Dive Brief:
- Viridi and Budderfly are teaming up to bring the former’s “fail-safe” battery systems to 100 U.S. commercial sites enrolled in the latter’s energy-as-a-service offerings, the companies said Wednesday.
- The partnership will help commercial facilities like restaurants, retailers, fitness studios and manufacturing sites improve energy performance and efficiency with no upfront investment, Viridi and Budderfly said. The first phase of the rollout is underway, with early deployments including a Connecticut manufacturing facility and three restaurant franchises, Budderfly CEO Al Subbloie told Facilities Dive.
- In an email, Subbloie said many of the deployments will pair Viridi’s batteries with on-site solar panels. Combined with better HVAC controls, LED lighting and other efficiency upgrades supplied by Budderfly, onsite energy generation and storage can reduce commercial facilities’ energy costs by 60% to 70%, he said.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. installed 18.9 gigawatts of energy storage capacity in 2025, with more than 75% of total additions coming from utilities and independent power developers, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy. These grid-tied systems typically store excess energy during the overnight or midday periods, when power demand and prices tend to fall, then discharge it in the evenings or during extreme weather events, when demand and prices rise.
But the most recent annual energy storage report from Wood Mackenzie noted the commercial and industrial sector lagged far behind due to a mix of economic and regulatory challenges. The consultancy projects commercial and industrial sector installations to grow 39% from 2025 to 2030 as emerging markets like Connecticut and New Mexico bolster diversification and states like California, Massachusetts and New York anchor near-term growth.
Budderfly’s model offers a path for commercial facilities to add energy storage economically and without the added burdens of ownership, Subbloie said.
“What makes the Budderfly model different is that we remove the barriers that have historically
limited adoption. We fund, deploy, and manage the batteries, so customers gain the benefits of advanced energy technology without the upfront capital investment, operational burden or performance risk,” he said.
The systems Budderfly and Viridi plan to install will expand Budderfly’s integrated energy efficiency and energy management solution, which sees Budderfly install and operate efficient lighting, HVAC systems, digital building controls and a proprietary optimization platform at its own expense in exchange for a cut of the energy savings and energy market revenue those assets produce.
Budderfly’s first battery integrations are happening in Massachusetts, Connecticut and California, which Viridi CEO Jon Williams called “leading markets” for commercial battery systems due to “robust incentive programs” for system owners in New England and a sophisticated demand response framework in California.
The companies expect to expand into new markets “where battery storage can deliver meaningful value for customers, utilities and the grid,” he added.
Viridi develops modular battery systems with capacities ranging from 50 kilowatt-hours — two to 10 times that of a standard home battery installation — to more than 1.2 megawatt-hours, enough to back up critical systems at midsized commercial and institutional facilities during hours-long outages. It says its “fail-safe” design is far less prone to overheating and fire than traditional lithium-ion batteries, which have long vexed fire departments and standards-setting agencies. The National Fire Protection Association released a comprehensive battery safety code this spring.)
“For years, safety concerns have limited the adoption of battery storage across commercial real estate, preventing many building owners from taking advantage of the technology at scale,” Williams said in an email. “By enabling safe deployment in occupied environments, companies like Budderfly can help modernize the grid, lower operating costs and improve site resiliency.”
