On November 6, 2026, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced awards totaling just under $13 million for 15 projects supporting product development and demonstration of long-duration energy storage (LDES) and advanced batteries. The largest award, more than $2.4 million, went to Inlyte Energy, which will install an iron-sodium battery capable of discharging for more than 10 hours at a substation to help meet growing load. In September, New York contracted 950 MW of capacity in its first large-scale storage solicitation. All eight selected projects use lithium-ion batteries with discharge durations of 4 to 8 hours. Lithium-ion batteries are the choice for commercial large-scale storage, so how was research and development funding distributed across battery chemistries and storage methods?
Lithium-based projects are the majority by count, but funding splits almost evenly in thirds
The funding comes through NYSERDA's Power Generation and Storage Innovation Program. In making selections, NYSERDA emphasized three points: technologies that improve safety from the design stage, materials that lead to longer-lasting and more efficient battery cells, and efforts to diversify material sourcing to improve safety and strengthen the in-state supply chain. Eligible projects were limited to companies based in New York State, companies working with in-state firms, or projects developed or demonstrated in the state.
The 15 published award amounts add up to about $12.85 million. Because individual figures include approximations such as "more than" and "just under," the sum is not exact, but it is consistent with the total NYSERDA announced. At 157 yen to the dollar (the market close on October 26, 2026), this equals roughly 2 billion yen.
XenoSpectrum sorted the 15 projects into three groups based on their main battery chemistry or storage method: "lithium-based," covering improvements to materials and components for lithium batteries; "sodium-based," covering batteries that use sodium; and "other." The "other" category includes zinc, vanadium, and metal-air batteries, as well as compressed air energy storage, which is not a battery.
| Category | Awardee | Award | Development / demonstration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium-based | Daqus Energy | Just under $1M | Developing a metal-free organic cathode for lithium-ion batteries, with Binghamton University's research center NECCES |
| Lithium-based | IBEX Materials | $750K | Combining a graphite-free, silicon-rich anode with a solid electrolyte |
| Lithium-based | LiNova Energy | Just under $720K | Developing a lithium-ion battery with a polymer cathode that uses no critical minerals |
| Lithium-based | Graphenix Development | More than $700K | Combining a 100% silicon anode with a sulfur cathode |
| Lithium-based | LiBAMA Power | More than $400K | Testing a metal anode for lithium-metal batteries, with Elementium, which develops a nonflammable electrolyte |
| Lithium-based | AlphaEn | More than $350K | Building a manufacturing platform for lithium-metal electrodes that can use lithium recovered from end-of-life equipment |
| Lithium-based | InfinitEnergy | $250K | Developing an all-solid-state battery that operates without externally applied mechanical pressure; chemistry not specified |
| Lithium-based | Orion Polymer | $250K | Demonstrating a proprietary membrane for lithium-sulfur batteries in pouch cells |
| Sodium-based | Inlyte Energy | More than $2.4M | Installing an iron-sodium battery rated for 10+ hours to address substation peak-load growth and grid resilience |
| Sodium-based | Standard Potential | $1.8M | Designing and prototyping a portable sodium-ion power source for urban demand response, and obtaining certification |
| Sodium-based | Alsym Energy | More than $290K | Prototyping a 10 kWh nonflammable sodium-ion storage system, with the RIT Battery Development Center |
| Other | Urban Electric Power | Just under $1.5M | Developing and validating a zinc–manganese dioxide storage system for long-duration use |
| Other | Sprocket Power | More than $1M | Demonstrating a DC fast-charging station powered by an underground vanadium redox flow battery |
| Other | Respire Energy | More than $850K | Prototyping and testing components for its proprietary metal-air battery |
| Other | Aestus Energy Storage | More than $590K | Testing two ceramic thermal storage materials for advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) at a scaled-down size of about 35 kWh |
Source: NYSERDA announcement dated November 6, 2026. Categories are XenoSpectrum's classification.
Under this classification, lithium-based projects number eight and total about $4.42 million, sodium-based projects number three and total about $4.49 million, and "other" projects number four and total about $3.94 million. Lithium-based projects are the majority by count, but the funding shares are about 34%, 35%, and 31%, respectively, nearly a three-way split. In other words, about 66% of the R&D funding went to battery chemistries and storage methods other than lithium.
This share depends on how the projects are classified, however. Inlyte's iron-sodium battery is a type of sodium metal chloride battery, with a different chemistry from a typical sodium-ion battery. If Inlyte were classified as "other," sodium-based funding would fall to about $2.09 million, and the split among the three categories would no longer be even. In addition, NYSERDA's announcement does not state the battery chemistry of InfinitEnergy's all-solid-state battery. Including it in the lithium-based group is the editorial team's inference; counting only projects where lithium use is explicitly stated, the number would be seven.
NYSERDA positions the program as a framework supporting pre-commercial long-duration storage technologies and alternatives to conventional lithium-ion batteries. Looking closely at the lithium-based awards, the focus is on changing battery constituent materials. On the anode side, Graphenix and IBEX work on silicon-based materials, while AlphaEn and LiBAMA work with lithium metal. On the cathode side, Daqus is developing a metal-free organic material and LiNova a polymer material that uses no critical minerals. Orion Polymer is developing a membrane for lithium-sulfur batteries.
The 950 MW the state contracted is all lithium-ion; R&D funds go to pre-commercial technologies
In a June 20, 2024 order, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) raised the state's storage deployment target for 2030 from the 3 GW set by the Climate Act to 6 GW (6,000 MW). The plan adds 4,700 MW on top of about 1.3 GW already under procurement or contract. The breakdown is 3,000 MW of grid-scale bulk storage, 1,500 MW for the retail market, and 200 MW of residential storage. Bulk storage is to be procured through annual competitive solicitations, with a target of 20% of each round for systems with about 8 hours of duration. This is a target, however, not a requirement that selections meet a fixed ratio.
On September 23, 2026, NYSERDA announced the results of the first bulk storage solicitation. From 46 bids totaling about 6 GW, it contracted eight projects totaling 950 MW, all using lithium-ion batteries. Durations are 4 to 8 hours, and each facility is scheduled to begin operating by the end of 2030. NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said the contracts will more than double the state's existing grid-scale storage capacity.
The R&D funding announced now, by contrast, targets pre-commercial long-duration storage and alternatives to conventional lithium-ion batteries. According to NYSERDA, the selected projects include new storage methods capable of discharging for more than 10 hours at rated power, aimed at issues such as transmission and distribution congestion, hosting capacity limits, and constraints on where lithium-ion batteries can be sited. The money comes from the state's Clean Energy Fund; PSC Chair Rory Christian explained that it is drawn from R&D funds overseen by the commission.
A storage system's "duration" is the time it can keep supplying power at its rated output, calculated by dividing stored energy (MWh) by rated power (MW). For example, a 100 MW system needs 400 MWh at 4 hours and 1,000 MWh at 10 hours. Hosting capacity, meanwhile, is the upper limit of new generation or storage that a distribution grid can accept. In this announcement, only Inlyte's project explicitly cites a duration of more than 10 hours; the other 14 give no duration. The eight lithium-based projects also mainly target the development of battery cell materials and components.
Thus New York's bulk storage procurement and its R&D support target technologies at different stages of maturity. The 950 MW contracts are for deploying commercial facilities, while the roughly $13 million in awards supports pre-commercial development and demonstration. One figure is generating capacity and the other is R&D investment, so the two cannot be compared directly.
An iron-sodium battery rated for 10+ hours, and flow batteries whose capacity grows with tank size
The largest of the 15 awards, more than $2.4 million, went to Inlyte Energy. The company will install an iron-sodium battery capable of discharging for more than 10 hours at a substation, aiming to handle growing peak load and improve grid resilience (the ability to recover from outages and other disruptions). NYSERDA's announcement does not give the specific site or demonstration timing.
Inlyte's battery is based on sodium metal chloride technology. According to a December 10, 2024 report by pv magazine USA, the technology was developed for electric vehicles in the 1980s and 1990s and traditionally used sodium and nickel chloride. Inlyte replaces the nickel used in the cathode with iron, aiming to cut manufacturing costs while maintaining performance. The company cites as an advantage its use of abundant materials such as iron, sodium, and common salt. Although it shares the use of sodium, the reaction mechanism differs from that of the sodium-ion batteries handled by Alsym Energy and Standard Potential.
Inlyte also released battery test results in December 2024. Using the same cell format as commercially produced sodium metal chloride batteries, it reported no capacity loss over more than 700 charge-discharge cycles in testing lasting over a year, with a round-trip efficiency of 90%. Round-trip efficiency is the share of the energy put in during charging that can be recovered during discharge. A cycle life of more than 7,000 cycles and a 20-year service life are projections the company based on its test results, not outcomes verified by operating for that long.
Sprocket Power received more than $1 million to demonstrate a DC fast-charging station powered by an underground vanadium redox flow battery. A flow battery stores its energy-bearing electrolyte in external tanks outside the cell and circulates it through the cell with pumps to charge and discharge. Power output is determined mainly by cell size and stored energy by the volume of electrolyte, so output and storage capacity can be designed relatively independently. When longer discharge is needed, larger tanks holding more electrolyte can provide it.
Aestus Energy Storage's more than $590,000 will go toward advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES), not a battery. Compressing air generates heat; A-CAES stores that heat in a thermal storage material and reuses it when the compressed air is expanded during discharge. Aestus will test two alumina-silica ceramic thermal storage materials at a scaled-down size of about 35 kWh and plans to use the results in designing a 20 MWh system.
