At the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), NREL offers partners access to
an award-winning, state-of-the-art lab space and specialized scientists and engineers
to help move new technologies forward.
The ESIF's scientific capabilities—researchers, instruments, and facilities—are available
for use by the global research community. See below for a variety of ways to get involved.
Use Our Labs
Through our facility user program, visiting researchers can access the ESIF and its
premier laboratories.
To determine if working with us is the right fit for you, check out the full list
of capabilities the ESIF has to offer.
Calls for Proposals
Visit the open call for user access to learn more about accessing the ESIF as an external organization and for information
on NREL's proposal process.
Partner With Us
The ESIF was designed to be a connection point where industry, academia, and government
can work together on the most complex and important global energy challenges of our
time.
"The wealth of supercomputing resources allows us to simulate complex environments
in a virtual setting and run millions of scenarios to find the best approach to develop.
That way, you save money and make the right investments up front."
— Robert Horton, vice president of Environmental Affairs and Sustainability, Dallas
Fort Worth International Airport
"Utilities cannot afford to build all the equipment and infrastructure needed to test
emerging grid technologies. Using a facility like the ESIF not only makes this research
financially feasible, but the collaboration between partners helps all of us learn."
— Leslie Ponder, technology evaluation manager, Duke Energy
"It's helpful for Xcel to have such a close partner to help us analyze emerging technologies
and understand what types of impacts they cause on our system and how we can better
integrate them."
— Beth Chacon, director of Grid Storage and Emerging Technologies, Xcel Energy
"Bringing people into the same room makes for an incredible dynamic. It enables innovation
to be faster and de-risks technology."
— Igor Stamenkovic, vice president, Eaton
"NREL's unrivaled capabilities gave us the ability to see how our project really worked
before we deployed it in the field. This gave us the confidence we needed to put this
project on our system."
— Bryan Hannegan, CEO, Holy Cross Energy
"By bringing together Xcel Energy, Schneider Electric, and NREL, we were able to prove
out and test the leading-edge challenges that the industry is facing."
—Scott Koehler, vice president of Global Strategy, Schneider Electric
"National labs provide a collaborative environment where industry partners can work
with the utilities to bring up new interoperability standards and advance technologies
and research that otherwise wouldn’t be possible without their existence."
"SAE International is pleased to have gathered EV industry partners at NREL for our
first test event. These projects are joint ventures that perform targeted, precompetitive
research to develop solutions."
—Tim Weisenberger, program manager of Emerging Technologies, SAE International