New Use Energy receives contract award from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to Develop Battle-Ready Portable Power

Veteran-led portable power company brings 4+ years of frontline field experience to a program intended to field cost-effective, stealthy power for the U.S. Army

PHOENIX, AZ, UNITED STATES, September 1, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — New Use Energy Solutions, Inc. (NUE), a veteran-led portable power company, today announced an agreement with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the U.S. Department of War (formerly the U.S. Department of Defense) organization that accelerates the military’s adoption of commercial technology. NUE will develop battle-ready portable energy nodes for the U.S. Army. The program is intended to bring rugged, cost-conscious power to soldiers operating in remote and contested environments.

NUE is uniquely positioned among U.S. companies as it draws on more than four years of continuous field experience supporting military operations in Ukraine. The company began powering some of the earliest drone teams in the conflict in 2022, well before small, unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) were widely adopted and has since supported more than 100 frontline units. That experience is central to how NUE approaches the DIU program: to deliver the most capable node that makes sense from a cost perspective, purpose-built for the way modern units operate.

“NUE isn’t a traditional company in this space, and that’s exactly why DIU is the right partner for us,” said Paul Shmotolokha, CEO of New Use Energy Solutions, Inc. “We understand today’s battlefield in a way few U.S. companies in our space do. Our troops are going to need to stay hidden, both their visual and their thermal signatures, operate more dispersed, and power hundreds more devices in remote and austere locations. We have to be able to scrounge power from a wide variety of sources, not just what the Army is used to in legacy power systems. That’s why we’re pairing power with low-signature thermal management technology developed in Ukraine: because the next fight could look far less like the last two decades and far more like the high-intensity, sensor-saturated environments we see today.”

NUE argues that legacy power sources are increasingly a liability forward of the line. “A conventional generator is loud, hot, and easy to detect and on a modern battlefield, that makes it an easy target,” Shmotolokha said. “They’re still needed to recharge batteries, but they keep getting pushed farther and farther back from the zero line. Soldiers need power they can carry forward, run quietly, charge quickly in a variety of ways and keep out of sight.”
Under the agreement, NUE will use proven soldier friendly form factors designed to be highly mobile, quick to deploy, easy to use, quiet, and difficult to detect. Because power at the tactical edge is inherently attritable, the program is oriented around solutions that could be produced affordably and at scale, an approach NUE says aligns with its current products and DIU’s emphasis on cost-effective, commercially derived capability.

NUE also expects the effort to strengthen a domestic supply base for components in a category where U.S. production has largely moved overseas. “This program could create real jobs over time and support American component manufacturers in areas where we’ve ceded almost the entire market,” Shmotolokha said. “DIU has been a genuinely forward-thinking partner. They listen to small companies that understand the battlefield, and they understand that attritable products can’t cost top dollar. As a veteran and a former U.S. Army officer, I wish we’d had an organization like this when I served. Working with them has energized our whole team, and we look forward to delivering great new American products at a great price for the American taxpayer.”

About New Use Energy Solutions, Inc.
New Use Energy Solutions, Inc. (NUE) is a veteran-led company that designs ruggedized, portable power systems for military, tactical, and expeditionary use, including its SunCase™ line of field-proven power stations and its low-signature thermal and solar technologies. Built on real-world field experience, NUE engineers power solutions for soldiers operating in dispersed, remote, and contested environments. NUE is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more at www.newuseenergy.com.

Brian Jensen
New Use Energy Solutions
+1 4802296480
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