9/30/2012 10:10:09 PM

Times Union: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO?

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Times Union

BESS Technologies

Albany, NY - It was more than two years ago that a group of graduate students at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering won the Tech Valley Business Plan Competition.

The students' newly launched company, BESS Technologies (as in Battery Energy Storage Systems), had a promising innovation using silicon nanostructures to boost the storage power of lithium-ion batteries.

With such a massive potential market and government focus on energy conservation and clean-tech advances, the future looked bright for BESS.

Because of its victory in the business plan competition, it was already attracting interest from investment firms and had joined iClean, a business incubator program at the NanoCollege that was created by the school and NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Now, the company, led by CEO Fernando Gomez-Baquero, has struck a licensing deal with the NanoCollege. The agreement, which allows the company to take technology developed in the school's labs to market, will help accelerate its commercialization plan and allow it to continue using the NanoCollege's research and manufacturing facilities.

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