New York is facing a massive, decades-long project to modernize the state's electrical grid and is looking toward upstate cities to find new, more sustainable ways to modernize the energy networks.

In Buffalo they are building a 1 million-square-foot solar energy factory.

In Rochester there's a $23 million test and commercialization center for batteries.

Here in Albany, there's a crop of battery and energy storage startups and large corporations like General Electric are getting involved.

"Everyone is focusing on a different technology, but it's all interconnected," said Fernando Gomez-Baquero, co-founder of BESS Technologies, during a conference on Wednesday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy, New York. BESS, which grew out of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, develops lithium-ion batteries with more energy storage capacity and faster charging rates. It is one of several energy storage startups in the area.

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Mar 12, 2015, 7:12am EDT Updated: Mar 12, 2015, 7:41am EDT | Chelsea Diana