BoxPower In The News

Innovation in Wildfire Mitigation: PG&E Deploys Its First 100% Renewable Remote Grid

“We are proud to have designed and built not only PG&E’s first remote grid, but also their first 100% renewable standalone power system,” said BoxPower Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer Anderson Barkow. “Reducing wildfire risk in areas like Pepperwood is critical for the surrounding communities and the native wildlife that collectively call this place home. This cost-effective approach to wildfire mitigation provides an excellent blueprint for implementation across potentially hundreds of remote sites”.

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November 8, 2023

Innovation in Wildfire Mitigation: PG&E Deploys Its First 100% Renewable Remote Grid

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June 7, 2021

BoxPower and PG&E Commission the Utility’s First Remote Microgrid, Reducing Wildfire Risk for Customers in High Fire-Threat Area

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March 18, 2021

BoxPower Provides Remote Grid to Help Mitigate Fire Risk in California

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Recent News

November 7, 2023

PG&E unveils first 100% renewable remote power system at Pepperwood Preserve

Angelo Campus, founder and chief executive officer of Grass Valley-based BoxPower Inc., which designed and installed the system, said his company’s mission is to provide safe, reliable, economical, simple systems that can be built inside standard shipping containers and, thus, transported to remote, rural areas.

The company is now focused on working with utilities to create systems that provide more resilient power in remote locations and reduce wildfire threat but has often found companies reluctant to sign on.

“When I’m speaking with new utilities, particularly outside of California, I tell them, ‘Hey, all you have to do is build a remote grid and cut down your power poles and take down your wires.

“They look at me like I’m crazy,” he said.

But he said he was proud of PG&E for providing a safer, cleaner, reliable, economic solution.

“I believe this is a huge milestone for remote grids,” Campus said.

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November 6, 2023

Innovation in Wildfire Mitigation: PG&E Deploys its First 100% Renewable Remote Grid

Leaders from Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pepperwood Foundation, BoxPower Inc., Sonoma Clean Power, Franklin Energy, and the California Public Utilities Commission gathered with regional, state and federal stakeholders at Pepperwood Preserve in Sonoma County to commemorate the first fully renewable remote grid deployed in PG&E’s growing fleet of standalone power systems.

As described in PG&E’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan, remote grids provide utility service using standalone local energy resources. Throughout PG&E’s 70,000-square-mile service area, there are remote customers served via long electric distribution lines that traverse high fire-risk areas. Replacing these distribution lines with a remote grid is an innovative option that can cost-effectively meet customer needs and reduce fire ignition risk.

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November 6, 2023

Innovation in Wildfire Mitigation: PG&E Deploys its First 100% Renewable Remote Grid

Under contract to PG&E, BoxPower designed, built, and will maintain the remote grid at Pepperwood. The system includes a BoxPower SolarContainer featuring a battery energy storage system that was prefabricated at the BoxPower facility in Grass Valley before being transported to the site. The generation source is a canopy solar array. Construction of the system was completed in less than eight weeks and followed by a rigorous testing and commissioning process.

“We are proud to have designed and built not only PG&E’s first remote grid, but also their first 100% renewable standalone power system,” said BoxPower Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer Anderson Barkow. “Reducing wildfire risk in areas like Pepperwood is critical for the surrounding communities and the native wildlife that collectively call this place home. This cost-effective approach to wildfire mitigation provides an excellent blueprint for implementation across potentially hundreds of remote sites.”

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November 6, 2023

California's PG&E just deployed its first renewable remote grid

PG&E, California’s largest utility, just brought its first renewable remote grid online, in a nature preserve in Sonoma County.

The fully renewable remote grid at Pepperwood Preserve replaces 0.7 miles of overhead distribution line, eliminating wildfire risk from overhead power lines.

Throughout PG&E’s 70,000-square-mile service area, remote customers are served via long electric distribution lines that traverse high fire-risk areas. Replacing these distribution lines with a remote grid can cost-effectively meet customer needs and reduce fire ignition risk.

Pepperwood Preserve is a 3,200-acre biological reserve that hosts the Dwight Center for Conservation Science in the Mayacamas Mountains. It’s a hub for climate monitoring, applied research, science education, and wildfire resilience demonstration projects, such as the now extensive ALERTWildfire camera network.

The preserve is a crucial place to eliminate wildfire risk because it’s home to more than 900 species of native plants and wildlife. The Tubbs fire directly impacted it in October 2017, and the Kincade fire did as well in October 2019. The new remote grid will power Pepperwood’s Bechtel House, which houses overnight visitors.

