Energy Storage Project Boosts Efficiency, Provides Savings, Reduces Emissions

An innovative thermal energy storage system in use at a New York state university campus is an example of the long-term energy vision for the college, and a blueprint for other institutions.

Commercial and industrial enterprises increasingly find the need to make their energy systems more efficient and resilient. It’s a particular problem for sites with aging infrastructure, such as a college campus. Modernizing energy equipment can optimize energy use, and help avoid disruptions to campus activities while also supporting sustainability.

With that in mind, the New York Power Authority collaborated with Brenmiller Energy to connect a bGen ZERO thermal energy storage (TES) unit to a combined heat and power (CHP) system at the State University of New York (SUNY) Purchase campus. The new system meets nearly 100% of the campus’ Physical Education building’s heating needs, and about 50% of its electricity, while also significantly enhancing energy efficiency and driving a reduction in carbon emissions.

The campus gymnasium previously relied on an older, inefficient district heating loop connected to a central plant. The age of the system resulted in significant losses in energy, and increased operational costs for essential functions like space and pool heating. Officials with SUNY-Purchase said the Physical Education building was ideal for the project, as the location also has been used as a shelter during major storms.

“The project addresses a common challenge for institutional facilities—aging centralized heating systems that are expensive and inefficient to maintain,” said Doron Brenmiller, co-founder and chief business officer for Israel-headquartered Brenmiller Energy. “By replacing the outdated district heating loop with a decentralized, flexible thermal energy storage system, SUNY is able to modernize its infrastructure in a cost-effective and sustainable way. Also, by charging the TES unit during low-demand periods [typically at night] and discharging stored heat during peak times, the system avoids purchasing expensive grid electricity when rates are highest. This lowers operational costs and eases stress on the grid, which is especially valuable in New York’s dense energy markets.”

Brenmiller’s bGen ZERO unit, which is integrated with a turbine for electricity generation, captures exhaust heat from the turbine when operating and stores it in crushed rocks for immediate or later use. The unit also uses internal heaters to turn electricity into heat to meet peak demand, and provides on-demand heat dispatch, in this case supporting the gymnasium’s overall efficiency while reducing energy costs and the campus’ carbon footprint.

The Brenmiller team told POWER that the bGen unit “effectively addresses the building’s varied energy demands throughout the day by directly transferring heat from the turbine to the building during peak demand; during low demand, it stores heat coming from the exhaust for later use. This flexibility, coupled with the resistive heaters, optimizes heating costs, particularly during peak cold weather periods when the building’s thermal needs exceed the CHP system’s generated exhaust heat. This project serves as a successful proof-of-concept for TES technology in demanding power plant environments, paving the way for widespread adoption.”

1. Workers support the manufacturing of a bGen unit at Brenmiller’s gigafactory in Israel. Courtesy: Brenmiller Energy

Brenmiller told POWER the SUNY-Purchase installation was the first use of the bGen ZERO technology (Figure 1) in the U.S. The project represented a total investment of $2.5 million, and was funded in part by a $1 million grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, often referred to as the BIRD Foundation.

The Brenmiller bGen ZERO technology in 2023 was named by TIME magazine as one of that year’s 200 best inventions. It also this year received a Gold, or first place, designation in the Energy Storage and Management category from the Edison Awards. Now, the technology, as part of the SUNY-Purchase project, is being honored with POWER’s 2025 Commercial & Industrial Generation Award.

Advancing Energy Goals

The SUNY-Purchase project was originally announced in 2017, with construction starting in 2021. It came online in 2023. The college said the installation “serves as a demonstration project to further innovative, cost-effective energy projects, which will advance the state’s energy goals,” adding that “the project provides operational economic and environmental savings.” It is also being integrated into the classroom, not only for the campus community, but also for external stakeholders interested in the project.

Brenmiller said there were several reasons for the extended project timeline, which was “mostly due to delays around COVID. Local project aspects also took time; for example, we had to go through several rounds of bids for contractors. This was also our first project installed overseas—there was a significant learning curve, but it played a big role in shaping our U.S. operations.”

