Publication date: 20-December-2003 
Source: The Business Review

To become a reality, New Energy New York--the consortium of local companies developing alternative energy technology--needs $100 million.

Haldar, director of Albany NanoTech's Energy and Environmental Technology Application Center, known as E2TAC, unveiled the proposed project during the Dec. 15 press conference celebrating the one-year anniversary of NENY.
  
E2TAC works with more than 20 companies and focuses on the development of energy technology.
        
The announcement came one year after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced the formation of NENY, calling the Capital Region a hotbed for alternative energy innovation. Since the formation of the group, its members have met several times to brainstorm on projects.
        
NENY will now increase its marketing efforts to "show the nation we are the world leader" in the development of new energy technology, Schumer said. "We have the goods. The next step is growth and promotion."
        
As part of that effort, NENY has landed $50,000 in federal funds and has a Web site -- www.neny.org.
        
"Last year, when we announced the creation of New Energy New York, we identified the need for the United States to move away from foreign energy dependence as a major long-term goal," Schumer said. "Well, in just the last five months, the largest and most expensive blackout in American history showed us that addressing our energy needs is even more urgent than many people thought."
        
Schumer said the Aug. 14 blackout proved the need for NENY's mission. The blackout, he said, cost $6 billion in lost business, emergency response and power grid restoration. He said routine power disturbances cost the U.S. economy $100 billion a year.
        
To achieve reliable and sustainable energy, "we must look for new technology solutions everywhere along the power grid--from production to transmission. New Energy New York will do that by getting its members who are known for energy production, transmission, and reliability to work together to address these needs cooperatively," Schumer said.
        
He called the Albany NanoTech site a "pulsing center for new job creation."
        
The microgrid plan is an outgrowth of a project Haldar announced last year that would have created a $20 million Alternative Energy Test Farm. The test farm project would have tested fuel cells, microturbines, solar cells and energy storage.
        
"We're looking at adding to that," Haldar said.
        
The microgrid project would tie the various technologies together. In that initiative, called the Energy Security Through Alternative Power at Every Level, companies will work to develop a demonstration project in which member companies can integrate their technology and test them on a small model grid.
       
For example, a Plug Power fuel cell could be hooked up to a SuperPower superconductive wire that is connected to an energy storage system.
       
Roger Saillant, president and CEO of Plug Power likes the project. "I feel very good to be able to work on such a problem," he said.
        
Albert Benson, DOE project manager in the Boston office, called the project "a novel approach." "I like what I heard today," he said. "I'm impressed. Benson said the DOE would work with NENY to find projects that the DOE would fund. "We're already interested in what you folks are doing," he said.