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November 6, 2023

Innovation in Wildfire Mitigation: PG&E Deploys its First 100% Renewable Remote Grid

Under contract to PG&E, BoxPower designed, built, and will maintain the remote grid at Pepperwood. The system includes a BoxPower SolarContainer featuring a battery energy storage system that was prefabricated at the BoxPower facility in Grass Valley before being transported to the site. The generation source is a canopy solar array. Construction of the system was completed in less than eight weeks and followed by a rigorous testing and commissioning process.

“We are proud to have designed and built not only PG&E’s first remote grid, but also their first 100% renewable standalone power system,” said BoxPower Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer Anderson Barkow. “Reducing wildfire risk in areas like Pepperwood is critical for the surrounding communities and the native wildlife that collectively call this place home. This cost-effective approach to wildfire mitigation provides an excellent blueprint for implementation across potentially hundreds of remote sites.”

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October 5, 2023

Remote Grids Powering Isolated Customers

Although remote grids are currently a nascent technology, they provide great promise for utilities. As Anderson Barkow, CFO of BoxPower puts it, “remote grids allow utilities to reimagine power provision, with local energy sources providing safer, more reliable and more cost-effective power than distribution lines in many rural areas.” These systems have the potential to provide improved resilience and reliability for customers, help utilities meet their clean energy targets, and improve wildfire safety.

PG&E is among the first U.S. utilities to build a remote grid. The utility constructed their first remote grid in Briceburg, CA, near Yosemite National Park with BoxPower. The site serves five customer meters and has allowed PG&E to remove 1.3 miles of power lines that were damaged in a 2019 fire while ensuring that the site is online 99.9999% of the time. PG&E began operating the Briceburg Remote Grid in June of 2021. Each year it provides more than 90% renewable energy. Thus far, it has been a success with no sustained outages in over two years. During the 2022 Oak Fire, the customers receiving electricity from the remote grid had reliable electricity despite outages in surrounding areas.

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September 19, 2023

Exclusive: BoxPower raises $6.5M for solar microgrids
Solar microgrid developer BoxPower has closed a $6.5 million Series A, the company tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: The Grass Valley, Calif.-based company says its tech offers a clean alternative to the fossil fuel generators typically used for on-site power.

How it works: BoxPower’s solar microgrids can be used to harden grid infrastructure or supply EV chargers, especially in remote areas.
- California utility PG&E, for example, is deploying BoxPower systems to replace vulnerable overhead power lines.
- “These systems change how energy is supplied to rural energy consumers,” CFO Anderson Barkow tells Axios. They can also “take property or community off-grid.”
What’s happening: Aligned Climate Capital led BoxPower’s Series A with a $5 million investment first announced in February.
- SIG, Technexus, Remarkable Ventures, and Climate Capital subsequently joined the all-equity round.
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August 31, 2023

A Greener Tomorrow: The Work of Three Princeton Alumni is Saving the Planet

Similarly, Angelo Campus ‘16 created BoxPower, an energy startup that is redefining the grid in rural areas. With an aging energy grid and increased severity and frequency of natural disasters, power lines are becoming more dangerous and energy reliability is decreasing in rural and remote areas. BoxPower’s rapidly deployable solar standalone power systems are replacing these risky distribution lines as a cost-effective and reliable alternative. With a suite of software services and modular hardware solutions, BoxPower helps organizations not only reduce energy-related disaster risk and bolster energy reliability, but also helps realize significant savings on line undergrounding and upgrades. BoxPower recently raised $6M in Series A funding led by Aligned Climate Capital. BoxPower has over 70 projects in development with investor-owned utilities and 40 successful deployments spanning diverse partners. Additionally, they have already offset over 40 million pounds of CO2 and energized more than 4,200 individuals and businesses.

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August 23, 2023

Climate disasters are revealing a blind spot

Where Angelo Campus grew up in northern California, evacuations and power outages caused by wildfires were routine. At college, he worked in a lab developing small solar-powered electric grids for places hit by natural disasters or high fire-risk areas to reduce the odds of an errant spark from a conventional transmission line. After graduation, he founded a startup called BoxPower to commercialize the technology, setting up his first system in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

As the frequency and severity of wildfires in his home state escalated, interest grew in his microgrids. But raising investment proved challenging: Backers gravitated to companies seeking to ward off climate change, not those readying the world for its impact.

“The number of ‘no’s we got from climate investors was surprising and pretty disappointing,” Campus said.

BoxPower eventually found backers and has installed dozens of microgrids. But in a summer where climate disasters have dominated the headlines — most recently devastating wildfires in Hawaii, Greece, and Canada — adaptation startups continue to get a cold shoulder from many venture investors.

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May 24th, 2023

The Ad Hoc Gist: Hot Microgrid Summer

So if microgrids are so great, then why aren’t there more of them?

They’ve been held back by a couple of important barriers.

