By Emily Meyers – Habitat Magazine
Published April 16th, 2026
A 19.8 kilowatt-hour battery installed under a solar canopy on a townhouse in Chinatown is the city’s first residential battery energy storage system (BESS) — and a milestone for building-scale energy resilience. The system, which became operational last year, was installed on the rooftop of a six-story building for owner Bruce Langone. “This project has laid the groundwork for millions of families to take control of their energy needs,” he says. It’s taken nearly a decade to develop a battery system that meets the city’s strict building and fire safety regulations.
The battery system is about the size of a refrigerator and is tied into the building’s electricity system. “We’ve spent years working with the Fire Department of New York and New York City government agencies to enable residential battery storage for New Yorkers,” says Sequoya Cross, vice president of energy storage for Briggs & Stratton Energy Solutions, the battery supplier. “Since they produce very little heat and have a reduced risk of thermal runaway, our batteries don’t require additional fire suppression systems or cooling or ventilation measures.” Thermal runaway refers to the fire risk that occurs when lithium batteries overheat.
The battery can provide at least a couple of hours of backup power in a blackout. “Lights, appliances, and basic loads; that’s what the battery can support, depending on how much electricity they are using,” says T.R. Ludwig, founder and CEO of Brooklyn SolarWorks, the company behind the installation. Pairing the battery with a solar canopy increases the building’s resilience. “The moment the solar panels kick in they are just going to recharge the battery,” Ludwig says. “It allows them to weather an outage better than most.”
The solar canopy delivers 15,000 kWh of electricity a year and was priced at $80,000. “It’s a big canopy and it is custom, so it costs more than a typical one,” Ludwig says. The battery power system added another $40,000 to the total cost but, like solar, is eligible for incentives. Through the Solar and Electric Storage Tax Abatement, co-ops, condos and building owners can recoup 30% of the installation cost, up to $62,500 annually. NYSERDA also offers incentives for standalone energy storage systems or systems paired with renewable energy generators like solar. “The incentives can be between $2,000 and $6,000 depending on who is installing it and where,” Ludwig says.
Read the full story here.
