New $75M Eastern WA lab will fast track next-gen battery storage research

A one-of-a-kind laboratory opened in the Tri-Cities on Tuesday, bringing together some of the world’s most respected researchers to work toward a speedy solution to large-scale energy storage issues.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was picked in a Department of Energy competition for a nationwide center, the Grid Storage Launchpad, for advancing storing energy in batteries at the electrical grid scale.

“We need to create a new understanding of battery materials that enables the U.S. supply chain to produce low cost, high performance, safe batteries for grid and transportation applications faster than we have ever done it before,” said Jud Virden, associate laboratory director for the PNNL Energy and Environment Directorate.

Tuesday, federal, state and Tri-Cities officials gathered for a ribbon-cutting for the $75 million Grid Storage Launchpad on PNNL’s north Richland campus, as researchers, some ranked as the most highly cited in the world, lined the balcony of the new facility to listen to congratulatory remarks.

The 93,000-square-foot building will bring under one roof the analysis and development of new materials and continue the development of the technology through testing at the 100-kilowatt scale under realistic grid cycles.

Transforming the energy storage industry is the key to modernizing the U.S. electrical grid, said Geri Richmond, DOE under secretary for science and innovation.

Integrating clean energy on grid

“We know wind and solar may be the cheapest forms of electricity, (but) it’s not always windy and sunny, ” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. , as she stood in front of the new building.

Long-term battery storage can help better integrate that electricity into the grid and help clean sources of energy continue to be a driver of the Washington state economy, she said.

Advances in grid-scale battery storage also should help advance other battery technology, like those for electric cars, said PNNL officials.

Now, battery systems work well and can be cost effective to store energy until electricity is needed two to four hours later, said Vincent Sprenkle, director of the Grid Storage Launchpad, in an interview.

But the new PNNL facility will work to develop battery systems using new materials that can efficiently and cost effectively get electricity users through a week-long outage when renewables are not producing.

Ideally, systems could be developed that can provide seasonal storage, such as from the spring in the Pacific Northwest, when water flows for hydropower are high and strong winds are spinning turbines, to allow electricity to be used when demand is high in August.

Most likely that will not be done with technology used today, Sprenkle said.

The Grid Storage Launchpad will provide new approaches to discover materials, including using physics-informed data models. Specialized facilities will insulate materials from sound and vibration, allowing researchers to better understand the fundamental material properties of storage technologies.

Advanced technology will allow engineers to quickly design and build advanced prototype batteries for testing, reducing the cost and risk of new approaches.

Specialized chambers will be used to test and validate new energy storage technologies up to the 100 killowatt scale under realistic electric grid conditions, preparing industry and utilities to make decisions on investing in the technologies.

“It gets us through the development process faster and that’s really the goal of this building as designed — to accelerate every step of that development process so these technologies can be deployed in a more reasonable time,” Sprenkle said.

Lithium ion technology provides the example of what DOE wants to avoid.

Speed is battery research goal

The technology now used for electric vehicle, laptop and cell phone batteries was developed in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. But lithium ion technology was not used commercially until 1991 and not used for electric vehicles until 2008.

The nation cannot afford a similar 30- to 40-year development window with the next generation battery storage technology, Sprenkle said.

The center will bring together scientists and engineers from PNNL, other DOE laboratories and industries and also will play a role in educating the future workforce, said Steven Ashby, PNNL director.

Hundreds of interns and post-doctoral researchers will begin their careers at the Grid Storage Launchpad, he said.

The center also is expected to offer courses in demand by industry, utilities and local governments, bringing technicians, first responders, grid operators and others to the Tri-Cities for safety training or to learn the basics of grid storage.

Having the research into new battery technology done in the Tri-Cities could benefit the regional economy, as new battery storage industries could locate nearby to get continuing support from the Grid Storage Launchpad, Sprenkle said.

The Washington state Legislature saw the economic opportunities of the new research facility and provided $8.3 million, thanks to the efforts of Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, and former Sen. Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick.

In Washington state, almost 80,000 people work in clean energy related jobs, Cantwell said.

Grid storage is a growing part of that workforce, her staff said, with DOE estimating that nationwide 70,000 people were employed in battery storage jobs in 2022.