New York state governor Kathy Hochul has announced awards amounting to nearly $15 million for four long-duration energy storage demonstration projects. The largest sum, $12 million, has been awarded to Form Energy. The company plans to develop, design and construct a 10 MW/1000 MWh iron-air battery system, at a project location still to be determined. Form Energy has signed deals to deploy its battery with utilities such as Xcel Energy, Southern Company and Great River Energy, and recently broke ground on a commercial-scale battery plant in West Virginia. In commercial terms iron-air batteries are said to be 10 times cheaper and 17 times longer lasting than lithium-ion equivalents, but are significantly bulkier and slower to recharge.
Ecolectro has received $1.08 million to scale-up the company’s polymer chemistry and materials that it expects to significantly reduce the cost of producing hydrogen by electrolysis, and create a drop-in replacement for current designs. This project entails scaling laboratory-proven technologies with engineering and validation prototypes to build and test 10 kW electrolysis units. The electrolyser will be deployed in a pilot demonstration in partnership with Liberty Utilities in Massena, New York.
PolyJoule Inc has received $1.03 million. The company plans to install a 2 MWh, 167 kW PolyJoule modular battery storage system in partnership with Eastern Generation at its Astoria generating station located in Queens, New York. This demonstration aims to prove the safety, technical, operational and economic merits of the PolyJoule Conductive Polymer BESS in a densely populated urban setting.
Urban Electric Power has received $703 965 to install a 100 kW/1 MWh battery storage system, anchored by the company’s rechargeable zinc alkaline battery technology. The proposed project will be designed for 10- to 24-hour applications at commercial and industrial facilities. The project is located in Pearl River, New York.
The state has also made available $8.15 million in funding to support innovative long duration energy storage solutions, devices, software, controls, and other complimentary technologies yet to be commercialised.
