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Clean Energy For All
Case Study

NineDot Energy:
Establishing Pathways for Cleaner Communities

Learn how a grant from The Clean Fight served as a project-level credit enhancement that will help NineDot Energy establish new permitting pathways that improve energy access and reduce emissions in urban environments.
NineDot Energy: Establishing Pathways for Cleaner Communities
Photo Credit: NineDot Energy. This mural hangs at the NineDot Energy battery site on Gunther Avenue in the Bronx, and was designed by students from the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, across the street from that site.

The Project

NineDot Energy is the leading developer of community-scale battery energy storage systems in the New York City Metropolitan Area. Their Mobile Battery Unit project in New York City is focused on replacing diesel generators that are often located in environmental justice communities, providing off-grid power for events, emergency response, and construction. The project will use Mobile Battery Units from NY-state manufacturer Viridi Parente with Vehicle-to-Grid chargers to offer clean, reliable energy alternatives while also providing grid benefits when needed.

The Challenge

Despite their strong balance sheets, developers like NineDot often must work with small, nimble lenders to secure debt products and internal buy-in for smaller FOAK projects that prove out new use cases for portfolio expansion. Incorporating a novel technology like the Mobile Battery Units creates new requirements because clear permitting pathways for this innovation have yet to be established.

The Solution

A grant from The Clean Fight served as a project-level credit enhancement by providing technical assistance funding to cover costs for permitting and technical integration that enabled NineDot to secure a term sheet from NYCEEC for six times the size of The Clean Fight’s grant, demonstrating its catalytic impact. The project has triggered some of the first permit applications for mobile batteries in NYC and the team continues to work with the NYC Department of Buildings and the NYC Fire Department (FDNY) on improvements to the permitting process for these new use cases for energy storage assets. Additionally, the technical integration work will enable, for the first time, the use of a mobile battery as a vehicle-2-grid asset, expanding the market for V2G beyond vehicles, while OEMs continue to delay V2G capabilities from their light-duty fleets.

The Impact

The Mobile Battery Unit project establishes new permitting pathways and creates a clear, scalable process for integrating mobile energy storage technologies into subsequent projects. In addition, by demonstrating the viability of mobile energy storage as a replacement for diesel generators, it will expand energy storage use cases in New York and unlock the mobile storage market to serve off-grid and energy-burdened communities more broadly. Once operational, the project will demonstrate the expanded capabilities of mobile batteries compared to diesel generators, providing clean, quiet, and reliable power in temporary applications around the city while also supporting the utility by providing grid services when not in use in the field.