Testing Large-Scale Energy-Storage Systems: Novel Safety Evaluations Can Be Run in a Spacious, New Indoor Chamber Available in Japan

The National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE) launched the National Laboratory for Advanced Energy Storage Technologies (NLAB) in April 2016 in Osaka, Japan. NLAB has a large chamber to test containers up to 53 ft in length under controlled thermal and wind velocity conditions. This chamber is the first such indoor facility in the world. Based on the results obtained from a number of tests, NLAB has remarkable advantages for evaluating the safety requirements of large-scale megawatt-class battery energy-storage systems (BESs). Figure 1 provides a glimpse of the entrance hallway of this test facility, and Figures 2 and 3 show overall views of the Osaka complex.