First, on the technology side, microgrid development has historically been a bespoke process from design all the way through to operation. That’s expensive and doesn’t scale.

Second, regulation of resilience and microgrids is outdated and murky, which discourages investment. For instance, regulators and utilities often judge reliability performance with numbers that exclude larger power outages, arguing that those are extreme and infrequent. That’s a disservice to the public. It’s like a hospital being judged on its ability to treat strep throat, but not on its ability to treat gunshot wounds.

There’s also no clear definition of resilience, which makes it hard to quantify risks and evaluate potential solutions, like microgrids. And when it isn’t clear who can own or operate a microgrid, what the conditions are, or how they might be compensated, you’re left with a market that cannot get off the ground.

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May 8th, 2023

BoxPower is Revolutionizing Energy Access through Microgrid Technology

BoxPower, founded by individuals with firsthand experience of the challenges faced by rural communities without reliable power, focuses on providing renewable energy solutions.

Initially funded as a research project, BoxPower developed containerized microgrid technology to address issues of power outages, high poverty rates, and limited access to electricity.

Their projects have encompassed disaster relief, energy resilience for indigenous communities, and collaborations with utilities, critical facilities, and EV chargers in the United States.

In this episode of Climate Tech 100, find out how BoxPower streamlines the deployment of microgrids, facilitating the widespread adoption of clean energy technology in remote areas.

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March 16th, 2023

Getting EV chargers functioning quickly means turning to off-grid setups

BoxPower of Grass Valley, California, is another turnkey off-grid EV charger supplier. It got its start as a Princeton University research project exploring alternatives for diesel generators.

“We thought we’d be working in places where there’s a less-reliable grid internationally, but then quickly saw a huge need domestically, especially in California where we’re based, with the wildfires and the PSPS (public safety power shutoff) events associated with that,” said Anderson Barkow, co-founder and CFO of BoxPower.

The company produces prefabricated, portable off-grid power plants built within shipping containers, which lend themselves to simpler transit and modular design. These solar + storage shipping containers can also be outfitted with EV chargers.

The four primary components of BoxPower’s EV chargers are solar panels, batteries, inverters and the charger itself. Modules can be installed in a single pitch or at a dual tilt on racking attached to the shipping container. BoxPower can link multiple containers together to meet increasing energy demand and the system is outfitted with a software that lets operators monitor and control the system remotely

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February 9th, 2023

BoxPower wants to cut emissions, wildfire risk by taking power off the main grid

After sparking California’s second-largest wildfire ever, and dozens more in recent years, it’s no secret that Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) — one of the nation’s largest utilities — is interested in alternatives to aboveground transmission lines.

One option touted by PG&E is to bury thousands of miles of power lines in “high fire-threat areas.” That effort is underway, and it will cost billions and take a decade or more to complete, per the utility’s projections. Yet, another piece of the puzzle may be microgrids.

BoxPower, a startup working on such tech, says its mini power stations can do a better job of delivering reliable, low-carbon energy to folks who live “on the edges of distribution lines.”

Neither route will scrub away PG&E’s horrid environmental track record, but as climate change drives more extreme heat waves, solar-powered microgrids could help remote communities keep the lights on even when the macrogrid goes down, while eliminating some dangerous power lines in the process. That’s the idea, and it’s why Grass Valley, California–based BoxPower raised a $5 million Series A round from Swell Energy backer Aligned Climate Capital.

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February 23, 2023

Remote Microgrids Become a Reality in Isolated Communities and Fire-prone Areas

Faced with the challenge of supplying electricity to rural areas that are either isolated or located in high wildfire-risk regions, some utilities are turning to remote microgrids to provide reliable power safely. These microgrids are standalone systems—not connected to the grid—powered by solar energy and battery storage, with fuel-powered generation serving as a backup power supply.

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February 24, 2023

NREL Industry Growth Forum featuring cleantech startups from around the world

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced the 40 presenters for the 2023 NREL Industry Growth Forum (IGF), who represent a range of clean and sustainable technology startup companies from around the world. This is the 28^th year of the event, which is set for May 1 – 3 at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, Colorado.

“This crop of presenters is truly stellar,” said event manager Sheila Ebbitt of NREL. “They show the continuing broad growth of the clean energy industry. The investors they meet at IGF can help them build the ventures that will impact climate change for the better.”

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September 20, 2022

Off-gridders take energy needs into their own hands

When Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico in 2017, cutting electricity supplies across the island, US firm BoxPower provided a solar panel and microgrid solution that comes packed in a shipping container. The technology was used to restore electricity supplies at two schools and a community centre.

The same kit is in place to this day and activates automatically whenever there is a problem with the main power grid. “Those schools now never lose power,” says BoxPower chief executive and founder Angelo Campus.

