There’s growing concern about the nation’s ability to meet future energy demands, driven in part by the AI boom and advances in clean tech. A new research center in Eastern Washington hopes to provide some help.
The Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL) at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) opened Tuesday as state officials joined scientists in celebrating the new $75 million facility.
The center, based in Richland, Wash., aims to bring together researchers and industry partners to develop grid-scale energy storage technologies for all stages of the battery development cycle.
State-of-the-art batteries are crucial to storing energy harnessed from the sun, or serving as backups during power outages.
Over the next decade, experts say electricity needs in the Pacific Northwest could spike 30%.
The fast adoption of AI and its energy-hungry compute needs are part of that surge in demand, but it’s not the only factor. There’s the electrification of transportation, home heating and cooling, and industrial processes, as well as growth in high-tech manufacturing.
Climate change is also stoking more extreme weather events such as heat waves that increase power demand.
Sen. Maria Cantwell joined PNNL Director Steve Ashby and other Department of Energy officials at a formal dedication event Tuesday at the facility, which is funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity.
“Grid storage allows more wind and solar to be integrated into the grid. And the Northwest’s reliability to provide that clean source of energy will be, as it has been in the past, one of the big drivers of the Washington economy,” Cantwell said at the event. “In part, we have been able to lead in aviation, manufacturing, information technology, agriculture, and now data centers — all because we know how to provide cheap, affordable electricity and we want to keep doing it.”
PNNL, which employs more than 6,000 people and has a $1.5 billion budget, announced earlier this year that it partnered with Microsoft to use AI and high-performance computing to discover a way to reduce the lithium content in batteries by as much as 70%. The project is part of a three-year collaboration between Microsoft and PNNL to use AI and cloud computing in the quest for clean energy solutions.
Previously: Projected 30% spike in electricity demand in 10 years supercharges energy summit in Seattle
Editor’s note: Comments from Cantwell were added to this story.