Key facts
- US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) launched a new prismatic battery cell production line.
- The facility is part of the Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL) research facility in Richland, Washington.
- This is reportedly the first prismatic battery cell production line at a US national laboratory.
- The line will enable manufacturing, testing, and validation of advanced battery designs at an industrially relevant scale.
- The facility will produce and evaluate sodium-ion and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistries in prismatic cells.
The US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has launched a new prismatic battery cell production line at its Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL) facility in Richland, Washington. This 93,000-square-foot research facility, featuring 16 pieces of equipment within a 1,400-square-foot laboratory, is reportedly the first prismatic battery cell production line at a US national laboratory. The new line is designed to allow researchers and industry partners to create, test, and demonstrate prismatic battery cells at an industrially relevant scale, bridging the gap between scientific discovery and commercial production. Prismatic cells, which are rectangular and larger than cylindrical cells, offer higher energy density and better heat transfer, contributing to improved safety and lower costs for grid-scale energy storage. The facility operates in a specialized dry laboratory to maintain low humidity, crucial for sensitive battery components. The team plans to produce and evaluate two promising chemistries, sodium-ion and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), in prismatic cells to demonstrate the capability and facilitate a smoother transition of advanced battery concepts to market. This initiative aims to accelerate the development of safer and more cost-effective energy storage technologies for the electric grid.