BoxPower has since worked with utility companies in California to set up standalone grid systems for some remote communities. For example, the community of Briceburg used to receive electricity via long overhead power cables that ferried power from the main grid through forests and up hillsides. But this cabling was prone to damage from wildfires, explains Mr Campus.

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September 19, 2022

How microgrids performed during the summer heatwave

In addition to responding to such alerts, microgrids were able to provide power to communities during fires. In July, during the Oak Fire, sparked in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, a remote, off-grid microgrid from BoxPower in Briceburg, California continued to operate. The microgrid is owned by PG&E.

“That region has no utility except for the remote grid. The microgrid functioned even with fire at its doorstep,” said Jenna Herzog, director of marketing and communications for BoxPower.

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July 29, 2022

Are clean, renewable microgrids the future of energy?

The San Jose shelter’s power solution is a microcosm for the microgrid trend playing out across California and the rest of the United States. Due to the increasing prevalence of wildfires across California, the California Public Utilities Commission has required the utilities to harden their lines against wildfire damage. In some cases, microgrids provide a more affordable and feasible solution, says Jenna Herzog, director of marketing for BoxPower, a company that provides containerized microgrids.

“The utilities have found out that in a lot of rural and remote setting, the financial equation for upkeeping and maintaining their lines to meet wildfire standards are just outrageous,” Herzog says. “So when they serve small loads with multiple miles of distribution line, they’re realizing that, financially, it makes more sense to decommission those power lines and replace them with the onsite solar, battery, and backup generator.”

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April 1, 2022

Microgrids with Propane-Fueled Backup Systems Deliver Reliable, Resilient Power

According to Angelo Campus, CEO and co-founder of BoxPower, a focus on achieving complete power reliability was essential while designing microgrids for PG&E and Liberty Utilities.

“Pairing propane-fueled generators with solar power and battery storage ensures a constant energy supply for BoxPower customers. Integrating propane for backup power increases the reliability of the overall system. Propane fills the niche as an always-available power source that smooths out the intermittencies of solar and wind resources,” he said.

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March 29, 2022

Kayenta Chapter secures grant to power 24 homes with solar energy

December 22, 2021

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September 30, 2021

Shifting focus: Grass Valley-based energy company brings work closer to home

Other aspects of the company have evolved over time, including the company’s marketplace focus, according to Nesbit. Earlier on, she explained, BoxPower placed a heavier focus on disaster relief — for instance, developing systems to be installed in Puerto Rico following the 2017 impact of Hurricane Maria.

Given the current “advanced and accelerated wildfire season,” the need for BoxPower’s services has in recent years grown in the company’s home state, said Nesbit.

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September 27, 2021

Case study: When it makes sense for utilities to island its customers

August 30, 2021

Now Will Infrastructure Investors Finally View Microgrids As Resiliency?

First of all, we need as an investor class to recognize that emergency microgrids are no longer just the realm of charity organizations like the Footprint Project or emerging economies like the efforts of startups like BoxPower and others. For years, seeing “microgrids in a box” ideas, I would ask the entrepreneurs where their initial markets would be, and they would mention disaster-relief organizations and distant global markets. Now those markets are right here in the United States and the needs are more stark. Those revenue streams in domestic markets have shifted from “maybe someday” to a sad reality.

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June 24, 2021

PG&E Commissions Microgrid Near Yosemite National Park

Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company that serves much of northern California, has commissioned the first of many standalone microgrids in Mariposa county near Yosemite National Park. Built and installed by BoxPower, the remote grid will permanently replace the overhead distribution power lines that once served a handful of customers in Briceburg, a community located in a High Fire Threat District of the Sierra Nevada foothills. The new microgrid will improve reliability while significantly reducing the risk of wildfires in the area.

BoxPower says such microgrids may be used to supply other remote locations that are served by conventional transmission lines that traverse other HFTD areas. The microgrids are expected to cost less to build and maintain than building and servicing transmission lines.

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June 9, 2021

Solar microgrid to offer protection from fire threats

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has commissioned its first hybrid renewable microgrid, built and installed by BoxPower.

The microgrid is planned as a permanent replacement for overhead distribution lines and is the first in a series of planned microgrids, the utility said. PG&E said it has identified hundreds of areas that would benefit from microgrid deployment and has targeted up to 20 operational remote grid sites by the end of 2022.

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June 7, 2021

PG&E gets rid of power lines in Briceburg Fire area

Pacific Gas and Electric is the first utility company in the continental United States to deploy a stand-alone power system or remote grid that helps with the cost and aims to prevent wildfires.

