Project Frog's Modular Buildings Get $22 Million Boost

By Paula MeltonGE Energy Financial Services and several other funders have invested $22 million in Project Frog, a company that provides climate-sensitive design and fabrication of modular high-performance buildings (see “BuildingGreen Announces 2009 Top-10 Green Products,”

EBN Dec. 2009).

Project Frog—which began as a sustainable alternative to conventional classroom trailers and is now branching out into healthcare and other markets—uses computer modeling to optimize buildings for their designated sites, emphasizing energy efficiency, natural ventilation and daylighting, and indoor air quality.

According to Project Frog, the pre-engineered buildings can be constructed in one to six months and can readily be designed for net-zero energy or to achieve LEED certification.

The investment, which is intended to help Project Frog open up new markets nationwide, follows funding it received from the second round of GE’s ecomagination Challenge, launched in January 2011.

Ecomagination has also funded GMZ Energy, a startup that converts waste heat into energy; Winflex, which manufactures lightweight cloth rotors for wind turbines; and a variety of companies focusing on grid efficiency.