Blue Whale Energy, a Southeast Asia based virtual power plant energy developer, and UNIGRID, Inc., an advanced sodium-ion battery innovator, have forged a partnership to deploy behind-the-meter Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) solutions tailored for dense urban environments.
As solar installation rates soar globally, driven by falling costs, and progressive regulatory support, the electric grid is increasingly strained by the intermittent nature of solar energy and its mismatch with peak electricity demand. To bridge this gap, pairing solar with battery storage is essential.
However, in dense urban environments, where the need for such solutions is highest, deploying BESS has long been constrained by space limitations. Urban areas lack open spaces for large containerized battery systems, and require setback distances that typically exceed commercially available footprint and industrial building boundaries.
Blue Whale Energy is addressing this with a novel strategy: installing compact, modular battery packs directly beneath solar panels. This close-proximity co-location is unfeasible with traditional lithium-ion batteries, which pose serious fire risks and require complex and costly Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) infrastructure, including thermal management, specialised enclosures, and comprehensive fire safety mitigation. UNIGRID’s technology is inherently safer and operates over a wide temperature range without the need for active thermal management, offering the right solution to overcome this problem.
Commenting on the advantage of this partnership, Gabriel Lim, Founder and CEO of Blue Whale Energy, said, “This technology is a game changer for us. With UNIGRID’s sodium-ion platform, we can deploy energy storage directly where energy is needed – on commercial and industrial rooftops throughout urban cities where space constraints previously made installations unfeasible.