“This area was affected by the Briceburg Fire, it took out power lines that were bringing power to these customers. For the past two years, I believe they were running off of backup generators,” said Michele Nesbit, the COO & Co-founder of BoxPower Inc.

PG&E hired BoxPower Inc. to design and engineer the new system which will only provide power to customers in the area.

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May 12, 2021

Microgrid Knowledge Names Finalists for Greater Good Awards

“The finalists are from throughout the world and demonstrate the range of humanitarian benefits that microgrids offer, from bringing power, water and medical care to remote villages to providing affordable and reliable power to low-income communities,” said Elisa Wood, editor-in-chief of Microgrid Knowledge and creator of the awards program. “This year’s finalists include a tiny home community serving families experiencing homelessness.”

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April 7, 2021

The role of battery storage in the energy transition

PG&E partnered with BoxPower, a California-based modular solar energy systems provider, to build an island power grid. The system is expected to run on renewable power nearly 90% of the time.

“An on-site power system will eliminate much of the maintenance and vegetation management costs needed for power lines and help mitigate the risk of future wildfires sparked by electrical infrastructure,” said the two companies in a statement.

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April 1, 2021

First PG&E standalone solar grid near Yosemite is attempt to stop sparking California fires

The Briceburg grid was designed and installed by BoxPower, an energy company based out of Grass Valley. PG&E, which owns the grid, will be able to monitor and control the system with BoxPower.

The new standalone grid in Briceburg means PG&E won’t have to rebuild 1.3 miles of distribution lines that extended down into the remote river canyon near Yosemite. Those lines were destroyed in the October 2019 Briceburg Fire.

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Mar 25, 2021

Will California have another year of record-setting wildfires?

In the tiny California town of Briceburg, at the edge of Yosemite National Park, workers are installing a new solar microgrid from a startup called BoxPower. The local utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, used to send power to the community through long distribution lines that traveled through remote areas—the same type of equipment that sparked disastrous wildfires such as the one that swept through the town of Paradise in 2018, killing at least 86 people. With the new grid, which generates power for the community locally, that dangerous long-distance infrastructure no longer needs to exist.

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Mar 19, 2021

PG&E begins implementation of remote grids for fire mitigation, resiliency and customer service

Microgrid provider BoxPower announced this week that it is designing and installing a standalone power system in Briceburg, California to help mitigate fire risk in the area.

The remote grid will support Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in its wildfire mitigation and energy resilience efforts in the face of intensifying fire risk across the state. Slated for completion in April, the integrated solar, battery, and generator system will replace traditional power distribution lines once servicing the unincorporated community.

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Mar 19, 2021

Replacing Rural Power Lines With Resilient Microgrids

“We do a fully integrated solar, battery, and generator system, prefabricated in a shipping container that you can buy just like you would buy a car. You pick out which model you want and you order it,” Angelo shared. “We have standardized modular systems, individual units ranging from 5-100 kW output capacity and the ability to link multiple those units together to address just about any size load with almost no engineering or customization involved.”

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Mar 5, 2021

Startup of the Month: BoxPower

“Medical facilities and utilities are playing catch-up, as the grid and distribution lines are not set up to handle wildfire risk or disasters,” says Michele Nesbit, a cofounder and chief operating officer of BoxPower. “We’re going to continue to see outages unless we add microgrids.”

BoxPower’s modular systems are plug-and-play solar solutions, which start at 3.5 kilowatts (which can run most appliances in small homes with 2-4 occupants). The fireproof and waterproof boxes include solar panels, inverters, battery storage and a backup generator (that uses diesel or propane) with an optional control system for monitoring.

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Feb 8, 2021

Santa Clara County Launches Tiny Homes Site For Unhoused Families With Children

Feb 7, 2021

Santa Clara County Officials To Celebrate The Opening Of Tiny-Homes Shelter On Monday

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Jan 18, 2021

BoxPower CEO on the growing microgrid market for small businesses

Rural communities, small businesses, and manufacturing are now able to find flexible and affordable ready-to-install microgrid products. BoxPower CEO Angelo Campus is witnessing a rapid change in microgrid demand. “As outages increase across the country and world, the value of a microgrid is increasing rapidly,” says Campus. “This combined with the decreasing cost of inputs will cause the microgrid adoption to skyrocket.”

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Nov 3, 2020

Case study: MCHC Health Centers’ solar battery microgrid

A pioneering collaboration between MCHC Health Centers, Direct Relief and BoxPower, is adding crucial backup power plan for MCHC. Recent wildfires spurred this partnership, which has resulted in a $1.2 million solar battery microgrid power solution that will operate MCHC’s Hillside Health Center critical facilities for as long as necessary during a power outage, while significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Power outages caused by recent fires or fire threats caused MCHC to shutdown several times in 2018 and 2019. A planned power shut down in 2019 caused the closure of all four MCHC locations, resulting in missed visits by approximately 2,400 patients, a loss of vaccines, income loss for staff, and a loss of $300,000 in revenue. Given the extent of the losses, both to the community and the organization, MCHC quickly began looking for backup power solutions.

