Sodium-ion battery energy storage system to complete the Pickering Barn microgrid and strengthen a community Resilience Hub during grid outages

Emerald Battery Labs Partners with City of Issaquah to Deliver Safe, Cost-Effective, Sustainable Battery Storage for Pickering Barn Resiliency Project

Emerald Battery Lab will develop and deploy a 60-kWh sodium-ion battery storage system to pair with the city of Issaquah's existing solar and hardware systems at Pickering Barn.

SEATTLE, Oct. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emerald Battery Labs, a Seattle-based manufacturer of sodium-ion batteries, today announced a partnership with the City of Issaquah, Washington, to provide a safe, cost-effective and sustainable battery energy storage system (BESS) for the City's resiliency project at Pickering Barn. The project is supported, in part, by a $671,000 grant from TransAlta Centralia Generation LLC.

Pickering Barn is a historic landmark in the heart of Issaquah and a designated Resilience Hub site under the City's Resilience Hub Initiative, providing warming and cooling centers, emergency services and community support during grid outages or natural disasters.

“Issaquah is committed to investing in clean energy that also strengthens our community’s resilience,” said Issaquah Mayor Mark Mullet. “Pairing solar power with battery storage at Pickering Barn will help keep essential services available during power outages while advancing our climate goals.”

The City's Solar + Storage Microgrid Feasibility Study identified Pickering Barn as a priority site for a community resilience microgrid. Earlier this year, the City completed installation of a 64.9 kW-DC solar PV array as the first step. The next critical step, integration of a battery energy storage system, is required to let the facility “island” from the grid and support critical loads during extended outages. This grant funding will enable Emerald to develop and deploy a 60-kWh sodium-ion battery system to pair with the City’s existing solar and hardware systems at Pickering Barn.

"Emerald was founded to unlock the full potential of sodium-ion batteries," said David Bell, co-founder and CEO of Emerald Battery Labs. "Sodium-ion batteries are more sustainable than lead-acid, safer than lithium-ion, and can be produced from abundant, low-cost materials sourced in the United States. Pickering Barn is a real-world, public setting where we can show that sodium-ion battery systems can meet or exceed the safety, cost and performance standards required for municipal deployment."

Sodium-ion chemistry offers significant advantages over lithium-ion alternatives for stationary storage, including improved thermal stability, improved safety, longer cycle life, and no cobalt or lithium dependency. A certified sodium-ion product at the community microgrid scale would open a new segment of the stationary storage market to sodium-ion technology, at a scale directly relevant to resilience hub, microgrid and backup power applications across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

The approach focuses Emerald's design work on sodium-ion integration, energy management and battery management system communication protocols, and system-level safety validation. Emerald will finalize the design of its sodium-ion BESS, achieve UL 9540, UL 9540A and UL 1973 certifications, and support the City through permitting and procurement for a deployment at the historic community venue.

For more than 110 years, Pickering Barn has stood proudly as an icon of Issaquah. Merging the history of this farmland with present day community needs, The City of Issaquah has advanced multiple initiatives to move Pickering Barn into the future while preserving its unique charm, including installing heat pumps in 2025 and solar panels in 2026. These projects improve energy efficiency, generate clean electricity, help lower municipal energy costs, and serve as an educational resource for the Issaquah Community. As a public facility, it hosts a weekly Farmers Market from May through October and welcomes more than 37,000 visitors a year, including 264 events in 2025.

In 2023, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded the City of Issaquah with LEED® Gold certification for its exceptional performance in fostering a sustainable, resilient and equitable community. Issaquah is the first city in Washington state to achieve LEED Gold certification – and one of only five LEED-certified communities statewide. 

About Emerald Battery Labs

Based in Seattle, Emerald Battery Labs is a developer and manufacturer of sodium-ion batteries. Emerald targets applications where sodium-ion wins on longevity and cost today while building for the sodium-ion future. Its first products use sodium-ion’s superior safety, cycle life and high- and low-temperature performance in 12V and 24V batteries for commercial vehicles, 48V stackable DC blocks for data center UPS and 60 kWh battery energy storage systems for commercial and industrial microgrids. Emerald is also developing proprietary anode materials and cell architecture designed to help sodium-ion batteries achieve an energy density of 400 Wh/L at a cost of less than $30/kWh. Emerald’s advances will enable a fully domestic sodium-ion supply chain for electric vehicles and grid storage. More information is available at www.emeraldbatterylabs.com.

About the City of Issaquah

Issaquah, WA is a community of more than 40,000 and is conveniently located off the Interstate 90 corridor, just 16 miles east of Seattle. Nicknamed Trailhead City, the town is centered within the Issaquah Alps (Cougar, Squak and Tiger mountains) and is a destination for countless outdoor enthusiasts, including hikers and paragliders. Learn more at issaquahwa.gov

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ae94f53f-d330-49bd-9147-8cac4e94cdcb

CONTACT: Media contacts
John Williams, Scoville PR for Emerald Battery Labs
+1-206-660-5503, jwilliams@scovillepr.com

Thomas Rush, City of Issaquah
+1-425-837-3013, thomasr@issaquahwa.gov