The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will begin construction in spring of 2011 on the 175,000-sf Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) in Golden, Colo. The project team includes architectural firm SmithGroup and general contractor JE Dunn. Housing labs and offices for up to 250 researchers and support staff, the $135 million facility will support megawatt-scale testing of all components and strategies for deploying renewable energy and other energy-efficiency technologies into the electric grid. The ESIF will also include a state-of-the-art, high-performance computing and data center that will expand NREL's capabilities in modeling and simulation of renewable energy technologies and their integration into the existing energy infrastructure. The project will be designed and constructed to meet a minimum of LEED Gold sustainable design certification. Completion is expected in late 2012.
