by Katie Liu | Sept. 21, 2026
Founded in 2010, NY-BEST is the nation’s oldest and largest state-based battery coalition
In the initial days after New Energy New York finally kickstarted its journey as a battery coalition and winner of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, John Cerveny, senior director at the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST), got together with a team to take NENY’s story on the road. Their first stop was the Crystal City of Corning, N.Y., famous for its stunning glass creations and longtime manufacturing history.
Despite it being a weekday evening, Cerveny found, to his surprise, that the streets downtown were thriving. Where other downtowns upstate were typically sleepy and worn, at Corning, his team saw that nearly every storefront was lit up and busy with business through the night.
“It drove home for me the value of having manufacturing, and the fact that these jobs are kind of generational wealth for the people who get jobs there. It becomes a really important piece of the fabric of a community,” said Cerveny, who also serves as the program manager of NENY Supply Chain. “To me, every time I can do anything to support manufacturing, it just feels like it’s a worthy cause. It’s a good thing, and helps people have a better outlook on life — and a better life, all around.”
Formed around 16 years ago in 2010, NY-BEST is the oldest and largest state-based battery and energy storage coalition in the U.S. The initiative started through New York state, out of a handful of industry companies and state universities, including Binghamton University. At the time, the energy storage industry was just beginning to take off in recognition, particularly for the future of vehicular transport.
As a response to this spark, NY-BEST formed to continue nurturing this drive and get the developing energy storage ecosystem off the ground. It has been working to bolster New York state as the ideal market for energy storage, improve the existing energy systems powering the region, as well as root new companies into the ecosystem to ensure continued industrial and job growth.
“During the time frame when the investment that created NY-BEST was made, it was uncommon. There weren’t that many people who were seriously looking at batteries as an investable area that they needed to put some kind of leadership in,” Cerveny said. “New York state had that vision, and put the money in to make it happen.”
NY-BEST has also been a NENY coalition partner since its inception, as well as the subsequently awarded National Science Foundation Energy Storage Engine in Upstate New York, similarly led by Binghamton University. It has bloomed as an organization since the days it was staffed by just Cerveny and William Acker, NY-BEST’s executive director.
“Over the past 16 years, the organization has grown from what was originally primarily driving the early research in energy storage, to an organization that’s driving the growth of the ecosystem in the state of New York,” Acker said.
Boosting supply chain and economy
Unlike most other industries, the electricity powering our grid lacks a central warehouse, or storage system. It’s this quirk, according to Acker, which makes energy storage uniquely important and challenging.
“Even industries that you think are almost instantaneous, like sushi or fresh flowers, have storage someplace along the supply chain line. The electricity industry doesn’t,” he said. “Historically, in the electricity industry, you make the electricity at exactly the same time you use it, and you have to deliver it at exactly that same time, which makes the industry very, very inefficient. By having energy storage on the grid, you can make the electricity industry much more efficient and affordable for ratepayers.”
Strengthening New York’s energy storage supply chain is a key tenet of NY-BEST’s efforts, whether working with utilities or reworking policies and regulations for the market. Through NENY, NY-BEST has also created a free database listing more than 400 resources available for early and growth stage companies looking to expand their operations.
“We look at existing manufacturers to identify people who either are already involved in some way or have a process, technology, or capability they should be involved with,” Cerveny said. “There’s a place they fit into the supply chain for batteries and energy storage systems, so that’s one of the foundations of our work. We see who’s already here in the state and what they do, and stitch them together into a network.”
Since the creation of the NENY supply chain database in July 2023, it has amassed nearly 14,000 hits and visits, with more than 2,300 in 2026 alone. Connections have resulted in manufacturing contracts, components reshored to the U.S., and new jobs jumpstarted.
“It’s very much about making in-the-weeds connections with the company that has the need and trying to map it against the resources as we know them,” Cerveny said.
Beyond bolstering the supply chain alone, NY-BEST’s efforts have rippled out into the state’s larger economic footprint. It has engaged companies who have stepped foot into New York state’s ecosystem starting with the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator, run out of downtown Binghamton, while supporting site visits and other pressing company needs in close collaboration.
In 2014, NY-BEST established a new battery testing and prototyping center in Rochester, N.Y. which has since served hundreds of companies for battery cell, module and system performance and safety testing.
“These things all tie together. Part of what’s happened is that it solidified companies’ interest in the New York area,” Acker said. “A great example of a direct impact is that Toyota Raymond Corporation sited their battery development center in the Rochester area, in significant part because of the work that was happening in the region, particularly at our laboratory for energy storage systems.”
In advocacy, NY-BEST has pushed for energy storage as a major and reliable component of New York’s electricity systems, commissioning a study by PowerGEM to validate and model energy storage as a solution to delivering grid reliabilty and stability. The NYS Pavilions at both national and international battery shows have also reached thousands of folks, racking in over 24,000 impressions.
“The power of a coalition is really an important thing. This whole idea of bringing people all around a table to have these conversations, means there’s a lot of information that gets shared,” Cerveny said. “There are a lot of different perspectives trying to solve the same big issue of how we can make and deploy more batteries here.”
From two voices to hundreds
As the energy storage industry continues to boom, NY-BEST is planning on consistently maintaining its supply chain database, deploying more technologies, and attracting more companies to settle in New York state.
“Ultimately, we’d like everyone in the world who’s got a great idea around batteries or energy storage to know that this is the right place to do it,” Cerveny said. “Come here, and we’ll help you. Regardless of where you enter the stream, we’ve got the next step ready for you.”
Having been in the business for more than a decade, Acker has seen the industry transform. Companies have sited spots in New York, and the state’s battery supply chain continues to expand. Knowing his team has played a part in that progress, he said, is one of the most rewarding parts of working at NY-BEST.
“It’s very satisfying to know that you’re actually achieving something, and achieving something for a lot of good,” he said. “That’s certainly what keeps me excited about the job and what we’re all doing together.”
In an ecosystem, every node connects to the next. Likewise, in a coalition, every voice and perspective feeds into the other. Just as New York’s energy storage ecosystem has continued to grow, so has the community supporting it.
“We were a couple of voices in the wilderness when NY-BEST started. To see the level of activity across the board now, and the number of organizations and individuals who are engaged in this space now, makes it feel like we started early enough in this effort to have carved out a space that is valuable in all kinds of ways,” Cerveny said. “The impact on the state economy, electric grid, and all of those things are the result of a sustained focus and effort for a long time.”