Energy storage is increasingly critical to building a resilient electric grid in the United States a trend embodied by the Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL), a newly inaugurated, 93,000-square-foot facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
GSL is a hub for propelling energy storage technologies out of the lab and into the real world: a perfect fit for PNNL, where decades of targeted innovation have positioned the Laboratory as a leader in energy storage research. GSL reinforces and elevates that position, bringing many of PNNL's energy storage research programs under one roof while adding new testing, production, and development capabilities.
Validating and testing more, bigger, and better batteries
Grid batteries face challenging requirements: charging and discharging quickly, operating continuously for long periods of time, enduring constant cycling for years and, of course, holding enough energy to make a difference to today's electric grid.
Validating these properties is crucial when developing experimental grid storage technologies. Previously, PNNL had the ability to test batteries at a 5-10 kW scale about the power provided by a mid-tier electric vehicle (EV) charger or the average power draw of a handful of typical homes.
That capability is increasing by an order of magnitude: GSL has the ability to test and validate much more powerful systems (up to 100 kW) with capacities up to 400 kWh enough to power several homes for days or even weeks. This increase in power and scale, combined with the realistic grid operating conditions used to test these batteries, will help to derisk adoption and acceleration commercialization of grid-scale energy storage.
The smaller-scale testing capability is also getting a boost. Now called the 10 kW Reliability Test Laboratory, the new, 6,000-square-foot space allows researchers to run more concurrent tests at the 10 kW scale than ever before, helping to identify potential issues sooner for more technologies.
