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The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory selected JE Dunn Construction to design and build a new $224 million research facility on the east side of its South Table Mountain campus in Golden, Colo., according to a statement of press
According to NREL, the Kansas City, Mo.-based general contractor expects to begin construction in late 2024. The design of the 127,000-square-foot facility will feature modern, open and flexible spaces, and will accommodate to rapid experiment setup and collaboration between researchers. JE Dunn expects the facility to achieve a minimum of LEED Gold certification with a high-performance, sustainable design.
According to the release, the contractor, along with its design partner SmithGroup, a Detroit-based architecture and planning firm, will design the space to allow for reconfiguration and flexibility as new ideas and needs arise. In other words, the design of the facility will help different types of experts, such as engineers, scientists and industry partners, to work together in the same laboratory.
This teamwork will make it much faster to manufacture advanced materials for clean energy. The design aims to improve collaboration, encourage new ideas from different areas and accelerate the process of turning discoveries into practical technology solutions for the market, according to the release.
JE Dunn and SmithGroup previously partnered with NREL 10 years ago to complete the Energy Systems Integration Facility. The project consisted of a 180,000-square-foot research facility that was also located on the South Table Mountain campus, directly adjacent to this $224 million project. NREL is the Department of Energy’s leading national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.
