The U.S. Department of Energy Secretary, Dan Brouillette, recently dedicated Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s newest laboratory – a $75 million Grid Storage Launchpad facility – on August 13th. It is the latest major research facility to be located within the Tri-Cities Research District.

PNNL is a leader in furthering energy storage capabilities for the nation’s electricity grid to rapidly recover from a national security crisis or a natural disaster. Advanced energy storage technologies developed at the new facility are modernizing the nation’s electric utility grid to be more resilient, secure, reliant and flexible, while increasing the efficiency of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

Construction begins late 2021, with the facility scheduled to open in 2023, pursuant to additional funding. The facility will be located near the new $90 million Energy Sciences Capability Laboratory, which started construction in March, boasts 140,000-square-feet of labs and workstations and is expected to be operational by late 2021. The space will house approximately 200 PNNL employees and more than 50 visiting scientists and engineers.