New York on Thursday announced $16.6 million in funding for long-duration energy storage projects that tie into renewable energy and said it is accepting proposals for $17 million in additional grants for similar projects.

The $16.6 million is divided among five recipients, but most of it will go to Constellation’s Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station on the shore of Lake Ontario, north of Syracuse. The plant will receive $12.5 million to demonstrate nuclear-hydrogen fueled peak power generation paired with a long-duration hydrogen energy storage unit.

The other recipients are:

• Borrego Solar Systems, $2.7 million to develop, design and construct two standalone energy storage systems and perform field demonstrations of a six-hour zinc hybrid cathode energy storage system in New York City to help demonstrate that zinc hybrid technology is economically competitive with lithium-ion.
• JC Solutions, dba RCAM Technologies, $1.2 million to develop a 3D concrete printed marine pumped hydroelectric storage system that integrates directly with offshore wind development in support of grid resilience and reduced reliance on fossil fuel plants to meet periods of peak electric demand.
• Power to Hydrogen, $100,000 to develop a reversible fuel cell system for hydrogen production and energy and to help facilitate the system’s readiness for demonstration and commercial adoption.
• ROCCERA, $100,000 to evaluate and demonstrate a novel commercially viable solid oxide electrolyzer cell prototype for clean hydrogen production together with a corresponding scalable, more efficient manufacturing process.

Nine Mile Point is a two-reactor facility that can produce up to 1.907 GW of power. In 2021, it received a U.S. Dept. of Energy grant toward demonstration of integrated production, storage and usage on site.

That project, in partnership with Nel Hydrogen, Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, set out to generate an economical supply of hydrogen for potential use in the marketplace as a carbon-free fuel.

Hydrogen is a natural byproduct of nuclear energy, and a hydrogen storage system was already in place on site. A proton exchange membrane electrolyzer was installed as part of the project.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the $16.6 million in funding Thursday at the 2022 Advanced Energy Conference in New York City. She also announced $17 million in competitive funding available for projects that advance development and demonstration of scalable technologies for long-duration energy storage — at least 10 hours’ duration at rated power.

Proposals will be accepted through Oct. 17 and must include only technologies that have not yet been commercialized.

Submissions should advance, develop or field-test hydrogen, electric, chemical, mechanical or thermal-electric storage technologies that will address cost, performance, siting and renewable integration challenges, such as grid congestion, hosting capacity constraints and lithium-ion siting in New York City.

The two pools of grant money come from the Renewable Optimization and Energy Storage Innovation Program administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

To date, the program has boosted 356 projects with more than $225 million in funding, resulting in $956 million in additional investments and 46 commercialized products, the Hochul administration said.