These three approaches store energy in fundamentally different ways. Inlyte's iron-sodium battery uses electrode materials inside the cell, flow batteries store energy in electrolyte held in external tanks, and A-CAES combines compressed air with thermal storage material, pursuing long-duration storage through a mechanism different from chemical batteries.
Zinc–manganese dioxide battery R&D, from a 2017 paper to a 2026 award
Urban Electric Power (UEP) received just under $1.5 million to develop and validate a zinc–manganese dioxide storage system for long-duration use. The company plans to combine the system with monitoring and control technology. Research to improve the performance of this chemistry as a rechargeable battery has been under way for some time, and related technical progress can be traced in peer-reviewed papers.
Manganese dioxide (MnO₂) is an inexpensive material with a theoretical capacity of 617 mAh per gram through a two-electron reaction. It has been widely used as the cathode in zinc-anode primary (disposable) batteries, but in rechargeable alkaline batteries it has traditionally been possible to use only about 10% of the theoretical capacity.
A research group at the CUNY Energy Institute reported major progress on this problem in 2017 in the journal Nature Communications. The team developed a cathode that adds bismuth oxide to layered manganese dioxide (birnessite) and intercalates copper ions (Cu²⁺) between the layers. As a result, it reportedly delivered capacity close to that of the two-electron reaction repeatedly over more than 6,000 cycles. The paper explains that copper moving in and out of the layered structure, which repeatedly dissolves and precipitates during charge and discharge, stabilized the structure and made repeated charging possible. These are, however, experimental results obtained at the research stage and do not indicate the performance of UEP's products or of the project selected this time.
This is not NYSERDA's first R&D support for long-duration storage. In August 2023 it awarded about $15 million to four demonstration projects, and in May 2025 it issued a solicitation with more than $5.5 million in funding. Urban Electric Power is one of the companies selected in both 2023 and 2026. Which solicitation round the 15 projects of November 2026 were selected from cannot be confirmed from this announcement.
| Date | NYSERDA action | Key points on long-duration storage |
|---|---|---|
| Aug. 17, 2023 | About $15M awarded to 4 demonstrations | $12M to Form Energy (iron-air battery, 10 MW/1,000 MWh); $703,965 to UEP (zinc-alkaline battery, 100 kW/1 MWh) |
| May 22, 2025 | Solicitation of more than $5.5M (PON 5984) announced | Covers long-duration storage (10 to 100+ hours) and advanced/next-generation batteries; applications due July 24, 2025 |
| Nov. 6, 2026 | About $13M awarded to 15 projects | Just under $1.5M to UEP, more than $2.4M to Inlyte, and others |
Comparing the 2023 awards by duration, Form Energy's iron-air battery works out to 100 hours (1,000 MWh divided by 10 MW), and UEP's zinc-alkaline battery to 10 hours (1 MWh divided by 100 kW). The 10-to-100-plus-hour range targeted by the 2025 solicitation roughly overlaps with these demonstration projects. The predecessor Renewable Optimization and Energy Storage Innovation Program had, as of May 2025, awarded more than $30 million to over 20 projects covering hydrogen, zinc hybrid batteries, vanadium flow batteries, iron-air batteries, and more. The table above is therefore not a comprehensive account of the state's support for storage technologies.
Large-scale procurement toward the 6 GW goal for 2030, and what comes next for the 15 projects
Of the 3,000 MW of new grid-scale bulk storage New York plans to procure, 950 MW was contracted in the first solicitation, and the remaining roughly 2,050 MW is to be procured in future annual solicitations. The PSC order sets a target of 20% of each round for systems with about 8 hours of duration. The eight projects selected in the first solicitation all use lithium-ion batteries, with durations of 4 to 8 hours. Whether the same composition continues in future solicitations or the adoption of long-duration technologies expands will be worth watching.
For the 15 projects receiving R&D funding now, meanwhile, site locations, demonstration timing, and the solicitation round in which each was selected have not been disclosed. For Inlyte's iron-sodium battery, which received the largest award, the specific site and schedule have not been made public either. When Form Energy's 1,000 MWh demonstration was announced in 2023, its location was also undetermined.
In the announcement, NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said investment in next-generation storage technologies is essential to building a flexible, resilient grid that can draw on diverse energy resources. PSC Chair Rory Christian also said storage becomes more important as renewable energy deployment grows, allowing existing energy resources to be used more efficiently. William Acker, executive director of the state storage industry group NY-BEST, called it an important investment to accelerate the development and commercialization of next-generation storage technologies.
New York's storage policy advances commercial deployment and the nurturing of next-generation technologies in parallel. While the first bulk procurement of 950 MW was entirely lithium-ion, about 66% of this R&D funding, by our classification, went to battery chemistries and storage methods other than lithium, and the largest award was assigned to an iron-sodium battery rated for more than 10 hours. Going forward, the focus will be on how the 20% target for roughly 8-hour systems is reflected in the remaining bulk procurements, and on whether the 15 selected projects can present concrete deployment plans and demonstration results and move toward commercialization.