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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July 2020
July 29, 2020
Arrival of OptGrid: Advanced Technology of Grid Management Now Available to Industry
A new product developed at NREL has industry-shifting potential to help manage today's increasingly distributed energy infrastructure, and it has emerged as a commercial solution for real-time coordination of distributed energy resources.
July 29, 2020
Novel Research Highlights Critical Barriers to Extreme Fast Charging of Lithium-Ion Batteries
In a phenomenon called lithium plating, lithium attaches to graphite particles within the cell instead of inserting itself into the graphite for stable storage. Researchers used high-speed synchrotron X-ray diffraction to gain insight into the conditions that lead to lithium plating.
July 24, 2020
Tomorrow's Forecast: Sunny with a Strong Chance of Wind
Meteorologists, engineers, and geographic information system experts at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory are leading wind resource characterization efforts essential to the development of offshore wind.
July 23, 2020
NREL's Hydropower RAPID Toolkit Webinar Shows Stakeholders the Permitting Path Forward
During an NREL-led Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit Webinar, NREL legal and regulatory analysts presented updated features and showcased highlights from NREL's latest Hydropower RAPID Toolkit publication.
July 22, 2020
Haiku Sky's Childhood off the Grid Inspired a Career on the Grid
Most of us do not remember the first time we experienced electricity. It has always been a given. But for Haiku Sky, it is a distinct memory. He was four years old—and was fascinated by the idea that you could flip a switch and there would be light.
July 22, 2020
NREL Researchers Set Sights on Commercializing Biotechnologies with Industry Partners
Researchers at NREL are set to launch four bioenergy projects with industry partners that have the potential to accelerate the commercialization of novel bio-based products and technologies.
July 21, 2020
Hats Off and Happy Trails to NREL Wind and Water Pioneer Bob Thresher
From his trademark black hat to his legendary one-liners and singing contributions to the Wind Weenie Wailers, Research Fellow Bob Thresher undoubtedly cuts a memorable, larger-than-life figure. When asked to describe him, Thresher's colleagues label him as everything from "pioneer" and "mentor" to "friend," "hero," and even "rock star." They are not all misty-eyed tributes, however.
July 21, 2020
Increasing Power Expands Research Capabilities at NREL's Flatirons Campus
Wind energy, water power, and grid integration research conducted at NREL's Flatirons Campus gained a boost with a recent upgrade to the power capacity at the facility.
July 17, 2020
Solar Energy Technologies Could Meet Industrial Process Heating Demands
Solar energy technologies could meet process heating demands, reduce carbon emissions, and improve heating efficiency in the U.S. industrial sector—for up to 15-50% energy savings.
July 17, 2020
Open-Source Renewable Energy Potential (reV) Model Offers Endless Potential
What can the Renewable Energy Potential (reV) model calculate when it comes to renewable energy potential? Just about everything.
July 16, 2020
New Process Turns Carbon into Cleaner, High-Performance Diesel Biofuel Blendstock
A new single-phase catalyst that enables the conversion of renewable and waste carbon into sustainable diesel fuels has been developed through a unique collaboration between NREL and two DOE consortia, Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy and the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines initiative.
July 16, 2020
New Metric Quantifies Productivity of Freight Mobility Systems
Trends such as the rise in e-commerce, increased vehicle electrification, connected mobility, automation, and new forms of delivery are poised to bring a paradigm shift in freight movement. In addition to modeling and forecasting emerging freight trends, having a way to quantify their impacts on freight mobility is critical. The new Freight Mobility Energy Productivity (F-MEP) metric does just that.
July 15, 2020
News Release: NREL Names Daniel Beckley To Lead Facilities and Operations
NREL recently made a key hire to a laboratory leadership position, naming Daniel Beckley as associate laboratory director for Facilities and Operations. Beckley will oversee a directorate that includes the laboratory's Site Operations; Environment, Safety, Health, and Quality; Information Technology; and Security and Emergency Preparedness organizations.
July 13, 2020
News Release: NREL Research Points to Strategies for Recycling of Solar Panels
Due to rapid increase of PV installations over the past decade, there is expected to be an explosion of retired PV modules by 2050. NREL scientists propose research and development to advance processes for managing that waste and establishing a PV circular economy.
July 9, 2020
2020 Annual Technology Baseline Electricity Data Now Available
Released each year, electricity-generation technology cost and performance data power forward-looking analyses at NREL and beyond.
July 9, 2020
DOE Announces Phase 1 Water Resource Recovery Prize Winners; Tees Up Phase 2
The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office and NREL have announced the winners of Phase 1 of the American-Made Challenges® Water Resource Recovery Prize.
July 7, 2020
NREL Acts as Local Economic Stabilizer while Transforming Energy Around the World
Located in Jefferson County, Colorado, which is part of metropolitan Denver, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has seen its economic impact on the county climb by more than 218% during the seven-year span from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal 2019.
July 7, 2020
News Release: Machine Learning Approach Produces 50X Higher-Resolution Climate Data
Researchers at NREL have developed a novel machine learning approach to quickly enhance the resolution of wind velocity data by 50 times and solar irradiance data by 25 times—an enhancement that has never been achieved before with climate data.
July 6, 2020
From Brainstorming to Breaking Ground: A Progress Report from the FAST Grand Prize Winners
Four winning teams of the Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time (FAST) Commissioning for Pumped-Storage Hydropower Prize are reducing the time, cost, and risk associated with commissioning pumped-storage hydropower projects.
July 2, 2020
International Collaboration To Bring Wind into the Distributed Energy Mainstream
Spotting a solar panel on a rooftop or powering a small health center in a rural community was once rare. Fast forward a decade and the on-site, distributed solar energy boom is now powering everything from single-family homes to entire industries. Could that successful model be applied to wind energy?
July 1, 2020
Data Lake Provides One-Stop Shop for Open Data
The Open Energy Data Initiative Data Lake hosts high-value data sets and analytics tools in one public location, expanding access to the broader research community and accelerating innovation.
June 2020
June 30, 2020
News Release: NREL Launches I AM Hydro Prize; Announces Fish Protection CONCEPT Winners
Today, NREL launched the I AM Hydro Prize, a new competition designed to transform the hydropower industry using advanced manufacturing technologies. NREL also announced the winners of the CONCEPT Stage, the first phase of the Fish Protection Prize.
June 30, 2020
Tracking Tomorrow's Category 5: Marine Renewable Energy Turns the Tide
Learn more about marine renewable energy, from powering remote coastal communities to the devices that predict hurricanes.
June 29, 2020
Virtual Collegiate Wind Competition Adds New Dimension to Wind Workforce Development
After four days of online presentations, the U.S. DOE announced the winners of the 2020 Collegiate Wind Competition. The award for the Turbine Digital Design contest went to California State University Maritime Academy, while James Madison University claimed the award for the Project Development contest.
June 29, 2020
Go-Solar Enables Utilities To Efficiently Manage Millions of Solar Photovoltaic Devices
Go-Solar is an NREL research initiative that enables utilities to monitor, estimate, and operate millions of photovoltaic arrays through efficient communication with only a small number of devices, instead of needing to connect to every individual rooftop solar system.
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