Thrive Collaborative Introduces Veridian at the County Farm, a First-of-its-Kind Carbon-Neutral Master Planned Community in Ann Arbor, Michigan

With energy-efficient designs, all-electric systems, and integrated solar and battery storage, Veridian at the County Farm is a pioneering, ecologically restorative community that reimagines homebuilding

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Thrive Collaborative, a property developer dedicated to constructing life-enhancing communities, and sonnen, a global market leader in smart energy storage and virtual power plant (VPP) technology, today announced the launch of Veridian at the County Farm. A master planned community in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Veridian at the County Farm sets a new standard for zero-carbon footprint home design.

Located on 14 acres adjacent to County Farm Park, Veridian features 170 mixed-income homes designed to operate as a resilient, self-balancing energy ecosystem. Each home includes:

• Geothermal and advanced electric heat pumps for space and water heating

• Induction cooking, EV-ready charging, and all-electric appliances

• Rooftop solar arrays (Total solar capacity at Veridian is 1.3MW+)

• sonnen Virtual Power Plant-based intelligent battery systems in every home
  

Together, these technologies form a cohesive, grid-interactive community—not just a collection of individual homes, but a clustered clean energy organism. A truly radical innovation, Veridian at the County Farm could avoid 24,750 tons CO₂e over 30 years - the equivalent of 2,000+ cars taken off the road for 30 years.

“Veridian at County Farm is one of the first fully all-electric, fossil fuel-free neighborhoods in the country,” said Matt Grocoff, founder of Thrive Collaborative and FEW Energy. “It’s more than net-zero—it’s a replicable model for how we can decarbonize our homes, stabilize the energy grid, and reimagine what neighborhoods can be. We can be beneficial to the electric grid, rather than a drain on it.”

Beyond being designed to reduce the carbon footprint of each home to zero, Veridian at the County Farm is capable of bringing significant value to society’s greater energy system through sonnen’s globally renowned and award-winning VPP technology. All Veridian homes are built to work together as a single “clustered” energy system, meticulously managed by sonnen’s VPP software platform, with under two-second dispatch response time. This system enables the entire community to stabilize the broader energy grid, offsetting peak demand, reducing reliance on fossil fuel-powered peaking plants, and contributing to a more resilient and sustainable energy system for Michigan and beyond. In order to maximize Veridian as a true VPP, Thrive Collaborative and sonnen are currently working with local utilities and the City of Ann Arbor to ensure optimal community benefits.

“What Veridian is poised to achieve, from the perspective of energy system innovation, is truly a first of its kind in Michigan. The Veridian community is capable of interacting intelligently and rapidly with the energy grid as a genuine virtual power plant, reducing carbon emissions in a manner that substantially surpasses the value of solar alone,” said Blake Richetta, Chairman and CEO of sonnen Inc. USA. “We could not be prouder of what Matt Grocoff and the Thrive Collaborative have accomplished at Veridian. In addition to providing residents with lower energy costs and enhanced energy security, this special community will serve as a greater blueprint for the future of Michigan’s energy system."

Over the past eight years, sonnen has launched a series of innovative VPP structures in master planned single-family home communities throughout North America. Most recently, sonnen launched in Canada at Blatchford Lands, a master planned community on the vanguard of clean energy and carbon neutral living. There’s also the recognized Mandalay Homes communities in Northern Arizona and the award-winning Hunters Point by Pearl Homes in Cortez, Florida, amongst others. Veridian joins this legacy with unmatched sophistication and groundbreaking application of building science. sonnen’s award-winning Wattsmart Virtual Power Plant in Utah, with Rocky Mountain Power, which includes the renowned Soleil Lofts multi-family apartment community, is the largest direct utility dispatched (no DERMS in the middle) residential storage based VPP in the nation at over 48MWh, which is dispatched daily, including a multitude of grid services (up to eight), and is service territory wide (not a restricted pilot).

As more utilities and municipalities in Michigan and across the country realize the value in VPP systems, Veridian at the County Farm will imminently be on the vanguard of deploying a highly intelligent and agile energy network.

About sonnen
sonnen is one of the world's leading manufacturers of VPP-based energy storage systems and a pioneer of clean, decentralized and networked energy technologies. We are one of the fastest growing energy tech companies and we've received many internationally recognized awards including for our innovative virtual power plant. Our products and services are used by the sonnenCommunity, a collection of visionaries around the world who share our vision of clean and affordable energy for everyone. We have offices located in Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, and the USA. sonnen is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell within its Renewables and Energy Solutions division. Learn more at: https://sonnenusa.com/en/

About Thrive Collaborative:
THRIVE Collaborative is an Ann Arbor, MI based real estate development, design, building and consulting firm dedicated to creating the life enhancing communities and cities needed for the 22nd Century. THRIVE’s mission is to accelerate the shift towards beautiful, healthy, and environmentally responsive design and lead the transformation to a truly sustainable human-built environment that is socially just, nature rich and ecologically restorative.

FEW Energy:
FEW Energy creates building and community scale energy infrastructure designed around the interdependencies of Food, Energy, and Water. As in nature, FEW designs iteratively from the bottom up to ensure the parts sustain the whole. We give you the affordable integrated solutions you, and our planet, have been looking for.

Press Contact
FischTank PR
sonnen@fischtankpr.com

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