Advanced Manufacturing Research News
Explore our archive of advanced manufacturing news stories.
Dec. 28, 2021
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and technology commercialization in 2021. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Dec. 13, 2021
U.S. data storage technologies, like hard-disk drives (HDDs), contain imported rare-Earth elements in their magnets. As the demand for data storage increases, the supply of critical materials will become more limited.
Dec. 1, 2021
Every day, game-changing technologies are introduced that could more easily transition the world to a clean energy future. However, few entrepreneurs have the resources to develop promising new technologies into successful cleantech startups.
Nov. 29, 2021
In the first Q&A profile in a new series, Manufacturing Masterminds, Birdie Carpenter shares how she is working to reduce industrial energy use, carbon emissions, plastic waste, and more.
Nov. 9, 2021
Phase 2 finalists of the Water Resource Recovery Prize receive honorable mention for proposing innovative solutions to lower the cost of water treatment by extracting valuable resources.
Nov. 1, 2021
Wind turbine blades might look elegant, even ballet-like, as they glide through the air. But, much like ballet, achieving that simple grace requires complex, advanced engineering. NREL researchers are revolutionizing wind turbine blade manufacturing by combining recyclable thermoplastics and additive manufacturing.
Oct. 20, 2021
On October 20, NREL will join organizations and individuals nationwide in celebrating the ninth annual Bioenergy Day. The day commemorates advancements in the use of biomass to produce energy from sustainable resources such as farm, forestry, and other plant waste.
Oct. 19, 2021
As manager of the Mobility Infrastructure and Impacts Analysis (MIIA) group, NREL's Maggie Mann will be the first to tell you that electric vehicles (EVs) alone are not a perfect solution to achieve sustainability within the transportation industry.
Oct. 13, 2021
To help combat the plastic waste problem, NREL and its collaborators have developed a method to upcycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into performance-advantaged nylon, a precursor to other valuable products such as waterproof clothing, stick-free cookware coatings, and heat-resistant machine parts.
Oct. 8, 2021
Ten teams competing in the CABLE Conductor Manufacturing Prize were selected as Stage 1 winners. Competitors are helping re-wire the future of electricity—developing concepts for affordable and manufacturable conductivity-enhanced, next-generation materials.
Oct. 6, 2021
New study by the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis finds industrial manufacturing could profitably help stabilize the grid with large-scale batteries.
Oct. 1, 2021
The Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology Facility can help partners build better materials for wind and marine energy, transportation, and energy-efficient buildings.
Sept. 30, 2021
To help achieve ambitious goals to address climate change, the DOE has launched a new $2.5 million Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize to fund organizations working with disadvantaged communities in clean energy as well as foster connections between DOE and innovators the agency has yet to reach to pave the way to an inclusive, equitable, and just energy future.
Sept. 29, 2021
This is the first in series of articles profiling NREL researchers whose work is helping build a circular economy to extend the lifespan of materials, components, and products, while reducing waste, conserving resources, and boosting efficiency. NREL Senior Research Fellow Bob Allen shared his thoughts on how innovations in upcycling sustainable polymers and composites can contribute to the circular economy.
Sept. 28, 2021
A state-of-the-art thermal management system developed by NREL in collaboration with John Deere promises to significantly increase the power density of silicon carbide (SiC) inverters within heavy-duty EV applications.
Sept. 15, 2021
By 2050, there could be 80 million metric tons globally of solar photovoltaics (PV) reaching the end of their lifetime, with 10 million metric tons in the United States alone—or the weight of 30 Empire State Buildings.
Sept. 15, 2021
President Joe Biden visited NREL's Flatirons Campus to speak with NREL leadership and to learn about the laboratory's research facilities, capabilities, and critical initiatives housed on the Flatirons Campus. During the visit, the president spoke to a livestream audience about his plans on infrastructure, environmental justice, and how to tackle the climate crisis.
Sept. 9, 2021
National Alliance for Water Innovation's new master roadmap guides industries to invest in low-cost, low-energy ways to treat salt water and recycle wastewater.