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Oct 10, 2020

California Energy Commission funding energy storage, microgrid firms

The California Energy Commission (CEC) selected UK-based Invinity Energy Systems for funding as part of an initiative for long-duration, non-lithium energy storage with the use of its vanadium flow batteries (VFBs) technology. CEC also awarded modular microgrid energy solution company, BoxPower, a $1.2 million dollar grant to further develop its software and hardware solution at 15 microgrid sites in California.

The three-year microgrid project, under the designation of California Title 24 Advanced Power Utilization Technology, will provide insights into energy cost reduction strategies and increased energy resiliency. BoxPower’s work will seek to drive cost reductions, open new cash flow opportunities for batteries, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and measure non-energy societal benefits, such as resiliency.

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Sept 28, 2020

97% Renewable Microgrid to Replace Fire-Vulnerable Line in California During Wildfire Season

A 97% renewable microgrid will allow Liberty Utilities to de-energize four miles of transmission line located in a remote Sierra Nevada location during wildfire season in California.

The microgrid, from BoxPower and owned by Liberty Utilities, a regulated utility with about 50,000 customers on the West side of Lake Tahoe, is made up of 20 kW of solar, 68 kWh of storage and propane backup. It’s expected to use the propane only 3% of the time.

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Sept 28, 2020

Angelo Campus electrifies the renewable energy business with BoxPower

Since his graduation in 2016, Princeton alumnus Angelo Campus has worked to ensure anyone needing quick and dependable access to a power source can find it in a simple configuration: a shipping container equipped with solar panels, a battery for energy storage and a backup generator.

His company, BoxPower, builds and distributes these units — what are known as containerized microgrids — and has deployed them in places like Puerto Rico, which lost electrical infrastructure in 2017 due to Hurricane Maria, and the Alaskan backcountry, where Alaska Natives live far removed from electrical power sources.

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Sept 22, 2020

Liberty Utilities plans solar + storage microgrid for wildfire mitigation in NWA plan

Last week, BoxPower announced that Liberty Utilities will be using its system to set up a microgrid at a remote mountain research station. The companies said the project will save millions by replacing high fire-risk distribution lines with a containerized solar + storage microgrid.

The project is the result of a request-for-offers issued by Liberty Utilities for a wildfire-mitigation solution to avoid costly replacement of the transmission lines that serve Berkeley University’s Sagehen Creek Field Station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California.

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Sept 17, 2020

BoxPower gets utility customers seeking remote power

BoxPower has found a new niche, selling stand-alone solar power units to utilities to provide their customers remote power, which is far cheaper in some cases than hardening electric grids to withstand wildfires.

Liberty, a subsidiary of Ontario, Canada-based Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE: AQN), was faced with having to “harden” from fire damage a 4-mile stretch of power lines that serve the research station, and that would have cost $3 million. Instead, Liberty chose to install a BoxPower station on the site, Barkow said. It will save the utility more than $2 million.

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June 30, 2020

BoxPower vies for $1 million grant to expand self-contained electric power technology

BoxPower, the company that builds turnkey solar power and battery units, is vying for a $1 million grant from the California Energy Commission to further commercialize its products.

BoxPower’s technology was developed in 2011 at Princeton University, with research supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. The company was spun out of Princeton in 2016, when it began marketing and selling its portable power unit in a standard shipping container.

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Mar 18, 2020

Snowstorms, Remote Locale, and Practical Jokes Can’t Stop Alaskan Microgrid

A sudden snowstorm in a far Northwest arctic locale, sleeping in a laundromat (for no better place) and practical jokes were only some of the challenges facing Grass Valley, Calif.-based BoxPower in deploying a new solar/storage microgrid in the indigenous village of Deering in remote Northwest Alaska.

The installation is the second microgrid for the company in Alaska and second involving NANA, a regional corporation made up of 14,500 Iñupiat shareholders, or descendants, who live in or have roots in the region.

“We learned that logistics and supply chain are the most difficult part of Alaskan microgrids,” Campus said.

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Feb 24, 2020

From Gold Rush to Microgrid Push in Nevada County, California

Pacific Gas & Electric’s controversial public-safety power shutoffs (PSPS) hit the area hard last fall. The distress and economic damage has spurred county leaders and business owners to pursue microgrids and back-up power systems before the 2020 wildfire season begins.

