Oneonta/Westchester Energy Project Gets Major Federal Funding

By WRILEY NELSON
ONEONTA

The U.S. Department of Energy announced nearly $330 million in funding for nine projects across the country to accelerate the development of long-duration energy storage technologies on Friday, September 22. Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the LDES demonstration projects are intended to advance technological development, improve efficiency of renewable energy sources and strengthen U.S. energy independence. One of the federally-supported projects will be located in Oneonta and Westchester County.

“STOred Rechargeable Energy Demonstration” is a collaboration between Urban Electric Power and the New York Power Authority, a public utility. New York aims to deploy 3,000MW of energy storage by 2030 to make clean electricity available when it is most needed. The STORED project utilizes a fire-safe battery using low-cost and largely domestically available materials. It will provide load management and power resilience to the two sites, where it will install capacity for more than 600kW of power for more than 12 hours per discharge. Installation and operation costs are expected to be considerably lower than those of a lithium-ion system. Urban Electric Power’s solvent-free rechargeable zinc-manganese dioxide batteries utilize earth-abundant raw materials that are readily available through supply chains established by the non-rechargeable alkaline battery industry, and more than 75 percent of Urban Electric Power’s raw material vendors are based in the U.S. According to a DOE release, a successful demonstration could enable market adoption of Urban Electric Power’s LDESS by proving decreased technology risk and by reducing demand on grid infrastructure through reduced peak demand load.

As of press time, no further information was available concerning project location or timing.