Battery Storage Firm, Mortgage Lender Unite to Develop Renewable Housing in Utah

    April 7, 2025
    Each home will be equipped with a Torus battery and solar system, while sharing access to a centralized solar array and utility-scale storage facility.
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    Energy storage developer Torus is partnering with housing lender First Colony Mortgage to create a Utah residential and renewable neighborhood powered by solar and battery storage.

    The planned project aims to connect renewable energy across 650 new homes. The Torus Neighborhood program promises to introduce a hybrid energy model combining individual home battery systems with community-scale infrastructure.

    Each home will be equipped with a Torus battery and solar system, while sharing access to a centralized solar array and utility-scale storage facility. The communities will serve as a model for grid modernization in Utah working in partnership with Rocky Mountain Power's Wattsmart Battery program.

    "Our collaboration with Torus represents a unique convergence of award-winning technology and mortgage banking expertise," said Carine Clark, CEO of First Colony Mortgage, in a statement. "Through our long-standing builder partnerships, we're making it easier for homeowners to move into homes that are ready for the future of energy. This initiative demonstrates Utah's leadership in bringing innovative energy solutions to homeowners while working alongside traditional power providers to improve grid reliability and consumer choice."

    Creating fully renewable residential neighborhoods and community microgrids is a much-desired priority for many lean energy developers, but the results so far have been inconsistent at best. BlockEnergy’s projects to create neighborhood microgrids in Florida and Maryland stalled because the company ceased operations.

    Solar developer SunPower was one of the partners in a California residential microgrid project but it declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year and sought to sell off many of its assets to a bidder.

     

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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