08.13.24

Cantwell Celebrates Opening of Cutting-Edge PNNL Battery Storage Facility

Sen. Cantwell has directed $75 million in federal funds towards the new facility since fiscal year 2019

RICHLAND, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) joined local leaders to celebrate the dedication of the new Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The GSL will help accelerate the R&D pipeline of grid-scale energy storage technologies and identify solutions to make America’s power grid more resilient and secure while boosting the deployment of clean energy.

“Grid storage allows more wind and solar to be integrated into the grid,” said Sen. Cantwell. “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. 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.”

Sen. Cantwell continued: “Statewide, Washington employs almost 80,000 people working in clean energy and grid storage. [In] Moses Lake, Group 14 and Sila are building large manufacturing plants that will provide hundreds of good paying jobs -- but guess what they're counting on. They're counting on cheap, reliable, clean energy that grid storage will provide.”

The new Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL) will serve as a collaborative setting for national laboratories, universities, and industry to boost innovation and deployment of grid-scale energy storage technologies to help meet the nation’s decarbonization goals and make our energy system more resilient, reliable, and secure. GSL brings together all stages of the battery development cycle, from fundamental materials and device prototyping to 100-kW-scale testing and validation into a uniquely integrated facility.

According to the Clean Energy Transition Institute, Washington state employs nearly 80,000 people in clean energy-related jobs, and grid storage is a growing part of that workforce. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates there were already more than 70,000 battery storage-related jobs nationwide in 2022.

Scientists at PNNL are generating world-class research with important applications.  As Jud Virden, PNNL’s Associate Laboratory Director for the Energy and Environment Directorate, noted, PNNL’s experts are among the top 1% of highly-cited scientists in the world, have over 188 patents in process, and have developed 24 technologies licensed to U.S. industry and going out to the market. 

Sen. Cantwell has consistently advocated for PNNL’s energy storage R&D efforts and has supported federal appropriations for the new Grid Storage Launchpad, totaling $75 million since the 2019 fiscal year. During Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s confirmation hearing, Cantwell secured a commitment from Granholm to prioritize funding for the Grid Storage Launchpad. She has also promoted the Launchpad and PNNL’s capabilities with numerous other top Energy Department officials over the past few years including former-DOE Secretary Dan Brouillette, former-DOE Undersecretary Paul Dabbar, and Director of the Grid Deployment Office Maria Robinson.

Sen. Cantwell also authored much of the relevant legislation authorizing the R&D that will likely occur at the new facility, including the Grid Modernization Act of 2019, which authorized over $2.2 billion to fund R&D and programs at DOE aimed at modernizing our nation’s electricity grid.

When the Department of Energy approved the construction of the Grid Storage Launchpad facility in 2021, Cantwell applauded the announcement. In April 2022, Sen. Cantwell attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the new facility in Richland.

Video of today’s dedication ceremony is available HERE, audio HERE, photos HERE, and a transcript of Sen. Cantwell’s remarks is available HERE.

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