“A lot of companies shy away from battery projects because it’s outside their wheelhouse, outside their comfort zones,” Campus said. BoxPower’s goal was to make a solar and battery system as simple and easy to install as possible. The modular systems range from 3.5 kW to more than 22 kW per container, with options for additional solar via integrated rooftop or ground mount. Linked systems are capable of generating up to 528 kW. The company, which was a finalist in Microgrid Knowledge’s Greater Good Award competition last year, finances the full cost of a “minibox” for as low as $250 per month.

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Jan 17, 2020

Startup with Valley ties helps earthquake-ravaged Puerto Rico

A California startup with ties to the Central Valley is bringing some light to Puerto Rico after the island has been hit with a large series of earthquakes since the end of December.

BoxPower Inc., a start-up that provides rapidly deployable solar electric microgrids in shipping containers, has delivered two of the of the systems to the earthquake stricken region of Puerto Rico, which has suffered more than $110 million in damages and seen more than 500 homes topple over.

The systems serve as solar generators, providing power when conventional power grids are down.

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Jan 17, 2020

Grass Valley Microgrid Company BoxPower Inc. delivers two rapidly deployable microgrid systems to earthquake stricken region of Puerto Rico

BoxPower Inc., a California start-up company providing rapidly deployable renewable microgrids in shipping containers, got their start in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, when they deployed one of their Modular Solar Microgrids at a community center providing food and shelter to those impacted by the hurricane. Now, almost two years later, BoxPower has returned to Puerto Rico in the wake of the earthquake to deploy two more microgrids: at a school resilience center and medical clinic in the south of the island, both of which have been impacted by the recent earthquakes.

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Jan 7, 2020

BoxPower getting bids for big orders of its solar energy containers

California’a multiple widespread power outages in 2019 have given a big boost to BoxPower Inc., developer of portable and turnkey solar power and battery units that are housed in shipping containers.

The company is currently appraising bids and requests for proposals by California counties and utilities for orders of 10 to 30 units, said Anderson Barkow, co-founder of the company.

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Dec 31, 2019

7 companies making their mark with commercial microgrids

Increasingly, U.S. businesses are concluding that they need the type of business continuity, cost predictability and sustainability goal-aligned energy solutions that microgrid-plus-storage installations offer.

“After two weeks of outages and utility shutoffs, many businesses have had to shut their doors because of cash flow issues or because they lost their inventory at a critical time of the year,” said Angelo Campus, founder and CEO of BoxPower, a startup that makes pre-engineered microgrid plus storage systems that can be dispatched and stored in shipping containers.

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Nov 18, 2019

This single shipping container can start powering a small renewable grid in less than a day

Inside a shipping container currently en route to a school in Puerto Rico, a solar microgrid is ready for deployment: As soon as the container arrives, the system, from a startup called BoxPower, can be assembled and begin providing power in less than a day.

The system, designed for use both immediately after disasters and to make communities more resilient to future disasters, is easy to rapidly install. “We jokingly call ourselves the Ikea of microgrids because there is some assembly required, but it is color-coded, pre-cut, and pre-drilled,” says Angelo Campus, CEO and founder of California-based BoxPower. “And anyone who can assemble an Ikea dresser can assemble our solar array on top of the container. It doesn’t require any heavy equipment or machinery.”

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Oct 24, 2019

PG&E outages leave patients at rural health clinics dangerously vulnerable, experts say

The widespread PG&E power shutdowns are depriving California’s rural and indigent residents of critical care from community health clinics that they have come to count on not only for primary care but also for many types of emergency care, leaders in the industry told The Bee.

Founders of Grass Valley’s BoxPower, a company that offers solar-powered microgrids that can store and supply power directly to structures, said they’ve been hearing from a number of pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations looking for backup power sources.

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Oct 13, 2019

PG&E blackouts spur sales of BoxPower solar/battery units

California’s recent power blackout episode triggered the strongest sales ever for BoxPower Inc., the maker of a turnkey solar power and battery unit in a box.

Co-founder Anderson Barkow said last week, as Pacific Gas & Electric Co. shut off power to 734,000 homes and businesses in 35 California counties, BoxPower saw its “busiest week in terms of inquiries ever.”

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July 15, 2019

BoxPower takes first place at annual Princeton-HBS Startup Showcase

Clean tech startup BoxPower(link is external) shone brightly at the fourth annual Princeton-Harvard Business School Startup Showcase. As the winner of the audience vote, BoxPower will be fast-tracked to the final selection round of the Princeton Alumni Angels(link is external) fall pitch night, and won the opportunity to pitch at an upcoming HBS Alumni Angels of Greater New York(link is external) pitch night. BoxPower will also receive mentorship from PAA.

