NY Governor Cuomo Announces Launch of $2.5 Million Competition Seeking Israeli Companies to Collaborate on New Clean Energy Technologies

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Via New York State Governor’s Office:

New York Power Authority–Israel Smart Energy Challenge Winners to Bring Solutions to Scale through Demonstration Projects with New York State’s Public Utility

Research Collaborations Strengthen International Ties, Support Governor’s Efforts to Combat Climate Change and Achieve Aggressive Clean Energy Goals

Submit Proposals Here

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the launch of the New York Power Authority–Israel Smart Energy Challenge, a $2.5 million competition to attract Israeli companies with expertise in energy efficiency and clean energy generation to submit proposals to collaborate with New York’s public utility on new clean energy technologies. The Governor is opening the challenge seeking Israeli companies that will advance power grid reliability, storage, sustainability and affordability, all of which benefit ratepayers, utilities and the environment.

The competition builds on the Governor’s 2019 trip to Israel when he announced several economic partnerships and supports New York’s nation-leading commitment to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and growing the clean energy economy.

“We have sent a message to the world that New York is open for business and based on our strong history of collaboration with innovative Israeli companies, this new competition will further diversify and grow our economy,” Governor Cuomo said.  “Israeli companies are developing new technologies with the potential to take us into the next generation of resilient, renewable and affordable energy systems, and we look forward to building the new partnerships that will get us there, together.”

To launch the NYPA–Israel Smart Energy Challenge, the Authority is working with the Israel Smart Energy Association. NYPA and ISEA will promote the competition among innovative Israeli firms that support next-generation electric vehicle technologies, electric grid reliability, energy storage and demand flexibility technologies. Several innovative companies will be identified and given the opportunity to work with NYPA, the largest state public utility in the U.S., to scale up their technology in pilot demonstration projects to meet the specific needs of power utilities operations.

The plan furthers the Governor’s commitment to collaborate with Israel on economic development by tapping into its wealth of innovative firms with high-tech expertise, and advances New York’s Green New Deal, a nation-leading clean energy and jobs agenda that will aggressively put New York State on a path to economy-wide carbon neutrality.

“We are working to ensure New York maintains a strong relationship with Israel, and the launch of this competition will further advance our shared economic progress,” Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said. “This collaboration will continue to build on our aggressive clean energy goals and further encourage us to work together to help combat climate change. The NYPA–Israel Smart Energy Challenge will foster innovative ideas to grow key segments of our economy, ensuring an even brighter future for the people of New York and Israel.”

The competition will focus on research areas centered around meeting digital utility challenges such as electric vehicle charging, distributed energy solutions, grid modernization, energy storage, microgrids, cybersecurity, blockchain and energy trading, buildings/campus energy management, data analytics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and use of drones/autonomous robots in power systems.

Proposals will be evaluated based on their potential to save money, improve safety or operations, reduce maintenance, improve efficiency or save manpower or time. The solutions need to be viable, replicable and able to be commercialized.

NYPA president and CEO Gil C. Quinones said, “The New York Power Authority has learned a great deal from its collaborations with Israeli firms and this association with the Israel Smart Energy Association will surely lead to future innovations that will potentially positively impact the utility sector for generations. NYPA welcomes the opportunity to give entrepreneurs the chance to test and scale their solutions in a real-world utility environment in order to achieve mutual clean energy goals and economic benefits.”

Head of NYPA–Israel Innovation Hub Doron Gover said, “NYPA’s collaboration with Israeli’s technology companies will yield mutual benefit by introducing new solutions for commercial usage in large scale electric utilities. The challenge will finance and enable pilot installation of innovative solutions in order to achieve significant advances in grid reliability, storage, sustainability and affordability.”

This new competition is an addition to an ongoing series of relationships with Israeli businesses to advance technology pilots in support of NYPA’s efforts to become a fully digital utility. mPrest, an Israeli provider of monitoring and control systems, developed a first-of-its-kind transmission monitoring system.  After proof of concept and success with this system at NYPA’s Niagara Power Plant and other facilities, the systems are now being replicated at other power systems all over the world. In another association, Israeli developer Brenmiller Energy is coordinating with NYPA to test the use of thermal energy storage with combined heat and power to increase system energy efficiency on a State University of New York campus.

The New York–Israel Innovation Challenge is modelled after the NYPA Innovation Challenge announced earlier this year by the Governor that recently announced a selected winner.

Interested companies may apply and submit their proposals to the NYPA/Israel Smart Energy Challenge online. The deadline for submissions is April 20. A pre-bid conference for parties interested in applying to the Challenge is scheduled for Monday, March 16, 2020 from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at: Ha-Umanim Street 12, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Register on Eventbrite or meetup.

New York State’s Green New Deal

Governor Cuomo’s Green New Deal is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, putting the state on a path to being entirely carbon-neutral across all sectors of the economy and establishing a goal to achieve a zero-carbon emissions electricity sector by 2040, faster than any other state. It builds on New York’s unprecedented ramp-up of clean energy including a $2.9 billion investment in 46 large-scale renewable projects across the state, the creation of more than 150,000 jobs in New York’s clean energy sector, a commitment to develop nearly 1,700 megawatts of offshore wind by 2024, and 1,700 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2012.

The recently passed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act mandates the Green New Deal’s nation-leading clean energy targets: nine gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035, six gigawatts of distributed solar by 2025, and three gigawatts of energy storage by 2030, while calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy. The CLCPA also directs New York State agencies and authorities to collaborate with stakeholders to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and aim to invest 40 percent of clean energy and energy efficiency program resources to benefit disadvantaged communities.