On a sunny morning in late May, a massive laboratory designed to create extreme conditions – from melting heat to bone-cracking cold, howling sandstorms, corrosive ocean spray and even fire – officially opened in the coastal city of Xiamen, in eastern China’s Fujian province.Equivalent in size to 14 football pitches, the 3 billion yuan (US$444 million) facility will throw everything it has at battery-based energy-storage systems built by Chinese manufacturers, testing the equipment’s mettle...