company. Kenneth T. Derr was named acting CEO. Derr was a retired Chevron executive. On January 31, 2008, Calpine emerged from bankruptcy protection. The company's previous stock was exchanged for warrants and
new Calpine stock began trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "CPN." Later that year, a new management team, headed by president and CEO Jack Fusco, joined the company. In 2010, Calpine bought the Conectiv Energy power plant fleet from Pepco for $1.65 billion. The deal included 18 operating plants and one plant that was under construction. The Conectiv acquisition provided access to markets in the Northeast. In 2016, Calpine acquired Noble American Energy Solutions from
Noble Group. Calpine paid roughly $800 million with an additional amount of roughly $100 million in net working capital paid at closing. The acquisition was funded with cash-on-hand and a one-year loan of about $550 million. The name of this business unit was changed to Calpine Energy Solutions. In 2018, Calpine was acquired by an affiliate of Energy Capital Partners and a consortium of other investors including
Access Industries and the Canada Pension Investment Board. A new board was appointed shortly after the acquisition. As Calpine became a private company its stock stopped trading prior to the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on March 9, 2018. In 2019, Calpine sold its RockGen plant in Wisconsin to Starwood Energy.
2021–present In February 2023, Calpine released plans to begin development for a 425 MW natural gas-fired plant next to the Freestone Energy Center in
Freestone County, Texas. In July 2023, Calpine announced a $25 million carbon capture technology project. The technology could capture 95% of a plant’s carbon emissions, which would reduce greenhouse emissions. The technology was created by ION Clean Energy of Colorado. In January 2025, Constellation Energy agreed to acquire Calpine for $16.4 billion ($26.6bn including debt) in a cash-and-stock deal. Exactly one year later, Constellation announced that it had completed the transaction. ==References==