The 3.75 megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery system, which can power the Peace Bridge Place affordable housing complex for several days, is among the largest battery systems in a U.S. residential building, manufacturer Viridi and developer Good Carbon Co. said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want our electric power to be resilient, affordable and available. Distributed battery storage accomplishes all three,\u201d Viridi CEO Jon M. Williams said. \u201cThe only thing that has been holding up installations at scale is safety; a lot of the products on the market over the last 10 years have burned things down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deploying large batteries that can safely power apartment buildings is an important step toward replacing fossil fuels with renewables<\/a>, experts say, but they\u2019re uncommon because of the cost and concerns about fire risks. Already, larger batteries are paired with solar and wind projects<\/a>, and homeowners are using smaller batteries to store excess energy from rooftop solar and for backup power.<\/p>\n Derek Cheatom, left, a production supervisor, checks a unit for loose wires inside Viridi\u2019s battery system manufacturing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Viridi\u2019s lithium-ion battery energy storage system sits in their manufacturing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Employees work inside Viridi\u2019s battery system manufacturing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Battery packs move down an automation line at Viridi\u2019s manufacturing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n A worker checks over a lithium-ion battery module inside Viridi\u2019s battery system manufacturing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Paige McNair stacks lithium-ion battery modules inside Viridi\u2019s manufacturing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Viridi\u2019s lithium-ion battery energy storage system is installed in Peace Bridge Place apartments building in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Peace Bridge Place apartments that have Viridi\u2019s lithium-ion battery energy storage system sits in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n A sign is displayed for Peace Bridge Place apartments that have Viridi\u2019s lithium-ion battery energy storage system in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Show Caption<\/p>\n 1 of 9<\/p>\n Derek Cheatom, left, a production supervisor, checks a unit for loose wires inside Viridi\u2019s battery system manufacturing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lauren Petracca)\n<\/p>\n Expand<\/a> Batteries help maintain a steady flow of power when sources such as solar and wind are not producing. They charge when the sun is shining or when wind is blowing. That energy can then be used when demand is high.<\/p>\n Batteries can also store excess electricity from hydropower, and New York is one of the top hydropower-producing states. Buffalo is close to Niagara Falls, where most of the state\u2019s hydropower is produced.<\/p>\n When electricity demand is high, Peace Bridge will use the battery. It will get paid by the utility for not drawing from the grid and for sending power back if needed. This helps lower the complex\u2019s overall electricity costs, which benefits residents. The building can use the system during outages, too.<\/p>\n The New York State Energy Research and Development Agency helped fund the Peace Bridge Place project, as part of its focus on including disadvantaged communities in the clean energy transition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt goes a long way toward demonstrating the safety and viability of these types of projects,\u201d said NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris.<\/p>\n Viridi has manufacturing facilities in Buffalo and Richmond, California, where a state grant assisted with renovations. California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild said he\u2019s impressed with the company.<\/p>\n More than two-thirds of California\u2019s electricity comes from clean energy and batteries get a lot of credit for that, Hochschild said. As electricity demand grows, batteries help ensure the grid is reliable, reduce pollution and contain costs, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the battery industry is the single most important energy industry for the next several decades,\u201d said Hochschild, who co-founded the Electric Innovation Initiative to use electricity instead of fossil fuels more broadly throughout the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n Viridi\u2019s system passed a \u2018near impossible\u2019 test<\/p>\n As large battery fires<\/a> have garnered attention, some communities<\/a> have opposed further development. However, the failure rate for batteries has decreased as more are installed, according to the Electric Power Research Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n Viridi spent six years and $10 million figuring out how to make a fireproof container for batteries. Half the cost was for batteries Viridi destroyed during testing.<\/p>\n Viridi uses plates, pouches and spacing to isolate each battery cell. If one fails, the energy dissipates instead of spreading to the next battery, so that no gas, smoke, heat or fire escapes the container, Williams said.<\/p>\n Jigar Shah, an expert in clean energy financing and deployment, said the Peace Bridge Place system is a milestone in overcoming safety concerns.<\/p>\n To ensure nothing would catch fire when used inside a residence, Viridi\u2019s system had to pass a test where the battery was forced to fail while a cheesecloth covered the container. The cheesecloth did not char or ignite, according to the test report record.<\/p>\n Viridi announced in April<\/a> it met stringent Underwriters Laboratories safety standards so its system could be installed indoors without adding additional fire suppression to a building.<\/p>\n Shah, who led the Department of Energy\u2019s Loan Programs Office during the Biden administration, said Viridi is the only company to consistently pass this \u201cnear impossible\u201d test.<\/p>\n Shah thinks far more U.S. homes will use batteries for backup power by 2030. The U.S. can meet much more electricity demand and avoid costly upgrades to the grid if batteries are strategically deployed, he added.<\/p>\n New York and California officials want forward-thinking energy solutions<\/p>\n Viridi and Good Carbon Co. chose the Peace Bridge apartments because the all-electric building uses a geothermal system for heating and cooling rather than natural gas and needed additional, resilient power. The electricity demand locally can exceed the available supply, so the utility National Grid supported the endeavor, Williams added.<\/p>\n Peace Bridge is considered affordable housing because renters earn no more than 80% of the area\u2019s median income, Good Carbon said. It said energy storage will be an important part of future multifamily housing projects.<\/p>\n Viridi has been manufacturing in Buffalo since 2018. A medical research building in the city is using its battery system, too. Viridi\u2019s plant could build enough battery packs in a year to supply energy for about 14,000 average U.S. homes for 24 hours, Williams said.<\/p>\n Harris, at NYSERDA, said the state needs more options like this for maintaining a reliable grid and managing costs. Gov. Kathy Hochul has made that a priority.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t need to build generation, we can utilize the grid that we have more effectively, that\u2019s extremely valuable to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In California, 2,000 battery storage systems are being added each week and the largest in the world is under construction in Fresno County, Hochschild said. He thinks the battery industry is poised to take off.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cWe\u2019re just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JENNIFER McDERMOTT A battery system installed in a Buffalo, New York, apartment building will store excess energy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[138895,138894,9,24,63,138893,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-378529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-batteries-power-homes","tag-good-carbon-co","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-peace-bridge-place","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Derek](\"https:\/\/www.courant.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Climate_Battery_Storage_69_57.jpg?w=620\")
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\nHow batteries help keep electricity flow steady<\/p>\n