Virtual power plant operator Voltus has acquired Brightfield AI in a strategic move to boost commercial and industrial energy storage across the United States.
The financial details of the acquisition have not been made public.
The deal integrates Brightfield AI’s specialised battery project development platform and its executive team into Voltus’s existing distributed energy resource network. The commercial and industrial sector consumes 60% of total American electricity but currently accounts for less than 1% of installed battery energy storage system capacity. Brightfield AI utilises automation to reduce the time and capital costs associated with setting up these storage systems for engineering, procurement and construction partners.
The buyout targets the primary hurdles in commercial battery deployment, which typically include high equipment costs, slow customer acquisition and intricate site reviews. Voltus plans to pair its large commercial customer base with Brightfield AI’s optimisation algorithms to quickly check if facilities are ready for battery installation.
“The combination of Voltus and Brightfield changes the math: we can now deploy cost-effective energy storage at many of our customer sites,” said Dana Guernsey, CEO of Voltus. “Brightfield’s execution expertise and proven industry credibility are precisely what we need to scale storage and provide our customers with another answer to their challenge of higher energy costs.”
The acquisition brings significant changes to the executive structure at Voltus as the Brightfield AI leadership team steps into key operational positions.
Tim Hade, the former Chief Executive of Brightfield AI, takes over as Senior Vice President of the newly formed battery division. Co-founder Larsh Johnson will assume the role of Chief Technology Officer at Voltus, moving former CTO Neil Lakin into the position of Chief Architect. Additionally, Oleksandr Vovk will become Vice President of Battery Energy Storage, while Peter Krasco joins as Vice President of Battery Operations.
“We chose to join forces with Voltus because of the credibility of their leadership, their execution-focused culture, and their position in the DER space,” said Larsh Johnson, Co-Founder of Brightfield AI. “We are actively inviting leading battery manufacturers, financial institutions, and C&I energy users—including hyperscalers looking to unlock Voltus’s Bring Your Own CapacityTM (BYOC) solutions—to collaborate with us on this next phase of deployment. Voltus already partners with leading EPCs who are experts in physical infrastructure construction. Now, we are offering these vital execution partners access to an incredibly powerful customer acquisition engine and platform that handles all aspects of energy storage deployment in a fraction of the typical time and cost.”
Oleksandr Vovk, Co-Founder of Brightfield AI, added: “Voltus has trusted relationships with thousands of C&I facilities. The combined company can leverage Brightfield’s AI battery modeling and optimization algorithms to rapidly assess portfolio site readiness and automate early-stage development workflows. We are thrilled to join Voltus in order to deliver real capacity to a strained grid.”
