News Release: NREL Breaks Ground on New Facility To Accelerate Lab-Scale Innovations for Scale-Up and Industry Adoption

Sept. 16, 2024 | Contact media relations

Nine people with shovels and hard hats toss dirt into a pile. — The ceremonial groundbreaking of NREL's Energy Materials and Processing at Scale (EMAPS) facility included, from left, JE Dunn Construction Vice President Mike Tilbury; Institutional Planning & Development Executive Director and EMAPS lead Dave Mooney; Facilities and Operations Associate Laboratory Director Dan Beckley; Deputy Laboratory Director and Chief Operating Officer Julie Baker; Laboratory Director and Alliance President Martin Keller; EMAPS Federal Project Director Amy Read; U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Derek Passarelli; DOE Golden Field Office Acting Director Marlys Kinsey; and DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeff Marootian. *Photo by Agata Bogucka, NREL*

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) broke ground today on its new Energy Materials and Processing at Scale (EMAPS) facility on the east side of its South Table Mountain Campus in Golden, Colorado. The 127,000-square-foot laboratory will be a signature facility that will enable collaboration with industry partners, universities, and other DOE laboratories to accelerate laboratory-scale innovations in energy materials to market-ready products and processes.

JE Dunn Construction was selected with its design partner SmithGroup to design and build the new research facility that will be completed in 2027.

“We are excited to be on our way to building our new EMAPS facility,” said NREL Director Martin Keller. “The new capabilities we will gain from EMAPS will accelerate innovations in materials and processes that are essential to clean energy technologies, from lab-scale discovery to scale-up for commercialization, allowing NREL to dig deeper into our current research while also pursuing exciting new avenues.”

“As we continue to modernize the U.S. electrical grid, this new facility will help the nation stay at the forefront of scientific discovery,” said Derek Passarelli, principal deputy under secretary for Science and Technology at DOE. “Researchers will be equipped to develop hybrid technologies, such as in biopolymers, fuels, batteries, and manufacturing processes, that will strengthen our circular economy.”

“The groundbreaking of the new EMAPS facility marks a significant milestone in our ongoing partnership with NREL,” said JE Dunn Project Director Charlie Slattery. “It represents the culmination of extensive collaboration and hard work from a dedicated team of stakeholders to make such a complex and innovative project a reality."

EMAPS will create a direct path from bench-scale materials and process innovations to pilot-scale integration and production. The laboratory design will facilitate a multidisciplinary approach to materials research and development by providing opportunities for engineers, scientists, and industry partners to work together in shared laboratory facilities to greatly accelerate process scale-up and market adoption of the advanced energy materials needed for a clean energy transition. It will serve to maximize collaboration, facilitate cross-functional innovation, and accelerate discoveries to market-relevant technology solutions. The building’s research capabilities and applications will enable materials and process innovations in energy storage, advanced manufacturing, technologies for grid modernization, sustainable chemicals, and fuels for transportation and industrial applications. The facility will also address end-of-life and circularity challenges across multiple energy technology platforms with a focus on polymers, packaging, and waste streams during and after production. The total budget for the EMAPS project is $224 million.

"America’s ability to transition to renewable energy depends on a secure and sustainable supply chain,” said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “With scientists, engineers, and other partners working together in a collaborative environment, the EMAPS facility will transform how the U.S. scales up the materials and processes needed to achieve our national clean energy goals."

The incorporation of advanced sustainability strategies and innovative energy efficiency approaches are critical project factors. EMAPS is intended to achieve a minimum of LEED Gold certification with a sustainable, high-performance design, in addition to advanced energy efficiency approaches such as reclaimed gray water, building heat reclaim technologies, and the use of electricity in lieu of natural gas to support campus decarbonization efforts.

The building is being designed to have modern, open, and flexible spaces that accommodate rapid experiment configuration and encourage collaboration among researchers. The general principle is to provide laboratory capabilities in a single facility that allow researchers and engineers to collaborate in a multidisciplinary setting.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC.