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New Battery Prototype Facility Opens Doors to Energize Innovation
By: Kim Horner | June 13, 2025
The University of Texas at Dallas recently unveiled a new facility aimed at accelerating energy storage innovation and addressing supply-chain challenges in battery manufacturing. On April 23, stakeholders, including local, state, and federal officials along with industry partners, toured the 15,000-square-foot Batteries and Energy to Advance Commercialization and National Security (BEACONS) facility.
The BEACONS facility is designed to support the development and commercialization of cutting-edge battery technologies and manufacturing processes, while also training the workforce needed for the energy storage sector. The U.S. Department of Defense contributed a $30 million grant to establish this energy storage systems campus at UT Dallas, which is expected to attract over $200 million in private investment to fulfill the BEACONS mission.
UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson and Dr. David E. Daniel, president emeritus of UT Dallas, were among the distinguished guests at the facility’s opening. Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, vice president for research and innovation and a co-principal investigator of BEACONS, stated, “The opening of the BEACONS battery prototype and commercialization center marks a milestone in The University of Texas at Dallas’ initiative to advance battery technologies and develop the essential workforce to meet industry and national security demands. We look forward to collaborating with industry partners to expedite energy storage innovation.”
The university is working alongside partners such as Associated Universities Inc. and LEAP Manufacturing, which is a consortium of energy storage companies dedicated to developing and producing advanced battery technologies in the U.S. The BEACONS facility features a 3,500-square-foot dry room maintained at below 1% relative humidity (RH) to safeguard moisture-sensitive materials and processes during battery manufacturing.
Additional features of the facility include:
– A solid electrolyte room, a 400-square-foot specialized area for handling and processing solid materials used as electrolytes, kept at below 0.25% RH to protect highly humidity-sensitive materials.
– Multiple flexible production lines designed to enable rapid development and testing of new battery technologies.
– Workspaces dedicated to training and collaboration with industry partners.
Dr. Tom Campbell, co-founder of LEAP Manufacturing and a co-principal investigator for BEACONS, emphasized the facility’s goal of providing hands-on learning experiences for students and facilitating connections between researchers and industry leaders in energy storage technology across various applications. “Today marks not a finish line, but a starting point,” Campbell remarked. “This is about building, making, and competing globally without relying on foreign supply chains.”
Matthew Bergschneider, a materials science and engineering graduate and Eugene McDermott Graduate Fellow at UTD, shared insights about the dry room during the open house.
For media inquiries, please contact Kim Horner at UT Dallas, 972-883-4463, or via email at kim.horner@utdallas.edu. Alternatively, you can reach the Office of Media Relations at UT Dallas at (972) 883-2155 or newscenter@utdallas.edu.
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Original article by NenPower, If reposted, please credit the source: https://nenpower.com/blog/ut-dallas-unveils-new-battery-prototype-facility-to-accelerate-energy-storage-innovation/
