During a visit to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., on Wednesday, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz dedicated the new Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF).
According to the DOE, the new research facility will focus on helping manufacturers, utilities, and public- and private-sector researchers overcome the challenges of integrating clean energy and energy efficiency technologies into the nation's energy infrastructure. The ESIF will tackle generation, transmission, distribution and end-use challenges to advance renewable energy, electric vehicles, energy storage batteries, microgrids and next-generation building technologies.
In addition, the new ESIF data center will house Peregrine, the newest DOE supercomputer. The DOE says Peregrine will further strengthen NREL's modeling and simulation capabilities to support fully integrated energy systems. By pairing this capability with the facility's interactive hardware-in-the-loop system, the DOE says researchers and manufacturers can test their products at full power and real grid load levels.