bp has acquired Blueprint Power (Blueprint), a US-based technology company whose technology can help turn buildings into a flexible power network by connecting them to energy markets through cloud-based software. Blueprint’s technology presents an opportunity to help decarbonize commercial real estate, help real estate owners meet their environmental goals, and give them access to new revenue streams.

Founded in response to new energy regulations after the Hurricane Sandy black-out in New York, Blueprint uses bespoke algorithms to optimize the energy efficiency of buildings and connect them to power markets. This allows commercial building owners to sell surplus energy stored in batteries or power generated on site from equipment such as solar panels.

The company currently works with five of New York’s largest commercial real estate owners that together own over 100 million square feet of property in the city and generate 13 MW of renewable power. bp and Blueprint are targeting to increase this to 36 MW by the end of 2022.

Blueprint will join the bp Launchpad portfolio, supporting an ambitious growth plan that will see the team launch in several major US urban power markets. bp will explore how Blueprint can work with both its regions, cities & solutions, and trading & shipping businesses to work to lower the cost of renewable energy and support the decarbonization of both cities and carbon-intensive industries.

Sam Skerry, SVP bp Launchpad & Ventures said: “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.”

Blueprint’s technology can support the decarbonization of real estate, which has one of the highest carbon footprints of all sectors, contributing an estimated 28 per cent of global annual greenhouse gasemissions¹.

Robyn Beavers, Blueprint’s founder and CEO added: “Joining bp will enable us to maximize our impact on rapidly progressing global energy systems and I’m excited for our team to continue scaling quickly as we become a bp Launchpad portfolio company. Buildings hold huge untapped potential to improve energy resilience in an increasingly unpredictable world and to decarbonize our built environment. 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.”

The acquisition comes after Blueprint launched a government-supported demonstration project in New York to show how its technology could generate electricity and expand electric vehicle charging capacity in the city. This project will see 150 EV chargers installed on-site at a residential building in Queens by 2025, where Blueprint’s technology is already in use.

bp Launchpad is bp’s in-house accelerator focused on providing multi-year funding and accelerating start-up growth. It aims to generate sustainable change by building and scaling a progressive portfolio of digitally-led businesses.