News and Feature Stories
The following news stories take an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how NREL is advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
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September 2023
Sept. 14, 2023
NREL and Joby Aviation Partnership Spotlights Green Ride-Hailing Flight Services
When Joby Aviation wanted to figure out the environmental impact of its future all-electric aerial ride-hailing service, NREL helped provide a technological bird's eye view.
Sept. 14, 2023
NREL Researchers Reveal How Buildings Across United States Do—and Could—Use Energy
Buildings are responsible for 40% of total energy use in the United States, including 75% of all electricity use and 35% of the nation's carbon emissions. Although today's decarbonization efforts often focus on renewable electricity or electric vehicles, decarbonizing the building stock is also essential.
Sept. 13, 2023
Does Hydropower Have an Invisibility Problem?
Hydropower is an often overlooked and misunderstood form of clean energy, but the Spark Squad is here to change all that.
Sept. 12, 2023
New Prize Doubles Down on Success of Earlier Community-Based Prizes
DOE is launching a new challenge that combines the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize and the Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize, this time expanding the reach to community organizations, manufacturers, nonfederal government entities, and college students.
Sept. 11, 2023
First Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator Cohort Looks Back and Ahead
Three companies recently completed the inaugural cohort of the Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator (CECA): Sierra Nevada Corporation, Blue Ridge Networks, and Xage Security.
Sept. 11, 2023
News Release: Combination of Stressors Key to Testing Perovskite Solar Cells
Perovskite solar cells should be subjected to a combination of stress tests simultaneously to best predict how they will function outdoors, according to researchers at NREL.
Sept. 11, 2023
American-Made 2023 Sunny Awards Finalists Announced This Week
On Sept. 11, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office announced seven finalists for the 2023 Sunny Awards for Equitable Community Solar, with each team receiving a $2,500 cash prize.
Sept. 8, 2023
Wave Energy Gets Ready for a Big First
Find out how researchers are helping four marine energy industry partners prepare their devices to face the waves at Oregon's PacWave South.
Sept. 7, 2023
NREL's Annual Partner Forum Eyes Pathways to Future Energy Systems
On the brink of extraordinary energy investments, partners from utilities, companies, and cities gathered at NREL's 7th Partner Forum, August 21-23, to discuss how to navigate the complex challenges of future energy systems through technological integration and detailed planning.
Sept. 7, 2023
Early-Career Researchers Gather in Grenoble, France, To Tackle Climate Change From a Global Perspective
In early July, 65 researchers from 16 countries gathered in a quiet town just outside of Grenoble in the northern French Alps.
Sept. 7, 2023
Abhishek Roy's Research Is Insane in the Membrane
NREL Researcher Abhishek Roy is working to make fuel cells, water-purification devices, and carbon-capture technologies more efficient and cost effective to help save the planet.
Sept. 6, 2023
A Faster, Cheaper Way To Give Solar Panels a Clean Bill of Health
In the darkness of night, NREL is prototyping a new device that could cut time and costs for inspections of solar installations after potentially damaging weather.
August 2023
Aug. 31, 2023
After 20 Years, NREL and Walmart Partnership Stays Strong
In late 2003, Walmart approached NREL with a project whose goal was to discover failures as much as successes. It would spark a now two-decade-and-counting partnership.
Aug. 30, 2023
How Much Wave Energy Is In Our Oceans?
In a recent study published in Renewable Energy, NREL and PNNL researchers presented a more comprehensive and accurate methodology to measure the wave energy available in ocean sites around the world.
Aug. 30, 2023
New Prize Supports Rural and Municipal Utilities in Strengthening Cybersecurity Posture
To support the utilities powering rural America in fortifying their systems against cyber threats, DOE's Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance (RMUC) Program launched the Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (ACT) 1 Prize.
Aug. 29, 2023
Building Sustainable Energy Careers Through Summer Internships
For many students, a paid summer internship is the capstone of their degree—an opportunity to flex their academic and research muscles in their industry of choice.
Aug. 24, 2023
Unlocking Hydropower's Potential
Hydropower systems will be vital to our transition to a clean-energy-powered grid. The new virtual Renewable Energy Discovery Island demonstrates hydropower's potential—a potential that NREL researchers are working hard to optimize.
Aug. 23, 2023
10 Years of Leading Energy Systems Innovation
Ten advancements that represent the full uniqueness, foresight, and continued importance of NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility.
Aug. 22, 2023
News Release: R&D 100 Awards Honor NREL Innovations
R&D World magazine presented NREL with two of its annual R&D 100 Awards for research innovations.
Aug. 22, 2023
Battery-Electric Fishing Vessel Marks a Sea Change for Small Commercial Fishers
With help from commercial vehicle researchers from NREL, a small commercial salmon troller named I Gotta will soon make history as one of the first low-emissions fishing vessels ever deployed in Alaska.
Aug. 21, 2023
NREL Reimagines Next-Generation Drivetrain Technologies for Offshore Wind Turbines
New studies leveraging conceptual designs of offshore wind turbines point to how their drivetrains could change in the near future to produce more power while lowering costs, according to a new report by NREL and General Electric Research.
Aug. 17, 2023
5 NREL Partnerships Transforming Energy in Aviation
Join NREL in celebrating the partnerships working to bring sustainability to the skies—past, present, and future.
Aug. 17, 2023
News Release: NREL Analysis Reveals Benefits of Hydropower for Grid-Scale Energy Storage
Closed-loop pumped storage hydropower systems rank as having the lowest potential to add to the problem of global warming for energy storage when accounting for the full impacts of materials and construction, according to analysis conducted at NREL.
Aug. 16, 2023
Photographers and Videographers Are Invited To Make a Splash With Their High-Impact Water Power Imagery
The Make a Splash Photo and Video Contest invites competitors to submit captivating photos and videos that showcase water power as a source renewable energy.
Aug. 15, 2023
Researcher Julie Bessac Lands DOE Early Career Award After Landing at NREL
Less than six months after joining NREL, computational researcher Julie Bessac was chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for funding under the DOE Office of Science's 2023 Early Career Research Program.
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