At PNNL, subsurface science inhabits two separate but interlocking worlds. One looks at basic science, the other at applied science and engineering. Both are funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
With the help of a diagnostic tool called the Salish Sea Model, researchers found that toxic contaminant hotspots in the Puget Sound are tied to localized lack of water circulation and cumulative effects from multiple sources.
The Energy Storage System Safety and Reliability Forum at PNNL brought together more than 120 energy storage experts from the U.S. Department of Energy, the national laboratories, utilities, industry and academia.
PNNL researchers and professional staff led discussions ranging from biothreats and climate change to science careers at the 2020 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held this year in Seattle.
PNNL's Sensor Fish were deployed at Ice Harbor Dam to collect data from a new turbine. The data indicates the design changes are making travel through the dam less arduous for fish.
Researchers have identified two processes responsible for fracturing rock at lower pressures for geothermal energy production using PNNL’s fracturing fluid, StimuFrac™.
Advancing a more collective understanding of coastal systems dynamics and evolution is a formidable scientific challenge. PNNL is meeting the challenge head on to inform decisions for the future.
Pumped-storage hydropower offers the most cost-effective storage option for shifting large volumes of energy. A PNNL-led team wrote a report comparing cost and performance factors for 10 storage technologies.
PNNL researchers have created a chemical cocktail that could help electric cars power their way through extreme temperatures where current lithium-ion batteries don’t operate as efficiently as needed.
Energy storage is slowly shifting utility planning practices from the current paradigm, which ensures grid reliability by building reserve generation resources, to ensuring grid reliability by optimizing grid services.
PNNL helped teach the next generation of principal investigators about aerosols—tiny atmospheric particles that can affect the Earth’s climate—during the 2019 Aerosol Summer School.