The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently broke ground 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 enabling 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.
Building a new EMAPS facility
“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 commercialisation, allowing NREL to dig deeper into our current research while also pursuing exciting new avenues.”
“As we continue to modernise the US electrical grid, this new facility will help the nation stay at the forefront of scientific discovery,” said Derek Passarelli, principal deputy undersecretary 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.”
A direct path to production
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 maximise 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 modernisation, 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.