The U.S. Department of Energy is looking to supercharge research, development and deployment of advanced and long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies with the Aug. 13 ribbon cutting at the Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL) ― a high-tech lab and testing facility ― at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Wash.

The 93,000-square-foot facility includes 30 “specialty” labs where a team of about 100 researchers will use “artificial intelligence to discover new energy storage materials and [test] their performance on the grid using digital twins, smart data models based on physics and high-speed experimentation,” according to the GSL website.

For example, one of the labs will have “pilot-scale prototyping equipment” that will allow researchers to quickly design, produce and test prototypes of emerging storage technologies, while another lab will simulate real-life grid conditions to test the performance of new batteries, first up to 10 kW and then up to 100 kW.

Estimated cost for the GSL is $75 million, with $35 million of the total coming from Washington state, PNNL and Battelle, a science R&D firm that operates the lab for DOE.

Kevin Schneider, a lab fellow and manager for DOE, said having all the research and testing facilities in one building will help accelerate the development of new battery technologies.

“Right now, we have many of these capabilities spread across the [PNNL] campus; so, you complete work in one area, it has to be transported somewhere else. … It takes time and effort,” Schneider said during a phone interview with NetZero Insider. “In the new facility, it’s been laid out in such a way that there are three research corridors, starting with basic chemistry and working its way [to testing], so that there are workflows within the building that allow us to move from one lab to the next very quickly. Those types of structures allow for a surprising kind of increased productivity.”

Schneider also pointed to the lab’s six testing bays, which will test new storage chemistries up to 100 kW, a level specifically requested by industry partners, who told the lab if a technology works at 100 kW, they can begin commercialization.

“So, there’s no need for us to be able to test 1 MW or 10 MW,” Schneider said. “It’s very large and expensive. If it proves out at 100 kW, then they’re ready for deployments.”

The GSL is the only national lab facility with this level of storage testing capability, he said.

Speaking at the ribbon cutting, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) also stressed the importance of the industry partnerships that will be built at the new facility.

“If we want to make the next generation of batteries, we need the energy storage advancements that are here, with the brightest minds at PNNL … just really working together and discovering new and more efficient materials that are faster, cheaper by going from computing, modeling to prototyping to testing and under realistic grid conditions,” Cantwell said.

“This facility will help ensure the advancements in energy storage really do translate to the private sector, creating new innovative battery products as well as dependable manufacturing jobs,” she said.

Geri Richmond, DOE under secretary for science and innovation, spoke of the impact of storage she’s seen while visiting remote tribal communities in Alaska.

“In this job, I’ve had the opportunity to go to places that have been underserved for way too long,” Richmond said. “Having access to storage … allows those tribes in Alaska to not just burn that [fossil] fuel 24/7, that stinks up the town, and it’s loud. I’ve seen what a difference it makes to have storage capacity there. There is so much for us to do and to reach, again, every possible community that we can.”

The facility also will provide technical training for a range of stakeholders, from workers and utility planners to regulators, as well as safety training for first responders.

Cheap, Abundant ‘Local Dirt’

The GSL is a critical part of DOE’s efforts to accelerate the development of new energy storage technologies at commercial scale and at a competitive cost.

The industry’s reliance on lithium-ion batteries has become a political flashpoint due to China’s dominance in the processing of lithium and manufacture of battery cells. The goal for GSL is to develop technologies that use “local dirt,” that is, cheap and abundant materials that come from local sources, Schneider said.

For the United States to achieve its goal of a net-zero economy by 2050, DOE estimates the country will need between 225 GW and 460 GW of LDES, defined as storage with anywhere from 10 hours to more than 160 hours of duration.

Developing these technologies will require more than $330 billion in private investments, while saving $10 billion to $20 billion per year in operating costs and avoided capital spending.

The Energy Storage Grand Challenge was announced in December 2020, with the goal of developing domestic supply chains and manufacturing that could provide all the storage technologies needed to meet U.S. market demand by 2030.

The department launched its Long Duration Storage Shot in 2021, with the goal of reducing the cost of LDES by 90% within a decade. As part of the initiative, DOE awarded $15 million in April to three projects aimed at overcoming technical barriers to the commercialization of long duration storage, such as testing the use of zinc for battery electrodes.

Deployment of grid-scale storage is spreading. As the amount of renewable solar and wind on the grid continues to grow, storage has become vital for time-shifting that intermittent power, storing electricity from mid-day hours, when excess is generated, to be used in the late afternoons and evenings when extra power is needed.

In the past four years, California has deployed 9,000 MW of storage, which has helped CAISO manage extreme heat and high demand, CEO Elliot Mainzer said at a recent online forum sponsored by USEA. (See Demand Growth and Extreme Weather: The Grid’s New Normal.)

Similarly, solar and storage provide ERCOT with the flexible capacity it needs to ride through the late afternoon drop-off of solar energy, CEO Pablo Vegas said at the forum. “This may be the last year that we have real significant risk at solar sunset,” he said. “If we continue to see that trajectory by 2025 into 2026, we could see the summer risk period significantly mitigated because batteries are picking up some of the transition solar ramps as we see the wind come on in the evening.”

But echoing speakers at the GSL ribbon cutting, Schneider said, accelerating the development of new storage technologies remains a high priority. It took decades to develop the lithium-ion batteries powering today’s electric vehicles and grid-scale storage, he said.

“We don’t have another 30 years for the next chemistry to come out,” he said. “We need to be able to do what took 30 years in the next five to 10.”