The microturbine for the project was provided by Capstone Turbine Corp., now part of Capstone Green Energy. “RSP Systems also worked on the project,” said Brenmiller. RSP is a New York-based provider of thermal energy solutions, and a distributor of Capstone microturbines. “In 2024, RSP signed an MOU [memorandum of understanding] to boost bGen sales in the U.S. Later that year, RSP created Rock Energy Storage, a privately held company based in New York, focused on bGen distribution, installation, and servicing throughout the Northeast.”

Brenmiller said the “bGen is like a giant battery that captures, stores, and releases thermal energy. It charges by capturing low-cost electricity from the grid or renewables during off-peak times and heats it to temperatures of up to 600C/1,200F using internal resistive heaters. The electricity is stored in crushed rocks for up to days and is later dispatched as steam, hot water, or hot air upon demand. To maximize savings and ensure 24/7 operational reliability.” He added that the bGen platform “offers industry-leading fast-charging capabilities to capture ultra-low electricity rates or provide flexibility to the grid.” Brenmiller estimates that by using exhaust gas and electricity from an onsite CHP microturbine, the SUNY bGen TES will eliminate close to 550 metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually by lowering power and natural gas pollution output.

Other Projects

The bGen TES technology has been used in other projects, including a power plant in Italy, a manufacturing plant in Brazil, and sites in the company’s home country of Israel. As with the project at SUNY-Purchase, they demonstrate cost savings for energy production along with reductions in GHG emissions.

“Brenmiller’s bGen at Enel’s Santa Barbara power plant [in Italy] is up and running,” said Brenmiller, referring to a 390-MW power station near the Tuscan town of Arezzo (POWER wrote about that project in 2022). Brenmiller noted that a “flagship commercial project for Tempo Beverages [in Israel] is currently being assembled onsite and is expected to be completed later this year.” He said the company is also developing projects for Wolfson Hospital in Israel and Partner in Pet Food in Hungary, one of Europe’s largest private label pet food manufacturers. Most recently, Brenmiller and its European partners received €25 million ($28.7 million) from the European Hydrogen Bank to develop green methanol in Spain.

Brenmiller said the Fortlev project in Brazil is slightly different from others. “This system charges using biomass,” he said, “whereas, the projects in Brenmiller’s pipeline today all call for electricity to heat.” Fortlev is the largest producer of water storage solutions in Brazil. The original 1-MWh bGen unit inaugurated at that factory in August 2022 enables Fortlev to use renewable biomass rather than natural gas to heat the air it uses to make plastic water tanks with rotational molding machines. Substituting biomass for natural gas allows Fortlev to lower the fuel costs associated with heating this air by more than 75%.

Tempo Beverages is Heineken’s largest producer and distributor in Israel. The company is replacing its heavy fuel oil fossil fuel boilers with a 32-MWh bGen. Brenmiller said the system is projected to save Tempo approximately $7.5 million in energy costs over a 15-year period, translating to about $500,000 in annual savings.

The $3.55 million project at Wolfson Hospital in Isreal is projected to save the facility up to $1.3 million annually by replacing outdated diesel boilers with the bGen ZERO technology. The transition also is expected to reduce the hospital’s carbon emissions by approximately 3,900 tons per year.

Brenmiller Europe, a recently formed joint venture including Brenmiller Energy, Viridi, and Green Enesys, will own and operate the 30-MWh bGen system at Partner in Pet Food’s (PPF’s) factory near Dombovar, Hungary. Brenmiller said that under a 12-year Haas (hardware-as-a-service) agreement, “Brenmiller Europe will supply low-carbon steam to PPF, aiming to reduce the company’s gas consumption by 25% to 30% and support its goal of cutting carbon emissions by 42% by 2030.”

Brenmiller Europe late last year also was chosen to lead a clean energy project being developed by Recursos de la Biomasa (REBI) in Spain. REBI specializes in the decarbonization of residential and industrial heat. The project will have many of the attributes of the SUNY-Purchase installation.

“The deployment at SUNY’s Physical Education building demonstrates that TES has the potential to effectively decarbonize large-scale facilities with complex heating requirements,” said Brenmiller. “By managing varied thermal demands—from space heating to pool temperature maintenance—and integrating with existing infrastructure, this project should provide a replicable blueprint for other institutions seeking to reduce heating costs and emissions.”

—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.