SAN DIEGO, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Whale Energy, a Southeast Asia based virtual power plant energy developer, and UNIGRID, Inc., an advanced sodium-ion battery innovator, announced 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, specialized 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.

"This technology is a game changer for us," said Gabriel Lim, Founder and CEO of Blue Whale Energy. "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. This allows us to turn every roof into a dispatchable grid asset." 

"We're proud to support Blue Whale in building Southeast Asia's virtual power plant network, powered by distributed renewable energy and safe storage," said Darren H. S. Tan, CEO of UNIGRID Battery. "Such an approach allows us to open up new and untapped market opportunities in the BESS world."

Blue Whale Energy plans to deploy an initial 8 MWh of sodium-ion solar-plus-storage systems by the end of 2025. From 2026 onward, the partnership will expand across Southeast Asia, accelerating the region's energy transition with flexible, fire-safe, and space-efficient solutions.