Residents can expect battery revolution with ‘New Energy New York’

VESTAL (WBNG) -- Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger, elected officials and other local leaders in the coalition of project New Energy New York held a conference Thursday morning at Binghamton University’s Innovative Technologies Complex.

NENY is a collaboration led by Binghamton University and NY-BEST, with a goal to establish a national hub for battery innovation, manufacturing, workforce development and environmental justice in upstate New York.

New Energy New York was selected as one of 60 awardees in phase one of the American Rescue Plan’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge. The project was funded $500,000 to develop a full proposal to compete for up to $100 million.

The project objective is to allow lithium-ion batteries to be made in America, which would elevate the transportation industry as well as the local power grid.

New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST) Consortium Executive Director William Acker says up to 100′s of thousands of jobs will be created in this industry.

“We’re going to have an immense revolution in the amount of manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries in the United States of America. We have an opportunity that could not be overstated at this moment,” said Acker.

Associate Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development Per Stromhaug said The Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council has defined energy storage as a potential growth area for the region of upstate New York.

Stromhaug said later this year Broome County can expect a battery gigafactory, a battery-production facility that is gigantic in scale, to go online.

Phase two of the American Rescue Plan’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge is an application submission due March 15.

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