System Resource Allocation Requests

For system resource allocations, learn about the high-performance computing (HPC) annual call for requests, and out-of-cycle and pilot project requests.

Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Call for Allocation Requests

The deadline for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 requests was June 21, 2024. Only FY 2025 student applications are being accepted. The deadline for student requests is Nov. 30, 2024. Decisions will be made by Jan. 15, 2025.

The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) provides high-performance computing and related capabilities to support the mission of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). EERE's mission is to create and sustain American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy. Research and development projects in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable transportation that are funded by EERE Offices or aligned with the EERE mission are eligible to utilize these resources. EERE high-performance computing focus areas include energy systems integration, materials science, forecasting, manufacturing, and fluid dynamics. Due to the increase in capacity in FY 2025 outlined below, EERE may additionally grant allocations to mission-relevant computing projects that are supported by industry collaborators or university partnerships.

NREL runs an annual open call on behalf of EERE for research and development projects to request use of a defined quantity, or allocation, of the compute resources at NREL. This notification serves as the announcement of this call for allocation requests. The allocation period of performance runs from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025.

Resources will be allocated on NREL's new third generation supercomputer, Kestrel. Kestrel features a heterogeneous architecture consisting of Standard compute nodes (CPU-only nodes) and Accelerated nodes (GPU nodes) and represents a significant expansion in computing capability at 44 petaflops. Resources to be allocated on Kestrel for FY25 include 191 million "Allocation Units", or AUs on standard compute nodes; 109 million AUs on accelerated nodes; 30 petabytes of shared data storage and up to 60 petabytes of long-term data storage. Standard compute nodes provide 10 AUs per node hour and accelerated compute nodes provide 100 AUs per node hour. Kestrel standard compute nodes have two Intel Sapphire Rapids 52-core processors. Kestrel accelerated nodes have four NVIDIA H100 Tensor core GPUs and two AMD Genoa 64-core processors.

Allocation requests for FY 2026 will open in spring 2025.

Learn more about the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. For additional information, see Kestrel System Configuration and System Resource Allocation Units.

Users are encouraged to submit requests for projects where a proposal has been submitted or is pending, as well as ongoing projects. Requesting an allocation will not affect the funding status of any submitted or pending proposals.

Users should request an NREL account by May 31, 2024, to expedite submission. Users experiencing difficulty accessing the online request form may contact hpc-requests@nrel.gov for alternate submission procedures.

Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Call for Allocation Requests Webinar

NREL hosted webinars providing information on the allocation request process in May 2024.

View the webinar recording on YouTube and presentation slides.

Preparing an NREL System Resource Allocation Request

Students

For FY 2025 student applications to use Kestrel, follow these steps to request an HPC account:

  1. Visit User Accounts.
  2. Click the green "Request Account" button. This will direct you to an online request form hosted at DocuSign.
  3. Fill in your name and email address as the signer.
  4. Follow the online instructions provided in the DocuSign form.
  5. Write "Need HPC User Account for FY25 Kestrel student allocation request” in the Additional Notes or Comments box.

To submit an FY 2025 student allocation request:

  1. Visit the HPC Allocation Request page.
  2. Log in with your HPC user account username and password.
  3. Use the ‘Pilot Request’ option on the request form.
  4. Select the Funding Area that best matches your research: EERE Technology Areas and Offices and DOE-Other for Project Category.
  5. Include an EERE Mission Impact Statement and detail how your research impacts one of the EERE Technology Areas and Offices.
  6. Have a detailed computing plan in the Computational Approach including a summary of the computational method or approach, the type of calculations, and a resource estimate illustrating how many node hours you will need.
  7. Click Submit when the request is complete and ready to submit.

Principal Investigators

Principal investigators must have an NREL HPC user account to utilize the online allocation request system. To request an HPC user account:

  1. Visit User Accounts.
  2. Click the green "Request Account" button. This will direct you to an online request form hosted at DocuSign.
  3. Fill in your name and email address as the signer.
  4. Follow the online instructions provided in the DocuSign form.
  5. Write "Need HPC User Account to use allocation request system" in the Additional Notes or Comments box.

To submit an allocation request online:

  1. Visit the HPC Allocation Request page.
  2. Log in with your HPC user account username and password.
  3. Click the blue "Create New HPC Allocation Request."
  4. Use the information provided below to help fill in the allocation request fields.
  5. Click Submit when the request is complete and ready to submit.
  6. Instructions can be found within the online form as well as how the information is utilized.

Reference Kestrel System Configuration.

Contact

If you have any questions, reach out to HPC-Requests@nrel.gov.

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