bp snaps up New York-based energy tech Blueprint Power, turns commercial buildings into power plants

Realising the ‘uge potential of a technology stack that converts buildings into urban power plants, bp has added Blueprint Power to the Launchpad portfolio. Essentially networking commercial real-estate properties, Blueprint Power helps convert static buildings into active energy sources connected to energy markets. Through this network building owners can then sell surplus energy stored in batteries, or, and here’s the real kicker, sell power generated on-site from equipment such as solar panels, for example. The financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

Founded in 2017 in response to the Hurricane Sandy blackout of New York, Blueprint founders Claire Woo, Nicholas Squires, and Robyn Beavers set to work and developed a series of algorithms that not only connect buildings to power markets but optimise the overall efficiency of the buildings themselves.

As you might imagine, not only does this technology work like a charm in response to a natural disaster, an event not usually predictable, but also presents some very promising potential when viewed through the decarbonisation lens.

Working with five of New York City’s largest commercial real-estate firms, totaling over 100 million square feet (or 9,290,304 square metres), the company has generated 13 MegaWatts of renewable power. With the acquisition, bp wants to up this number to 36 MegaWatts by the end of 2022.

“Buildings hold huge untapped potential to improve energy resilience in an increasingly unpredictable world and to decarbonize our built environment,” commented CEO Robyn Beavers. “The time to grow and affect real change is now, and as a bp Launchpad company, we will have the partnerships and opportunities to help buildings make a positive contribution to the energy transition.”

If the generation of 13 MegaWatts wasn’t enough, perhaps the act that dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s for bp was Blueprint’s move into the residential sector. The recent launch of a project is slated to demonstrate that its technology can generate electricity and expand electric vehicle charging capacity across New Amsterdam. The project will see 150 EV chargers deployed to residential buildings in Queens where the building tech is already in use.

“Decarbonizing dense urban areas is a key challenge as we work to play our part in realizing a net-zero world. Blueprint’s technology can help deliver this critical transformation. It can help secure access to renewable energy and, importantly, also create new business opportunities for many sectors. This is exactly the type of company bp wants to scale and scale fast through our bp Launchpad accelerator,” concludes bp’s Sam Skerry.