“Variable power from renewable energy sources and issues around integration with local demand stand in the way of realizing America's next energy equation. ESIF research will work to overcome that.”
Dave Sereno, PE, LEED®AP
AEI Project Manager
Energy Systems Integration Facility Making the grid a two-way street. At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy goes beyond energy simulation and data analysis by using hardware-in-the-loop prototyping to validate solutions in energy and energy efficiency. The new Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) will further the scale-up from the benchtop with an elaborate set of AC and DC buses to advance the integration of renewable energy sources into uniform utility-level power. AEI is planning, designing, and engineering ESIFs primary research area, the 65,000 square foot high-bay lab facility, focusing on: the Research Electrical Distribution Bus that will test technical strategies for uniform conversion and metering to monitor the line and load energy balance; hydrogen research exploring simpler and more scalable energy storage in addition to fuel cell and cell component development; and, the safety- and data integrity-driven Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system that deploys hardware-independent software to govern the array of function-specific control systems and to disseminate real time data to principal investigators collaborating worldwide.
Services: Mechanical, Electrical, Piping/Plumbing, Sustainability, Fire Protection, Technology,
Size: 65,000 sf high-bay laboratory
Location: Golden, CO
Project Partners: JE Dunn Construction Group, Inc. SmithGroup
LEED® Status: LEED® Registered, Pursuing Gold certification   |
