President Biden has unveiled the 21 winners of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Funded by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan and administered by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), the regional economic development competition provides each award winner funding to rebuild regional economies, promote inclusive and equitable recovery, and create thousands of good-paying jobs in industries of the future such as clean energy, next-generation manufacturing and biotechnology.
New Energy New York, a coalition led by the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, will receive approximately $63.7 million to accelerate innovation in battery technology and to transform New York’s Southern Tier into a global hub of energy storage manufacturing. The EDA funding will leverage the investment and impact of the launch of New York’s first lithium-ion gigafactory in Endicott. SUNY Binghamton’s research strengths by building a lithium-based battery development manufacturing facility, the Battery-NY Center, which will provide testing, certification and scale-up capacity for new products and companies.
Complementary project leads will work with existing manufacturers to establish them as eligible suppliers for energy products, expand workforce training programs and engage community organizations.
Awardees span 24 states and will receive between $25 million and $65 million to execute transformational projects and revitalize local industries. Projects include developing workforce training programs and connecting workers to jobs; providing support to family-owned manufacturers to transition from traditional automotives to electric vehicles; establishing a digital finance sector to support small businesses in Tribal communities; providing digital resources to small farms; renovating and repurposing industrial buildings for new businesses; rebuilding pharmaceutical supply chains in the U.S. to lower drug costs; building advanced manufacturing centers for testing and training; deploying solar energy on former coal land; and more. Additionally, private sector companies and local organizations are investing an additional $300 million in these local projects.
