Funding aims to replace diesel generators with aluminum-air tech in New York

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Israeli firm Phinergy are collaborating on a project that aims to catalyze replacing diesel generators at commercial and industrial facilities across the US.

The partners were awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to demonstrate a clean alternative to emergency generators based on Phinergy’s aluminum-air technology.

NYPA and Phinergy will work on a joint research and development project to demonstrate a hybridized Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) combining high power, low-capacity battery storage and high-capacity, long standby aluminum-air energy.

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Phinergy will provide the technical expertise in developing, manufacturing and preparing a product for integration at the demonstration site. NYPA will provide technical input, contract third party engineering and construction services to engineer, install and demonstrate the aluminum-air technology.

The project will be Phinergy’s first reference site in the US to showcase its core technology. A demonstration site has not yet been selected but is expected to be a university, commercial or industrial setting in New York.  

The demonstration is one of five Israel-US clean energy projects recently selected to receive $7.5 million under the BIRD Energy programme focusing on innovations in hydrogen, green ammonia, energy storage and recycling of PVC waste.

BIRD Energy was launched in 2009 under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to foster collaborative research and development projects between the US and Israel.

Originally published by Kevin Clark on power-eng.com