NineDot Opens 20MW Battery Storage Site in Hunts Point

NineDot Energy has switched on its largest battery energy storage site to date in Hunts Point, the Bronx, a facility that will deliver nearly 20 megawatts of power and enough capacity to serve close to 20,000 homes during peak grid hours once fully operational ahead of next summer's heat waves. The company celebrated the ribbon-cutting with elected officials, state and city agency staff and community organizations at the site, which replaces the former home of a fuel oil trucking company in a South Bronx neighborhood that has carried a disproportionate share of the city's industrial pollution for decades. NineDot describes itself as the leading developer of community battery storage in the New York City metro area, and the Hunts Point project extends a fleet the company says is already the largest operating in Con Edison's territory.

 

A 20MW Site in a Neighborhood Built Around Diesel Trucks and Peaker Plants

 

The scale of the site matters because of where it sits. Hunts Point carries more than 10,000 diesel trucks passing through daily and hosts two high-emissions peaker power plants nearby in Port Morris, plants that run only during the same peak grid hours the new battery system is designed to cover. In 2023, the combined Hunts Point and Mott Haven area recorded asthma-related emergency room visits at two to three times the citywide average, a disparity the city and NineDot both attribute in part to fine particle air pollution from that concentration of diesel traffic and peaker generation.

Battery storage displaces exactly the kind of generation blamed for those health outcomes, discharging stored power during the same peak hours peaker plants would otherwise run, without the combustion emissions. The site's location, on a former fuel oil trucking company property, was framed by NineDot and city officials as symbolic of the broader transition underway in the neighborhood as Hunts Point's produce and fish markets and truck fleets move toward electrification.

 

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NineDot's Summer Heat Wave Performance Shows the Model at Grid Scale

 

The Hunts Point site joins a fleet that has already been tested under real grid stress. During New York's extreme heat wave from July 1 to 4, 2026, NineDot's battery systems across nine projects exported nearly 34 megawatts during peak hours, supporting both Con Edison's local distribution network and the statewide transmission system. The company estimates that output was equivalent to removing the load of roughly 50,000 window air conditioners from the grid, or powering approximately 34,000 households for four hours a day during the periods of highest demand.

That performance sits within a broader build-out: NineDot currently operates eleven projects across six locations totaling 39 megawatts in Staten Island and the Bronx, which the company says is the largest battery fleet in Con Edison's New York City service territory. More than 60 additional projects are in development and the company's pipeline exceeds 1 gigawatt, part of a stated goal to have 400 megawatts of storage in operation, construction or development by the end of 2026.

 

Officials and Community Groups Frame the Site as an Environmental Justice Milestone

 

Adam Cohen, NineDot's co-founder and chief technology officer, said Hunts Point "has historically been overburdened by high-emitting fossil fuels, and this battery storage facility marks an inflection point in improving the local environment and grid reliability." Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, who also attended NineDot's first ribbon-cutting more than four years ago, tied the project to a longer pattern of underinvestment in the borough, while State Assembly Member Amanda Septimo linked battery storage directly to retiring peaker plants and electrifying diesel-powered equipment used in the area.

City and state agency officials echoed that framing. NYSERDA Senior Vice President David Sandbank described the project as a demonstration of how policy, partners and programs can combine to modernize the grid, while NYCEDC President and CEO Anthony Shorris and MOCEJ Senior Advisor Lauren Phillips both connected the site to the city's broader push for an equitable clean energy transition. Advocacy groups including the New York League of Conservation Voters and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance welcomed the project while calling for more community-scale storage to be built across similarly overburdened neighborhoods.

 

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Workforce Training Extends the Project Beyond the Battery Itself

 

Council Member Justin Sanchez pointed to workforce development tied to the project, including a solar and storage engineering training curriculum NineDot helped create and run across five career and technical education high schools, in partnership with Solar One, alongside support for the HOPE Program's employment pathways into the green economy. The POINT CDC, a local youth development and community organization, said it plans to create a mural for the project's street-facing side and expects to see the benefits of zero-emissions power and improved grid reliability in the community over coming years.

 

The Next 60 Projects Will Determine Whether NineDot Hits Its 400MW Target

 

NineDot's stated goal of reaching 400 megawatts in operation, construction or development by the end of 2026 depends heavily on the more than 60 projects currently in its development pipeline advancing on schedule, a pipeline the company says exceeds 1 gigawatt in total scale. Whether that pace holds will determine how quickly other overburdened neighborhoods in Con Edison's territory see projects similar to Hunts Point, and whether NineDot's fleet-wide performance during future heat waves can scale proportionally with its expanding footprint.