JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. (WBNG) — New Energy New York, or NENY kicked off its first-ever “battery week” on Monday at the Oakdale Commons.
With electric vehicle test drives, manufacturing forums, and other community engagement events, Deputy Director Emily Marino hopes to educate the public on the rising local industry.
“We want people to know what Binghamton University has been doing with New Energy New York over the past few years,” Marino said. “We want people to know how they can engage in this up-and-coming battery storage ecosystem that we’re building in the Southern Tier.”
After NENY received a grant from the Economic Development Administration, the organization, in partnership with Binghamton University, has been focused on building out the Southern Tier’s battery prowess.
Marino said since then, they’ve trained thousands of workers and brought forward significant investments to local startups.
“It means a lot to the University that they’ve been able to build out the science and technology around batteries, but it means more for the community in that fact that we’ve been able to add jobs and add investment in communities,” Marino said. “So that we can have a more robust economy around this new and upcoming battery storage sector.”
To kick off the week, the Binghamton University Small Business Development Center brought in new electric vehicles from Lucid in New York City for attendees to test drive for free.
“There’s no charge, you just kind of sign in and you get to drive around in a spectacular electric vehicle,” said Business Advisor at the University Robin Alpaugh. “Toyota makes a great Prius, Tesla has some great stuff out there, this is just another option of something to look at.”
Marino said beginning the festivities with events like this helps draw people in for the rest of the week.
“When we talk about batteries, people think ‘oh that’s the thing I put in my video game systems or my flashlight or maybe runs my phone,’” Marino said. “But people can really see the high-level impacts with EV cars.”
If you want to test drive one of the cars, they’ll be at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator on Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 4 to 6:30 p.m.
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