(UW Photo)
GeekWire, Lisa Stiffler on Sep 3, 2026 –
The University of Washington on Thursday celebrated the opening of a public-access battery manufacturing lab that aims to propel energy innovation.
The new lab — the first of its kind on the West Coast — is housed within the UW’s Clean Energy Testbeds, a site that has helped launch multiple battery startups.
The expanded facility for researchers and entrepreneurs comes as battery demand surges, particularly for large deployments supporting solar energy and grid operations. Over the past three years, U.S. utility-scale battery storage capacity has grown at an average annual rate of about 70%, according to federal data. Other key applications include batteries for defense and transportation.
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