Offshore Wind
PNNL’s offshore wind research benefits from the expertise of researchers across the laboratory’s wind energy capabilities.
Hydropower and the Electric Grid
PNNL provides analytical tools to manage hydropower costs effectively and efficiently in real time.
Chemical Energy Storage
PNNL is working on storing energy in chemical forms to support the country's electric grid.
Distributed Wind
PNNL’s research, data, and analysis help interested parties, policymakers, and industry understand issues unique to distributed wind in the United States.
Smart Advanced Manufacturing
PNNL—with a rich, successful history of materials research and development—is delving deeper into the world of materials manufacturing. Solid Phase Processing, or SPP, is an emerging approach to producing a wide range of metal and multi-material products that has the potential to decrease the energy intensity of manufacturing and deliver higher-performing components, all at a lower cost.
Science Supporting Energy Storage
PNNL seeks a fundamental understanding of how energy storage materials work under real operating conditions as the foundation for the discovery and development of next-generation energy storage systems.
Marine Energy Innovation
PNNL researchers at PNNL-Sequim are researching how to advance the blue economy and mitigate environmental impacts.
Future Computing Technologies
At PNNL, future computing technologies encompass fundamental computer science research areas across the hardware and software stack, impacting the future of high-performance computing, edge and distributed computing, and emerging computing paradigms such as quantum, analog, and neuromorphic computing.
Grid Architecture
Grid architecture is a connected body of work that has found ever-increasing use in the electric utility industry, not just in the United States, but worldwide. For example, the Electric Power Research Institute has adopted the PNNL grid architecture approach as the basis for its utility modernization road maps. PNNL's approach is utilized by electric utilities and utility regulatory commissions and boards in dozens of states, with uptake in other countries worldwide. Grid Architecture helps stakeholders understand the issues of grid modernization from a structural standpoint and provides principles and reference models that they can adopt and then adapt to their unique circumstances.
Earth & Coastal Sciences
The Earth system—including the atmosphere above us, aquifers far beneath our feet, and everything in between—is incredibly complex and constantly evolving. Understanding this dynamic system, and how it interacts with human activities, is critical for projecting future water availability, the resilience of our energy systems, and how ecosystems might respond to multiple stresses.