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INTRODUCTION
NYSERDA, in its role of establishing and advancing the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology consortium, NY-BEST, is issuing a request for concept papers and for input on how NY-BEST can provide value to your organization. The information gathered through the concept papers will be used to identify areas of synergy and strength for NY-BEST for the purposes of developing a strategic research direction for NY-BEST and guiding the development of a near-term full request for research proposals, and helping attract federal funding. Information on how NY-BEST can provide value will help establish the direction and priorities of NY-BEST.
Governor David A. Paterson launched the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (known as NY-BEST) to implement a key goal identified in his State of the State address and help to position New York as the global leader in energy storage technology. Under the guidance of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), NY-BEST will capitalize on the State’s technical and industrial capabilities and help bring together scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to advance New York’s energy storage technology industries. NY-BEST was initiated with $25M of seed funding from New York’s Clean Air Interstate Rules (CAIR). It is envisioned that a significant portion of this funding will be used to fund research and development projects in the area of energy storage, with an anticipated focus on electrochemical technologies.
NY-BEST CONSORTIUM GOALS
There are three overarching goals for the NY-BEST Consortium. The first is to accelerate the commercial introduction of energy storage technology in New York State. The second is to build the human capital and expertise to sustain a vibrant commercial energy storage industry in New York State. And the third is to leverage the $25 million of seed resources provided by New York State to create a long-term, self-sustaining consortium to support this industry in New York State. These goals can be achieved in part by leveraging New York State funding to win research funding from the federal government and industry.
A key objective of the NY-BEST Consortium is to create, develop, and demonstrate innovations in battery and energy storage technology that will enable industries based in the State of New York to be global leaders in the manufacture of battery and energy storage products.
NY-BEST NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED VIA CONCEPT PAPERS
The NY-BEST Working Groups recommended that NYSERDA issue a Request for Concept Papers in order to gather information on the research needs and strengths of NY-BEST collaborators. The information provided in these concept papers will: 1) Provide the basis for developing a near-term NY-BEST vision and a longer-term NY-BEST roadmap; 2) assist NYSERDA in developing a scope and goals for a near-term NY-BEST research project solicitation; and 3) identify strengths to help position NY-BEST strategically to attract funding from near-term federal programs. These concept papers will be shared with NY-BEST working group members involved with developing the near-term NY-BEST vision and longer-term NY-BEST strategic research plan, and with working group members involved in preparing submissions for federal funding that would benefit NY-BEST; they will not be shared with the NY-BEST general membership.
It is very important that organizations submit concept papers so that we can ensure that NY-BEST activities are strategically focused on building on New York’s strengths and meeting New York’s needs.
SCOPE OF CONCEPT PAPERS
We are requesting interested parties in industry, university, and government to submit short, non-proprietary descriptions of technology strengths and research and development needs in the area of energy storage technologies. The initial scope of the concept paper request is very broad so as not to restrict promising areas before gathering information. Concept papers can target any link of the energy storage value chain from basic materials, through components, cells, or modules, to control systems and integrated systems. They can address early-stage technology through product development to improving commercial products. Papers could also target tools and equipment used to develop or manufacture these products or technologies needed to address life-cycle issues (i.e. safe disposal or recycling). Concept papers should focus on New York-based activities that will help meet the goals stated above.
Although the details are yet to be finalized, it is envisioned that NY-BEST will fund research projects in two major categories: 1) a small number of industry-led joint development projects that would focus on commercialization within five years and could have a multi-million dollar investment; and 2) a larger number of smaller ‘seed’ projects that would facilitate university-industry collaboration, each funded at a dollar amount in the range of $100K to $500K. Concept papers will help determine the details of these programs
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Technologies identified in concept papers can address a variety of ultimate applications, including:
- Energy storage systems for Hybrid Electric Vehicles, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, and Battery Electric Vehicles for all classes of land vehicles: light duty cars and trucks, medium and heavy trucks, buses, military vehicles, off-highway vehicles, locomotives and passenger rail.
- Stationary energy storage systems for uninterrupted power supply, renewable firming, load-shift, and ancillary services for the power grid. This area ranges from small distributed energy storage systems to substation-level, scalable storage modules of several megawatts in power output.
- Other energy storage systems with the exception of the following areas: fuel cells, energy storage applications that require unique geology or geography (i.e. pumped-storage hydro or compressed air energy storage).
FORMAT OF CONCEPT PAPERS
Maximum 2-3 pages.
- Title
- Submitter: Organization(s) and principal investigator(s).
- Problem Statement: Provide one sentence that identifies the problem that this technology will address.
- Existing state of research & development (existing strengths): Briefly (1/2 page max) describe the product or technology and its current state of development. Describe the basis, expertise, and talents that support the future success of the product or technology. This will be used to help identify existing capabilities and strengths of NY BEST participants.
- Next Steps in Development: Briefly (1/2 page max) describe new product or technology concepts or improvements that would be developed and that could benefit from collaborative development. Identify whether it is a transformational technology (i.e. technology that disrupts the status quo and has the potential to change the way we address challenges in science and engineering), or an incremental improvement to a technology. Note that a need for both transformational and incremental improvement projects is anticipated. Identify the anticipated state of technology development after these next development steps are completed (i.e. feasibility demonstrated, bench-scale demonstrated, pilot-scale demonstrated, etc.) This will be used to help identify the research funding needs of NY-BEST collaborators.
- Value Proposition: Briefly (3-4 sentences) identify what problem this technology will solve and why this solution is valuable. Describe how it would change or improve the status quo. Briefly (1-2 sentences), describe in generic terms who the customer is for this product or technology (i.e. who would be the purchaser of this product or technology: component manufacturer, cell manufacturer, system integrator, end-user etc.)
- Submitter Qualifications: Very briefly (2-3 sentences), identify the expertise (i.e. ‘x’ years as a polymer chemist, or ‘y’ years in hybrid design development) and type of organization of the submitter or each member of the submitting team (i.e. small company, university, large company.)
- Collaboration Potential: Collaboration is an important element of NY-BEST and often improves the outcome of research and development efforts. Briefly (3-4 sentences) describe the potential for collaboration in developing the technology or product and identify potential collaboration partners (by name, by type of organization, and/or by skillset)
- Next Steps Effort: Provide some indication of the level of effort required for the next development steps (total dollars and # person-years) and time-frame (# months or years).
NY-BEST VALUE PROPOSITION: INPUT ON HOW NY-BEST CAN PROVIDE VALUE
Whether or not you submit a concept paper, we are looking for input on how NY-BEST can provide value to your organization. Whether it’s research funding, access to testing facilities, increased collaboration potential, access to talented employment candidates, easier access to related information, or something else, we are interested in your input. Please send a short description of what benefit NY-BEST can provide your organization and include your name, e-mail and organization. If necessary, break the values into ‘primary’ (i.e. values that are most important to you) and ‘secondary’. Input on how NY-BEST can provide value can be submitted with concept papers or separately, based on the submission instructions below.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE, SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS, AND QUESTIONS
Concept papers and input on how NY-BEST can provide value should be submitted electronically to NY-BEST@NYSERDA.org.
The due date for submissions is July 15, 2009. Although participation in this Request for Concept Papers is highly encouraged it is not a requisite to respond to a later NY-BEST solicitation.
Questions regarding this Request for Concept Papers may be directed to Jennifer Harvey at jlh@nyserda.org or 518-862-1090 ext. 3264. |
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