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July 14, 2019

Container Microgrids: Lowering Costs Through Modular Design and Streamlined Engineering

In the ongoing effort to lower the cost of microgrid deployment, one concept that continues to evolve is that of the modular microgrid, best expressed in a system that can fit inside a single shipping container.

In an effort to bring clean energy to remote customers at affordable prices, the California-based company BoxPower has been standardizing and continuing to refine designs for small-scale power systems that can fit into a container. BoxPower engineer Michele Nesbit says “we’re social impact-focused, so designing cost-effective systems is a key motivation for us.”

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Feb 25, 2019

DOE Co-Funded PV Project Brings Fuel Cost Savings to Three Alaska Native Villages—Starting With Buckland

When people living in the Alaska Native community of Buckland, population 425, visit the local Native store, they may see price tags of $46 attached to laundry soap and $26 for a quart of oil. One way to reduce or at least stabilize expenses is to cut diesel fuel costs by tapping into renewable resources for energy production.

The roughly $2-million project, $1 million of which comes from a 2016 DOE grant, involves installing over 400 kilowatts (kW) of PV arrays in these villages, which are expected to produce about 420,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, displacing over 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel. The containerized solar system was provided by BoxPower Inc., a California energy company specializing in rapidly deployable solar and battery systems for rural energy projects.

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Nov 1, 2018

Forbes 30 Under 30 2019: Social Entrepreneurs

BoxPower manufactures solar microgrids that can be quickly deployed via shipping containers to communities in need. Each unit can be assembled (without specialized equipment or technicians) in just five hours and powers six homes–or can be linked together to form a localized grid. BoxPower was used in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and has offset 6.2 million pounds of CO2 to date.

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July 28, 2018

BoxPower: Tiny power hybrid microgrids aids rural Puerto Rico and Alaska

Ariving in a shipping container, the 18,000 lb. kit has solar panels, battery storage and a backup diesel generator — no electrician needed for assembly.

Our system is standardized, all the electrical work is done, there’s no need for an electrician. It’s sort of like an IKEA set,” Angelo Campus, CEO of BoxPower, told Microgrid Knowledge. Campus also told Yale Climate Connections that the solar array can be set up in five hours.

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July 29, 2018

Alaska Is Offering Entrepreneurs a Huge Renewable Energy Opportunity

Beyond coaching and connections, this year Launch Alaska has invested up to $75,000 in each of their startups. This year’s cohort of four start-ups competed before the Demo Day audience. They presented their concepts, progress, and investment opportunities. The popular winner, BoxPower, is a classic example of what Vanderburg is looking for: an ideal alternative energy solution for Alaska.

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June 18, 2018

With this kit, you can set up a solar-powered microgrid.

Eight months after Hurricane Maria, power had still not been fully restored to the town of Mariana, Puerto Rico.

So a company called BoxPower shipped solar panels, batteries, and a backup generator to power a café, laundromat, and community center there. But unlike most renewable energy systems, this one snapped together almost like Legos – with no engineers or electricians needed.

Campus: “If you can put together an Ikea bed-frame you can probably put together our microgrid system.”

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June 11, 2018

Remote Puerto Rico Community Rebuilds with Microgrid “Like an IKEA Set”

Eight months on from the devastation of Hurricane Maria, the 3,160 inhabitants of Puerto Rico’s mountainous Mariana remain without grid power. Tired of waiting, community members recently took matters into their own hands with the help of a modular microgrid.

BoxPower’s modular microgrid is a hybrid system with solar power, battery storage, and backup diesel generation to increase resilience and provide critical load at the very least. The system arrives fully packaged in a shipping container.

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March 18, 2018

What’s in the box? — BoxPower Inc., CEO, Angelo Campus is on a mission to bring renewable & environmentally-sustainable energy to the world

Across the globe, 1.2 billion people are living in the dark. One in seven — 16 percent of the world’s population — have little or no access to electricity.

A Grass Valley man is on a mission to help solve the energy poverty crisis.

Angelo Campus is the founder and CEO of BoxPower Inc., which is quite literally power in a box. The renewable energy startup company provides off-grid communities with affordable, portable microgrid infrastructures in shipping containers.

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Oct 12, 2017

Princeton Grads' Energy Startup Provides Power To Native Americans Protesting Oil Pipeline

In mid-August BoxPower, a renewable energy startup, responded delivering one of their off-grid system units to support the Ramapough Lenape Tribe’s cause by powering their campsite. BoxPower’s renewable energy system is self-contained within a 20ft. shipping container, and designed to be easily transported and quickly deployed to off-grid sites. Each unit has the capacity to distribute renewable energy to up to five households, and consists of a pre-assembled solar array, wind power unit, bio-diesel generator, and batteries for storage.

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