New York Power Authority to Collaborate with ZOOZ Power, Israel-Based Award Winner, to Advance Electric Vehicle Ultra-Fast Charging Technology
Research and Development Project to Explore EV Charging Solutions to Help Expand Locations for Direct Current Fast Chargers in New York State:
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the winner of the 2022 New York-Israel Smart Energy Innovation Challenge, a competitive award with a value of up to $1 million that enables New York State to partner with an Israeli company to develop an innovative energy technology to help advance the State’s bold clean energy agenda. Specializing in energy storage and power boosting products aimed at enabling ultra-fast EV charging, ZOOZ was awarded for a project to demonstrate the integration of a local power grid with an EV charger coupled with ZOOZ’s power booster, which is an innovative, flywheel-based, kinetic energy storage technology. The technology was selected for its potential positive impact on the EV industry and for expected long-term benefits for New Yorkers.
“Through key strategic partnerships, New York is driving the advancement of cutting-edge clean energy technologies that will have a global impact in the fight against climate change,” Governor Hochul said. “New York’s collaboration with the state of Israel, a hub for innovative, clean energy technologies, will deliver forward-thinking solutions that will strengthen New York’s EV infrastructure. Congratulations to ZOOZ on this award, which will promote the use of electric vehicles, help improve air quality and ensure a better environment for New Yorkers.”
The $1 million competition called for new energy innovators to apply for an award and encouraged New York’s continued collaboration with innovative Israeli energy technology firms on creative energy solutions. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit to fund the competition. NYPA finances its operations—including funding for this award—through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity.
Consul General of Israel in New York Ambassador Asaf Zamir said, “The collaboration between NYPA and ZOOZ is only the latest example of the deep and flourishing friendship between the people of Israel and the State of New York. With this year’s Smart Energy Challenge, NYPA signals loud and clear, not just in Israel but also to the world, that New Yorkers are committed to building cleaner, smarter, and more equitable infrastructure. Today, we are very proud of the ZOOZ team and the challenge winners. We are thankful for the collaboration with NYPA, our friends in Albany, and all our neighbors around the state, who are investing together with Israelis to create a brighter future.”
2022 Challenge Winner – Enabling Ultra-fast EV Charging in Power-constrained Grid Locations
ZOOZ, formerly known as Chakratec, was selected as the 2022 challenge winner through a competition for new utility-related technologies jointly organized with the Israel Smart Energy Association (ISEA) and NYPA. ZOOZ’s proposed kinetic power booster would provide supplemental power to EV fast chargers to enable ultra-fast charging even in locations where the grid is power-constrained. Storing electricity in the form of kinetic energy, the company’s groundbreaking flywheel technology was optimized and adapted to meet the challenging environment and requirements of EV charging infrastructure, providing a sustainable, safe, and robust power boosting solution. With its ability to maintain high-performance through unlimited charge/discharge cycles, ZOOZ’s solution provides high-longevity and minimal total cost of ownership.
New York Power Authority Interim President and CEO Justin E. Driscoll said, “NYPA has multiple successful partnerships with Israeli firms developing innovative, smart technologies that are helping New York achieve its ambitious climate goals. This latest technology developed through our collaboration with ZOOZ will enable New York to install more EV fast chargers at more locations while reducing grid impacts, making it possible for more New Yorkers to adopt cleaner methods of transportation.”
As the winning submission, ZOOZ earns the opportunity to work with NYPA to support New York’s clean energy goals as well as NYPA’s strategic priority to help decarbonize the transportation sector. NYPA and ZOOZ will collaborate on a joint research and development project to deploy energy storage as power boosting technology that would expand viable locations for the installation of EV ultra-fast chargers—helping advance New York’s transition to sustainable methods of transportation.
In early 2020, the Authority together with the ISEA issued the first NYPA-Israel Smart Energy Challenge to solicit start-up technologies from companies headquartered in Israel that support New York’s clean energy transition. The competition sought proposals from Israeli companies with expertise in energy efficiency and clean energy generation that wanted to work with New York’s public utility to scale up their technology in pilot demonstration projects to meet the specific needs of power utilities operations. Prisma Photonics, based in Tel-Aviv, won that competition and is currently working with NYPA on a real-time transmission line issue detection system that will help improve grid safety, security, and reliability. As part of that announcement, in December 2021, Governor Hochul announced this second Smart Energy Innovation Challenge to select another innovative company to help create significant advances in grid reliability, storage, sustainability and affordability, all of which benefit ratepayers, utilities and the environment.
