Projects To Help Harness Renewable Energy and Provide Stored Energy to New York's Electric Grid

September 8, 2022

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced $16.6 million in awards for five long duration energy storage projects that will help harness renewable energy and provide stored energy to New York's electric grid. Governor Hochul also announced an additional $17 million in competitive funding available for projects that advance development and demonstration of scalable innovative long duration energy storage technologies, including hydrogen. The projects will support the current Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to install 3,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030 while facilitating further development to 6,000 megawatts.

"Innovative, forward-thinking approaches to transforming the way energy is stored are critical to fighting climate change and transitioning to a clean energy economy," Governor Hochul said. "New York is making bold investments in clean energy, and this $16.6 million in awards for projects that harness renewable energy and under-utilized long duration energy storage solutions will be a game changer for meeting the state's ambitious climate and energy goals. By advancing new and more sustainable energy storage technologies, we are ushering in a cleaner, greener future for New York."

Governor Hochul made today's announcement at the 2022 Advanced Energy Conference in New York City. These awards and new funding are being made available through the Renewable Optimization and Energy Storage Innovation Program administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The awards and funding will advance renewable energy integration and reduce harmful emissions from reliance on fossil fuels. The $16.6 million in awards will support the following projects:

  • Borrego Solar Systems, Inc. - $2.7 million - To develop, design and construct two stand-alone energy storage systems and perform field demonstrations of a six-hour zinc hybrid cathode energy storage system in New York City to help demonstrate that zinc hybrid technology is economically competitive with lithium-ion.
  • JC Solutions, LLC dba RCAM Technologies - $1.2 million - To develop a 3D concrete printed marine pumped hydroelectric storage system that integrates directly with offshore wind development in support of grid resiliency and reduced reliance on fossil fuel plants to meet periods of peak electric demand.
  • Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC- $12.5 million - To demonstrate nuclear-hydrogen fueled peak power generation paired with a long duration hydrogen energy storage unit to help reduce emissions from the New York Independent System Operator electric grid.
  • Power to Hydrogen - $100,000 - To develop a Reversible Fuel Cell System for Hydrogen Production and Energy Storage called the Clean Energy Bridge and to help facilitate the system's readiness for demonstration and commercial adoption.
  • ROCCERA, LLC - $100,000 - To evaluate and demonstrate a novel commercially viable Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell prototype for clean hydrogen production together with a corresponding scalable, more efficient manufacturing process.

The additional $17 million in competitive funding will encourage further product development and demonstration projects in energy storage that are 10 to over 100 hours in duration at rated power, otherwise known as long duration energy storage. Project submissions should advance, develop or field-test hydrogen, electric, chemical, mechanical or thermal-electric storage technologies that will address cost, performance, siting and renewable integration challenges, such as grid congestion, hosting capacity constraints and lithium-ion siting in New York City. Submissions must only include innovative, long duration energy storage technologies that are yet to be commercialized. Awards will be made for the following project categories: product development, demonstration projects and federal cost-share. Proposals will be accepted through October 17, 2022. Additional details for this solicitation are available on NYSERDA's website Link opens in new window - close new window to return to this page..

Doreen M. Harris, President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Co-Chair, Climate Action Council said, "The technologies and processes being advanced through these projects are representative of Governor Hochul's commitment to supporting innovation that fosters product development and solutions that aid our clean energy transition. This type of funding support is critical to ensuring that stored renewable energy from solar or wind is available for long periods of time and can be utilized to ensure a reliable grid of the future."

Funding for long duration storage technologies, including hydrogen-focused projects, supports the State's overall decarbonization strategy and activities to explore the role of hydrogen in reducing emissions and further integrating renewable resources. These activities include:

  • Governor Hochul tasked NYSERDA, the New York State Department of Public Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation with developing a regulatory clean hydrogen framework to measure emissions reductions and health benefits. More specific actions include:
    • The evaluation and development of codes and standards to ensure the safe operation of clean hydrogen.
    • Program development to support locally-owned clean hydrogen-powered microgrid solutions to help underserved communities replace polluting backup generators.
    • The release of $27 million in NYSERDA Hydrogen Innovation funding to support product development, pilots and demonstrations through competitive solicitations.
    • A clean hydrogen demonstration for district heating and cooling.
    • The launch of a Clean Hydrogen Prize Program to support clean hydrogen firms seeking to expand in New York State.
  • NYSERDA is leading a coalition of more than 60 partners, in collaboration with the New York Power Authority and Empire State Development, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island to develop a proposal for federal 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Hydrogen Hub funding and designation as a regional clean hydrogen hub.
  • To further awareness and education on hydrogen topics, NYSERDA is supporting extensive stakeholder engagement, hosts a State of the Science on Hydrogen in New York State webinar series  Link opens in new window - close new window to return to this page. and is continuing to work with work a diverse group of external organizations to study, evaluate and understand the potential role of hydrogen in New York State.

To accelerate market adoption of renewables, NYSERDA's Renewable Optimization and Energy Storage Innovation Program is investing in solutions and approaches that will yield better performance, reduced costs, increase renewables hosting capacity and improved integration with the grid. Specific areas of interest include developing innovative storage systems that reduce hardware costs, improving performance, reducing soft costs. Other areas of interest include driving technical advancements to improve the economic viability of renewables and distributed energy resources and maximize integration potential and renewables hosting capacity through product development and demonstration. To date, this program has enabled the development of 356 projects with over $225 million of NYSERDA investment, which has yielded $956 million in additional investments and 46 commercialized products.

NYSERDA's initiatives are funded through the State's 10-year, $6 billion Clean Energy Fund. More information about this funding is available on NYSERDA's website.

New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $35 billion in 120 large-scale renewable and transmission projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives and over $1.6 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting nearly 158,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2020, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.