New Energy New York of Binghamton University Awards Over $314K to advance U.S. Battery Technology

BINGHAMTON, N.Y., May 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Binghamton University, Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships -- New Energy New York (NENY), led by Binghamton University in partnership with the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST), is proud to announce the four recipients of the fourth round of the NENY Technical Assistance Program. The program is designed to advance new battery technologies and expand the growing energy storage innovation ecosystem in upstate New York by supporting startups and small businesses in their efforts to de-risk technology, scale and advance manufacturing readiness.

"The NENY Technical Assistance program has been instrumental in helping startups and small-to-medium-sized businesses advance their technology commercialization readiness over four rounds of competitive funding,” says Emily Marino, deputy director for New Energy New York. “This is work that would otherwise have required significant time and fundraising before companies could ever set foot in a lab. By accelerating this process, NENY has been able to help moving critical clean energy technologies to market faster, and we are proud to support New York state labs, vendors, and companies in making that happen."

This program supports qualifying New York state companies by covering costs for testing, prototyping, and certification services provided by approved vendors and facilities, such as the NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Battery Prototyping Center, Eastman Kodak Company, TUV Rheinland of North America, Inc. and Custom Electronics, Inc. With this funding, companies gain access to these resources at a reduced cost, enabling them to accelerate their innovation efforts. Following a rigorous evaluation by the review panel, four companies were selected to receive a total of $314,980 in support, empowering them to utilize essential prototyping, testing, and certification services.

“This program invests in American battery innovation that's growing right here in New York state. Start-ups need this kind of financial support to get their product to market,” said M. Stanley Whittingham, principal investigator of New Energy New York, and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University–who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in the development of lithium-ion batteries. “Our goal is to catapult promising technology forward in order to leapfrog current technologies–we want American battery solutions made by the American workforce.”

Under this program, companies can request funding to offset the costs associated with testing, prototyping, certification, and related services from qualified New York-based providers, including at university centers and for-profit entities. Such services can be cost-prohibitive and even a valley of death to small to medium-sized businesses, hindering the validation and advancement of technological innovations. Getting these innovations to market is crucial for the NENY’s goal to build a sustainable and secure supply chain for the U.S. battery and energy storage industry. Investing in the advancement of New York companies selected for the Technical Assistance Program is an important step towards that collective goal.

William Acker, executive director of NY-BEST, shares, “The deployment of new products and technologies are key to achieving an affordable, improved energy system. With the tremendous network of providers that certify, prototype, and test solutions to advance innovations, New York is a powerful resource for new battery technologies to reach commercialization. The financial support from the NENY Technical Assistance Program goes beyond the word 'innovation'; it invests in technology development in real time while supporting New York businesses."

The Round 4 Technical Assistance awardees are:

• Ranial Systems Inc., a Long Island City, NY clean-tech startup, develops CognitEMS™, a patented edge-AI platform that unifies battery and energy management for distributed energy resources. The supported project will develop a next-generation System-on-Chip EMS/BMS controller powered by Intel Core Ultra 9 AI hardware and validate it through hardware-in-the-loop testing at Alfred University’s Advanced Power Grid Lab, delivering a production-ready controller for grid-scale battery storage, commercial and industrial microgrids, and OEM integrations.
• Graphenix Development Inc. (GDI), headquartered at Eastman Business Park in Rochester, NY, develops 100% silicon anodes and an aqueous cathode coating process that eliminates toxic NMP solvent and PVDF/PFAS binders from lithium-ion battery manufacturing. The supported project will scale GDI’s aqueous cathode coatings at Kodak’s Flex Pilot Coater and the Rochester Institute of Technology Battery Development Center, advancing PFAS-free, cost-competitive electrodes for commercial and defense battery supply chains made in New York.
• PopWheels, Inc., a Brooklyn-based startup that operates the largest e-bike battery swap network in New York City, builds managed networks of UL-certified lithium-ion batteries and fire-suppressant charging cabinets. The supported project will advance the PopWheels Inverter-Adapter System in partnership with RE:Build Manufacturing, enabling street food vendors and other mobile operators to replace gasoline generators with swappable battery power, a zero-emission alternative that leverages existing battery swap infrastructure and supports New York City’s Clean-Powered Carts initiative.
• Viridi Parente Inc., headquartered in Buffalo, NY, designs and manufactures fail-safe lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) for indoor and outdoor installations. Viridi received two Round 4 awards: one to pursue UL 1973 and UL 9540 certification of its new rps50X battery pack and RPS200 BESS through TÜV Rheinland of North America, and a second to advance an FDNY TM-2 Certificate of Approval application for its RPSLinkEX BESS, with hazard mitigation and explosion protection analyses by Energy Storage Response Group (ESRG) and GHD, enabling broader market adoption and high-density New York City deployments.
  
  

New Energy New York (NENY) remains committed to advancing groundbreaking projects and supporting the growth of New York's battery and energy storage enterprises. To learn more about New Energy New York visit neny.org. To receive updates and news in your inbox, subscribe to the NENY newsletter at bit.ly/NENY-news-signup.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Kari Bayait
Marketing Communications Manager
New Energy New York at Binghamton University
kbayait@binghamton.edu | 607-777-6124

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