Leaders from across the energy innovation ecosystem come together to explore how early-stage ventures are transforming the way energy is generated, managed, and deployed.
As climate pressures mount, infrastructure ages, and demand for electricity intensifies across sectors, energy transformation becomes both a necessity and a major opportunity. Startups—often small in size but bold in ambition—are stepping into this moment with technologies that challenge traditional assumptions about how energy is generated, managed, and delivered.
At New York Energy Week 2025, a panel of industry and innovation leaders comes together to explore how startups are helping to reshape the energy system. The session, “How Startups Are Reshaping the Energy System,” brings together David Hamilton, who leads energy innovation efforts at Stony Brook University; Eric Davis, who manages research and development at Con Edison; Udi Daon, CEO of Daanaa, a Vancouver-based power electronics startup; and Dr. Fang Luo, a power electronics professor at Stony Brook and founder of CurrentEdg. Drawing from their different perspectives in academia, utilities, and entrepreneurship, they discuss the new technologies and partnerships that are helping build a more flexible, reliable, and forward-looking energy system.
Moderated by Megha Mehdiratta, Senior Innovation Associate at the New York Climate Exchange, the discussion offers a practical look at how collaboration across startups, universities, utilities, and public institutions is driving meaningful progress in the energy transition. It’s a conversation grounded not just in new technologies, but in the relationships and shared goals needed to bring those innovations to life.
Connecting Research, Commercialization, and Impact
Megha Mehdiratta opens the conversation by emphasizing that today’s grid faces challenges it was never designed to handle. Climate extremes, distributed energy integration, and mass electrification demand a new approach. Startups, she notes, bring agility and new ideas—but scaling them requires collaboration with public institutions, utilities, and the broader market.
David Hamilton, Senior Center Director for Energy Innovation at Stony Brook University, explains how the university plays a pivotal role in bridging basic research and market deployment. With hubs like the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center and the Center for Integrated Electric Energy Systems, Stony Brook serves as a conduit between the lab and the field. Through strategic partnerships, applied research, and incubator programs, Hamilton and his team support early-stage companies in refining and validating their technologies while keeping economic impact and job creation front of mind.
Utilities as Platforms for Scalable Innovation
Eric Davis, Section Manager in the R&D Innovation Department at Con Edison, shares how the utility company actively scouts and supports early-stage technologies. While utilities are traditionally viewed as risk-averse, Davis explains that they recognize the urgency of modernization and the value of innovation—especially when it is rigorously tested and ready for implementation.
Davis’s team funds and facilitates demonstration projects that match startup solutions to real operational needs. This de-risking process is essential in the energy sector, where reliability is non-negotiable. By supporting validation pilots, Con Edison helps bring promising innovations into live environments—while ensuring safety, compatibility, and scalability. Davis underscores that although the utility moves deliberately, it remains highly motivated to adopt technologies that improve affordability, resilience, and sustainability.
Startups as Energy Translators and Accelerators
Representing the entrepreneurial perspective, Udi Daon, CEO of Daanaa, introduces a technology that addresses one of the most persistent inefficiencies in energy systems: power conversion. Daanaa’s real-time, programmable single-stage chip eliminates the need for traditional multi-stage power conversions, integrating seamlessly across different battery chemistries, grid voltages, and system architectures.
Daon describes this innovation as a “universal energy translator,” offering substantial efficiency gains at the point of generation, storage, and use. But technical excellence alone isn’t enough. He stresses the importance of validation—proving not only that the solution works, but that it is wanted by the market. To bridge this gap, Daon advocates for early engagement with customers, utilities, and integrators. He frames startup growth as a constant process of external learning: identifying real pain points, finding the right partners, and designing for deployment, not just discovery.
Turning Research into Real-World Solutions
Dr. Fang Luo, Professor of Power Electronics at Stony Brook and CEO of spinout CurrentEdg, shares how his lab is focused on building the modular infrastructure required for a flexible and resilient grid. His team works on power conversion, high-voltage packaging, and grid-to-chip architectures. CurrentEdg’s building-block approach—standardized, configurable power converters that act like “Lego pieces”—simplifies grid integration and paves the way for scalable deployment of D/C systems, storage, and renewables.
Luo speaks to a pressing challenge: the lack of accessible and affordable testing infrastructure. Without standardized environments for certification, many startups struggle to bridge the gap between prototype and product. He also highlights the need for a new model of engineering education—one that equips the next generation with interdisciplinary fluency and commercialization skills. His dual role as academic and entrepreneur allows him to translate foundational research into tangible innovation—while mentoring students who will carry the work forward.
Facing the Realities of Commercialization
The panel dives deeper into what startups need to succeed. Hamilton outlines three main challenges: funding, bandwidth, and strategic clarity. Startups must do everything at once—develop the product, validate the use case, raise capital, and build a business. Universities, he suggests, can play a quiet but powerful role in supporting this work—whether through collaborative research, technical support, or structured planning that helps founders define priorities.
Davis adds that startups entering the utility space must understand its unique constraints. Unlike consumer technology markets, utilities operate systems that can’t afford untested change. That means startup teams must be efficient, patient, and prepared to build trust over time. Demonstration projects are just one step—they also serve as a chance to refine the business model and understand how the solution fits into broader system needs.
Daon emphasizes the value of early feedback and external engagement. Startups may believe they know their customer, but often the most effective path to market involves intermediaries—partners who already have supply chain access and trust. He encourages entrepreneurs to get out of the lab, talk to stakeholders, and be open to pivoting based on what they learn.
Strengthening the Foundation for Innovation
Throughout the conversation, the panelists return to a common theme: successful energy transformation depends on shared infrastructure. Luo underscores the need for dedicated testbeds where startups can trial high-voltage, high-power systems without disrupting live operations. Mehdiratta highlights the New York Climate Exchange’s plans to provide just such a proving ground on Governors Island—bringing together academics, entrepreneurs, and policymakers in a single location designed for testing and scaling.
Panelists agree that innovation requires more than invention. It needs partnerships, access, education, and a commitment to seeing new ideas through the long road to implementation.
A Blueprint for a Collaborative Energy Future
As the panel wraps up, each speaker reinforces the same point in their own way: no single entity can lead the energy transition alone. Hamilton points to the strength of New York’s ecosystem, where universities, startups, and utilities collaborate to move ideas forward. Davis urges innovators to be thoughtful and focused, to understand how their solution fits into a broader system. Daon encourages founders to stay optimistic—and to act. Luo calls for investments in people, platforms, and pathways that can bring great ideas into everyday use.
The energy system of tomorrow is not built on a single breakthrough. It is built on the accumulated momentum of hundreds of coordinated efforts—across technologies, sectors, and institutions. Sessions like this one at New York Energy Week 2025 show that momentum is building—and that real transformation is already underway.