Aug. 18, 2021
NREL researchers are developing strategies to prevent construction from gobbling up resources with BREX—shorthand for Building Materials' Reduce, Reuse, and Recycling.
Aug. 12, 2021
NREL is measuring the performance of its potentially industry-changing thermoplastic blades on Verdant Power's tidal power turbine in New York City's East River.
Aug. 2, 2021
NREL develops lightning protection system for wind turbine blades made of thermoplastic resins and bonded together with NREL's patent-pending thermal welding process.
July 30, 2021
NREL researchers are charting the course to better quality, lower-cost wind turbine blades through automation.
July 15, 2021
Researchers in the BOTTLE Consortium, including from NREL and the University of Portsmouth, have identified using enzymes as a more sustainable approach for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic in single-use beverage bottles, clothing, and food packaging.
May 13, 2021
The JISEA Catalyzers initiative will incubate research capabilities for 1–2 years before being launched into a new NREL-led program.
April 21, 2021
New funding for perovskites is considered a significant step toward metal halide perovskite PV commercialization.
April 20, 2021
One of the three key pillars of NREL's vision for the next decade is developing a circular economy for energy materials. This critical objective focuses on reducing waste and preserving resources through the design and manufacture of materials and products with reuse, recycling, and upcycling in mind from the start.
April 19, 2021
NREL's Advanced Manufacturing team is applying what they have learned from 3D-printing of wind blade molds to create additively manufactured tidal turbine prototypes.
March 17, 2021
The $4.5-million CABLE Conductor Manufacturing Prize will boost U.S. industries and upgrade materials and applications to meet electrification needs and combat the climate crisis.
March 16, 2021
As a JISEA/NREL clean energy manufacturing analyst, Samantha Reese puts early-stage research problems in context of techno-economic tradeoffs and technology potential because "no matter how awesome a technology is, it won't be adopted if it's not cost competitive."
March 9, 2021
Next-gen facilities produce next-gen technologies. Learn more about the collaborative CoMET workspace and innovations to come out of it.
Feb. 23, 2021
Recipient of one prime award and playing a supporting role on eight other winning proposals, NREL had a strong showing in the recently announced 2020 DOE Advanced Manufacturing Office Multi-Topic FOA awards.
Feb. 16, 2021
At its fourth annual Partner Forum, NREL showcased its stable of leading experts and opened its virtual doors to partners, extending invitations to companies from around the world to engage in a collaborative effort to design a future replete with renewable energy solutions to the energy challenges of today.
Feb. 12, 2021
The latest Benchmarks of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing report assesses market characteristics, global trade flows, and manufacturing value added for four clean energy technologies to support deeper insights into balance of trade effects on upstream materials.
Feb. 8, 2021
In its latest release, the REopt Lite team, which includes NREL and partners at Colorado School of Mines and Clean Energy Group, has added combined heat and power, expanding the model's scope beyond electric-only strategies to include a new universe of thermal energy opportunities.
Feb. 3, 2021
DOE funding pairs NREL with academic, nonprofit, and industry scientists to transform how we create and recycle plastic.
Jan. 22, 2021
Today, natural gas and coal combustion supply most demand for industrial process heat (IPH), or the transfer of heat to a material within a production process. With the emergence of low-cost solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies, interest has grown in solar as an IPH option and decarbonization pathway for the industrial sector.
Jan. 21, 2021
Researchers developing renewable plastics and exploring new processes for plastics upcycling and recycling technologies will now be able to easily baseline their efforts to current manufacturing practices to understand if their efforts will save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Jan. 14, 2021
Take a bird's-eye view of WPTO's 2019–2020 hydropower and marine energy accomplishments, and learn about the NREL projects highlighted within this comprehensive publication.
Jan. 13, 2021
Could the secret to unlocking wave energy's potential be found in shape-shifting control? NREL researcher Nathan Tom and his team think so.
