The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced on 6 November that nearly $13 million has been awarded to 15 projects under its Power Generation and Storage Innovation program to advance innovative energy storage technologies in New York, including scalable long-duration energy storage and other advanced battery solutions.
The program competitively awards projects that develop and demonstrate innovative LDES and other under-utilized alternatives to traditional lithium-ion technologies that are not yet commercialized. Awarded technologies include scalable LDES solutions over 10 hours in duration at rated power, targeting cost, performance, integration, grid congestion, hosting capacity constraints and lithium-ion siting limitations.
Selected projects
Aestus Energy Storage LLC received over $590,000 to conduct a subscale test of approximately 35 kWh of two alumina-silica ceramic heat sink materials for a 20 MWh Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage system intended for utility-scale application.
Inlyte Energy was awarded over $2.4 million to deploy a more than 10-hour iron-sodium battery addressing substation peak load growth and distribution-level resilience challenges.
Sprocket Power, Inc. received over $1 million to demonstrate direct current fast charging stations fed from an underground Vanadium Redox Flow Battery.
Urban Electric Power, Inc. was awarded nearly $1.5 million to develop and validate a zinc-manganese dioxide battery energy storage system with advanced monitoring and control technologies tailored for LDES applications.
Portfolio approach
The awards span mechanical, electrochemical and flow battery chemistries, reflecting a deliberate portfolio approach rather than a bet on a single technology. New York's grid constraints—particularly in downstate areas where siting new lithium-ion facilities can be difficult—are central to the program's rationale.
The funding is relatively early-stage. Aestus's award, for example, covers a subscale heat-sink test rather than a full-scale system, and Sprocket's project is a demonstration of DC fast charging fed by an underground flow battery. Those projects will need to show performance and cost data before they can attract commercial-scale investment.
NYSERDA's program adds to a growing set of state-level LDES funding initiatives in the United States. For technology developers, the awards provide non-dilutive capital and a route to utility and distribution-system partners, though the amounts are small relative to the capital needed for manufacturing scale-up.
This article was assisted by AI analysis. Please refer to the original source for official information.