“A battery is a chemical system that is highly engineered so that all the parts work together,” said Dan Schwartz, founding director of the UW’s Clean Energy Institute, which includes the testbeds. “And the nation is really under-invested in that kind of engineering work.”

Here’s the challenge. Researchers often tackle one component of a battery’s system for optimization, such as the chemistry of an anode. But they need to demonstrate how their solution performs with the rest of the ingredients if they want to prove its benefits.