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Newsletters September 11, 2019

No. 436: On Patriots, procurements and busy college presidents (and aliens and cyborgs) 

  New day: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and the midpoint of this late-summer week of socioeconomic innovation. New world: It’s Sept. 11 out there, a date that truly needs no further exposition. Those who lived through it will never forget. Schools and media inform younger generations. And its fallout both strengthens and weakens our nation to this very day. Eighteen years already, unbelievable. New meaning: While Sept. 11 is forever entwined with the 2001…

Sustainability August 20, 2019

Albany plugging $79M into SBU campus efficiency

By GREGORY ZELLER // A variety of state-funded efficiency upgrades – including new lighting, ventilation and operations-management systems – are included in a new Stony Brook University infrastructure-improvement plan. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced a comprehensive $79 million strategy to bring additional energy-efficient improvements to the Long Island jewel of the State University system. Financed and implemented by the New York Power Authority “in partnership with SUNY,” the upgrades target several SBU facilities –…

Clean Energy July 8, 2019

Albany energizes ‘solar-plus-storage’ across LI

By GREGORY ZELLER // State officials are once again supercharging residential and commercial clean-generation energy technologies on Long Island. With Albany having already set parameters for energy-storage technologies – and committed $400 million to advancing said tech – Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this week that an additional $55 million will be made available over the next five years for cutting-edge energy-storage efforts specifically on Long Island, with the first $15 million available now. The funding – essentially,…

Newsletters May 31, 2019

No. 410: Landing the Eagle, energizing the IGIT and fortifying New York’s grid – plus, free Chipotle! 

  Speed dating: Well, that happened fast, dear readers – Friday already, as this abbreviated week of inventions and investments steams toward another welcomed weekend. It’s May 31 out there, and to our Dayak readers in Sarawak, Malaysia and the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, a blessed and bountiful Gawai Dayak. Take a breath: It’s probably a downer in North Carolina, but the rest of the planet celebrates World No Tobacco Day today. Copy that:…

The Debrief May 2, 2019

Debrief: Catell, consortium set to blow the doors off

  Robert Catell isn’t so much “busy” as “hyperactive.” Decades after serving as chairman of KeySpan and National Grid’s U.S. operations, the iconic innovator (last Debriefed by Innovate LI in 2016) remains integrally involved in multiple energy-efficiency efforts. As chairman of the New York Smart Grid Consortium and of Stony Brook University’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, Catell is all in on sustainability, a focus reinforced by his leadership of the National Offshore Wind…

Newsletters April 19, 2019

No. 398: The shadows of Mercy, the lessons of JLABS and an arthritis shocker (plus: garlic breath!)

  Holy cow, what a week: Good Friday morning, dear reader, and a good Good Friday morning to those of the Christian persuasion, and a peaceful Passover, too. Whatever your holiday of choice, the blessed end of another busy workweek is upon us. It’s April 19 out there, and on the subject of special observances, a safe and happy Landing of the 33 Patriots Day to our many readers in Uruguay. Double Dutch: Today is…

Clean Energy April 2, 2019

At offshore consortium, $7M is blowing in the wind

By GREGORY ZELLER // A syndicate of offshore-wind leaders from around the region, the nation and the world is looking to energize the path to sustainability with a hefty funding drive. The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium this week announced the availability of up to $7 million in research-and-development funding, part of its “first comprehensive solicitation for offshore wind-technology projects.” The seven-figure stipend marks “an important step in advancing the long-term strategy for…

Clean Energy March 21, 2019

Island’s first large-scale digester to feed energy needs

By GREGORY ZELLER // If you’ve had a bellyful of landfill waste, hang on – Long Island’s first stand-alone large-scale anaerobic digester is finally on its way. The Long Island Power Authority’s Board of Trustees has approved an energy contract with a new food waste-recycling facility in Yaphank, claiming to be capable of reducing Island-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 85,000 metric tons annually – the equivalent of removing 18,000 cars from regional roads, according to…

Newsletters March 15, 2019

No. 389: Inventing escalators, building a better battery, finding FarmBot – and happy birthday, RBG!

  Stretch run: Welcome to Friday, intrepid reader, and the last leg of another busy workweek. It’s March 15 out there, and you’re already doing better than Julius Caesar, so, that’s a start. Universal translator: Today is World Speech Day, celebrating the power of a good sermon, and the 62nd annual World Contact Day, on which extraterrestrial enthusiasts highlight international efforts to reach out and touch someone. Or something. Et Tu Snow? Caesar, who finally…

Government March 14, 2019

NYSERDA sets parameters for battery energy storage

By GREGORY ZELLER // With next-generation battery energy-storage systems gaining mainstream steam and Gov. Andrew Cuomo hitting the gas on new sustainability options, NYSERDA is officially setting some ground rules. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has announced the release of the Battery Energy Storage System Guidebook, Albany’s first – if not quite definitive – say on how such systems will be permitted to work across the Empire State. The guidebook is…

Newsletters January 25, 2019

No. 375: Co-working, crowdfunding and a ton of patents … plus the origin of the pink lawn flamingo!

  End run: Welcome to the finish line of another bust workweek, dear reader – it’s Friday, the weekend is upon us and you’ve seen the job through, once again. Well done. It’s Jan. 25 out there, and if you had the Abbasid rebels overthrowing the Umayyad Caliphate in the Battle of the Zab 1,269 years ago today, good for you. Collect 200 silver dirhams at the window. That Burns: Tonight marks Burns Night in…

Newsletters December 7, 2018

No. 363: The Master of Innovation prognosticates, Dowling writes it down and DG Sotheby’s techs up (once again)

  Welcome to Friday: You’ve done it, intrepid innovators – the sun sets on another busy workweek and rises on another well-earned weekend. Nicely played. Changeable skies: It’s Dec. 7 out there, a date that will live in infamy, as FDR famously said, and that obviously includes some terrible things done with airplanes. But this date also brings us International Civil Aviation Day, an annual celebration of aviation’s uniquely cooperative history and big-time contributions to…

Clean Energy November 13, 2018

Cold start: With $25M round set, ThermoLift ices test

By GREGORY ZELLER // A Stony Brook-based heat-pump innovator has completed a rigorous round of prototype testing – and, in the process, crushed a series of critical U.S. Department of Energy performance standards. ThermoLift, headquartered at Stony Brook University’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center and a member of the university’s Clean Energy Business Incubator Program, announced Tuesday that it’s wrapped up testing of its innovative, refrigerant-free natural-gas air conditioner and cold-climate heat pump technology…

Newsletters November 9, 2018

No. 356: Blacks in golf, women in Johns Hopkins and advanced aerospace manufacturing in Riverhead – thank you, veterans

Finishing strong: It’s Friday, dear readers – welcome to the end of another busy week of socioeconomic innovation and related delights. It’s Nov. 9 out there, and if you had the Jews aiding the Muslims – as charged by Egica, king of the Visigoths, at the Seventeenth Council of Toledo on this date in 694 AD – nice job. A hundred gold solidus for you. Salute: If today’s the ninth then Sunday’s Nov. 11, when…

Newsletters October 17, 2018

No. 349: Canada’s new high, Sikes’ new heights and LineaRX’s highest hopes (plus, repainting President Trump)

  Middle ground: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and the halfway point of another exciting week of socioeconomic innovation. October 17 is in full swing, marking the 25th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, a U.N. General Assembly effort to address shortages of basic necessities (i.e.: food, clothing, shelter) around the globe and reinforce the notion that poverty and human-rights abuses routinely coexist. Learn more here. Eye of the beholder: On…