Italian entrepreneurs who migrated to Stony Brook University's energy incubator to form an innovative-battery startup are planning to take on the Powerwall of Elon Musk's Tesla Inc. Their Stony Brook company, StorEn Technologies, is adapting vanadium-flow batteries -- typically the size of shipping containers and found in utility or industrial settings -- for light commercial or household use.

StorEn's battery units, about the size of a large, cylindrical vending machine, could be used as a backup in case of a power outage. Chief executive Carlo Brovero said the entrepreneurs joined the Clean Energy Business Incubator Program at Stony Brook in 2016 after considering Northeast incubators from Boston to New York City. They founded StorEn the following year.