Israel Economic Minister for North America Anat Katz said, “Congratulations to the challenge winners ZOOZ and to NYPA on this year’s outstanding Smart Energy Innovation Challenge,” said . “With the support of NYPA and the local ecosystem, Israeli smart grid innovators have come to know New York communities and institutions as a home for next generation energy and infrastructure solutions. It is with great satisfaction that we had the chance to support another collaboration between NYPA and an Israeli startup—this time on a project that will make e-mobility more accessible and practical across New York. We could not be prouder of the way that NYPA, local leaders and Israeli technology will transform transportation and the grid in the coming years.”
New York Power Authority-Israel Innovation Hub Head Doron Gover said, “NYPA’s collaboration with Israeli’s technology companies yields mutual benefits by introducing new solutions for commercial usage in large-scale electric utilities. The cooperation finances and enables pilot installation of innovative solutions in order to achieve significant advances in grid reliability, storage, sustainability and faster affordable EV charging.”
The NYPA and ZOOZ project also supports New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (the Climate Act), which creates the most aggressive climate change program in the U.S. and pledges a move toward becoming a carbon neutral state economy by 2050. Through its EVolve NY program, NYPA is driving the advancement of New York’s EV infrastructure—implementing fast chargers located along the state’s key travel corridors to reduce range anxiety for EV owners. NYPA is approaching installation of the EVolve NY network’s 100th fast charger.
ZOOZ Power CEO Boaz Weizer said, “We are honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with NYPA on this exciting initiative, to demonstrate the advantage of using our sustainable Flywheel-based Power Booster, to enforce the grid in power-constrained locations and by that to enable and accelerate the roll-out of ultra-fast charging stations, anywhere. This is especially timely as governments continue to strengthen their commitments to EV charging with programs like EVolve NY and the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program at the federal level. We believe that wide deployment of ultra-fast chargers is key to supporting the transition to EVs and we are proud to play a key role in this revolution which is so important to the future of our planet.”
NYPA Senior Director of Research, Technology Development and Innovation Alan Ettlinger said, “ZOOZ’s proposed Power Booster would provide supplemental power to EV fast chargers in grid constrained locations. Additionally, the company’s groundbreaking flywheel technology will store electricity as kinetic energy, enabling peak-shaving and sustainable, reusable charge cycles.”
In other partnerships, NYPA is collaborating with Israeli firms mPrest, Brenmiller Energy, Prisma Photonics, as mentioned, and SIGA OT in a wide variety of areas with an emphasis on physical and cyber security. mPrest, a leading provider of monitoring and control systems, assisted NYPA in developing a first-of-its-kind monitoring system to identify issues before they occur at NYPA’s statewide network of power projects and transmission assets. Brenmiller Energy is coordinating with NYPA to test the use of thermal energy storage with combined heat and power to increase system energy efficiency on a State University of New York campus. SIGA OT provides sensors and analytics right from the source to improve confidence and enhance the reliability, safety and cybersecurity of the grid. The 2021 Challenge winner, Prisma Photonics, is working with NYPA to implement a detection system that will help improve grid safety, security and reliability while advancing the efficient delivery of clean power statewide.
New York State’s Clean Transportation Advances
Governor Hochul has set a goal for all new passenger cars and trucks sold in New York to be zero-emissions by 2035. Additionally, in this year’s State of the State address, Governor Hochul proposed that all school buses be zero emissions by that same year. New York State has an interim goal of reaching 850,000 zero-emission vehicles by 2025.
New York is rapidly advancing these goals through a range of initiatives including EV Make Ready, the EVolve NY fast charging network, the Drive Clean Rebate, the New York Truck Voucher Incentive Program (NYTVIP) and Charge NY. These efforts have contributed to a record increase in the number of electric vehicles sold in New York in 2021, bringing the total number of EVs on the road as of September 2022 to approximately 112,000 and the number of charging stations in the state to more than 10,000.
New charging installations are further supported by the Governor’s “Make Ready” program, which uses funding from investor-owned utilities to reach a goal of deploying more than 50,000 chargers by 2025. Such electrification efforts, in collaboration with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and other state and industry partners, will help the state reach its aggressive clean energy goals as outlined in the Climate Act.
Today New York State hosts more than 1,000 public fast chargers at more than 240 locations. They range in speed from 25kW to 350kW and have varying charging times. More than 600 are Tesla-only chargers.
To learn more about NYPA’s EVolve NY electric vehicle charging infrastructure program, visit this EVolve NY link on NYPA’s website.
New York State’s Nation-Leading Climate Plan
New York State’s nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York’s unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $33 billion in 102 large-scale renewable and transmission projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.6 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting nearly 158,000 jobs in New York’s clean energy sector in 2020, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities, and advance progress towards the state’s 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.
