Developers can now test new battery storage technologies at a launchpad facility in Washington state. The idea is to help developers test how their batteries might scale up and be used in the field.
It’s been almost a year and a half since Pacific Northwest National Laboratory first opened its Grid Storage Launchpad. It was hailed as a way to speed up the development of battery storage. Those utility-scale batteries will be needed as things like wind and solar start producing more of the Northwest’s energy.
“Battery storage is going to be really important because it can go everywhere, but these days we have a limit on how long those batteries will last,” said Geri Richmond, the former undersecretary for science and innovation at the U.S. Department of Energy, when the launchpad first opened.
The launchpad can test these batteries in small experiments, but they need to be scaled up.
“All this is focused on: How do we keep the U.S. at the forefront of battery technologies?” said Vince Sprenkle, who directs the Grid Storage Launchpad.
The data from testing large storage batteries should give utilities more information on how these grid-scale battery technologies will fare over a couple of decades, Sprenkle said.
“A lot of utilities do not want to be the first adopter of it. Now, we can give them some hard data on performance of these new systems,” he said.
The launchpad has six large-scale test bays. Right now, the test bays can handle 100-kilowatt battery systems, which are the smallest batteries that can connect to the grid at this time, Sprenkle said.
“In an ideal situation, we’d work with a company as they produce their first larger cell/module below 10 kW/40 kWh range,” Sprenkle said in a news release. “Then they could take that data, build a more mature, larger-scale system, and bring it back to GSL for the next level of testing and validation.”
A lot of these batteries start out the size of a quarter, he said. But they’ll eventually need to be built up to a utility scale. That’s easier to do with more information about how the technology will manage.
“We're able to put it through its paces and simulate and project what the lifetime of that system would be,” he said.
Scientists will test batteries multiple times a day to simulate its entire lifecycle, Sprenkle said. In addition, artificial intelligence will help scientists make longer-term projections about the battery technologies.
The Grid Storage Launchpad is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity.
Companies can privately fund their testing at the launchpad. If they use federal funds, companies have to sign data-sharing agreements.
Right now, the launchpad is able to test lithium-ion, sodium-ion, iron or lead-acid batteries. The launchpad can test how well batteries regulate frequencies, which helps keep the grid stable. It will also test how the batteries handle large spikes or dips in electricity demand.
However, battery technology is changing rapidly, Sprenkle said.
“ We're seeing a lot more interest around AI-enabled data centers. Those are changing the way that batteries would need to operate,” he said.
