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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June 2022
June 7, 2022
Decarbonizing Windows Takes a Big Step Toward Industry Certification
In our world where windowless buildings rarely exist, the subtle significance of windows can easily be lost. Today, windows are responsible for about 10% of energy use in buildings and influence end uses that comprise 40% of building energy use.
June 7, 2022
How Will Hydropower Bolster a Renewable Energy World?
Energy storage is expected to play a big role in tomorrow's clean energy grid. To help guide future development of pumped storage hydropower facilities in the United States, NREL researchers developed a new interactive map and geospatial dataset to identify potential installation sites and estimate the quantity, quality, and cost of resources available at each.
June 6, 2022
Solar Decathlon Expands, Bringing Zero-Energy Programs to High School Students and Mid-Career Professionals
At the DOE Solar Decathlon 2022 Competition Event, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the launch of two Solar Decathlon workforce development programs to bring the collegiate competition's sustainable buildings expertise, experience, and mentorship into high school classrooms and architectural studios across the country.
June 6, 2022
NREL Senior Scientist Steve Johnston Receives American Solar Energy Society Award
NREL Senior Scientist Steve Johnston has been selected as a recipient of the 2022 American Solar Energy Society (ASES) Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award.
June 6, 2022
A Decade of Transformation: What We Have Learned Since RE Futures Study Showed What Was Possible
Ten years after visionary renewable electricity futures study showed an 80% renewable U.S. Grid was possible, NREL experts recount how they've built on those findings in the decade since—and what is next.
June 2, 2022
Q&A With Jordan Burns: A Community-Driven Approach to Energy Resilience
Jordan Burns is a risk and resilience researcher helping communities reach their energy goals through the DOE's Energy Transitions Initiative. She uses a community-driven approach to understand placed-based resilience solutions that can be incorporated into local strategic clean energy plans.
June 2, 2022
Jerry Davis Named Laboratory Program Manager for ARIES Research Platform and Energy Systems Integration Facility
Jerry Davis has been selected as the new Laboratory Program Manager for two of NREL's leading research capabilities: the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) research platform and the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF).
June 2, 2022
How Not To Short-Circuit the Clean Energy Transition
A new video and report explain why fault protection should be on grid planners' radar as the power system continues to evolve.
June 1, 2022
Giving Vehicles a Safe Green Light
A surprisingly high number of auto accidents—21% of all car crashes—occur at intersections with traffic lights. While these incidents are usually caused by driver error, new technology linked to roadway infrastructure can help prevent crashes resulting from human lapses of judgment.
June 1, 2022
Renewables Become Leader in Grid Resilience
A demonstration of outage recovery using inverter-based resources is showing how renewable energy can lead the way to power system resilience.
June 1, 2022
SAFFiRE Sustainable Aviation Fuel Project Earns Government-Industry Boost
With fuel prices soaring, a new government-industry partnership based at NREL plans to shift the aviation market further away from oil fields and closer to the farmlands.
June 1, 2022
DOE Announces Winners of the 2022 Geothermal Collegiate Competition
Students from the University of Oklahoma took home first place and $10,000 in prize funding as part of the U.S. Department of Energy 2022 Geothermal Collegiate Competition, an annual event that prepares students to lead the next generation of geothermal energy development.
May 2022
May 31, 2022
Building Experts Needed To Tackle Critical Challenges for Clean Energy Economy
NREL provides technical support to the residential construction industry through its Subject Matter Experts (SME) program.
May 31, 2022
Celebrating Solar Reliability Pioneer Dick DeBlasio
Deblasio was instrumental in getting the solar photovoltaics and distributed energy industries going. Sadly, he died on April 27 at the age of 80.
May 31, 2022
Getting in the Water With SHARKS
With SHARKS, ARPA-E and NREL could make it possible for marine energy devices to power up in rivers across the country and play a valuable role in combating the climate change crisis.
May 27, 2022
Wind Resources Expand With OpenOA Upgrade and Partner Input
NREL has released version 2.3 of its Open Operational Assessment (OpenOA) software, which helps demystify wind plant operations for wind plant operators.
May 27, 2022
Plugging Into Offshore Wind Will Power Up California's Renewable Energy
Using novel analyses for floating wind turbines, researchers at NREL have assessed the best way to divide up the first West Coast offshore wind energy areas into leasing areas that could power 1.5 million homes, bringing California and the United States closer to their clean energy goals.
May 26, 2022
What Are Geophones?
Deploying 60 gigawatts of geothermal electricity would be enough to provide clean, reliable power for 129 million American homes and businesses. A key factor to unlocking that amount of always-available geothermal energy could be through innovation in subsurface seismic sensors, or geophones.
May 26, 2022
NREL Work With Defense Department’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program Accelerates Priority DOD Energy Projects
U.S. Department of Defense's ESTCP is working to identify and demonstrate the most promising, innovative, and cost-effective technologies and methods that address DOD's highest-priority environmental requirements.
May 26, 2022
Connecting the Country: Are Quick, Electrified Flights From Local Airports Possible?
Trick question: What is your nearest airport? You might think of the urban hub you always catch flights from, even if that airport is hours away.
May 26, 2022
Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis Launches Green Computing Catalyzer
The third catalyzer in the JISEA Catalyzers initiative will explore algorithmic energy efficiency, in addition to ways to limit energy usage of computing and potential pathways to reuse, repair, or recycle hardware products and materials.
May 25, 2022
NREL Pledge Curbs Emissions as Part of Larger DOE Initiative
Martin Keller, director of NREL, said he expects the Flatirons Campus near Boulder, Colorado, will reach net zero emissions annually by the end of fiscal year 2023 and the South Table Mountain Campus outside Golden, Colorado, to hit that achievement three years later.
May 25, 2022
NREL Energy Analyst Anelia Milbrandt Is a Superhero, Every Day
Bioenergy and waste-to-energy researcher Anelia Milbrandt will be featured in an upcoming children's book including stories of modern diverse women working in energy.
May 24, 2022
Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize Selects Climate Justice Changemakers
The U.S. Department of Energy and NREL announced Phase One winners of the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize, who are paving the way to an inclusive, equitable, and just energy future.
May 24, 2022
World's Leading Solar Energy Research Institutions Discuss Shared Challenges, Growth Opportunities at 3rd Terawatt Workshop
Representatives from solar research institutes around the world and international participants from academia and industry discussed the implications of the multi-terawatt photovoltaics market at the 3rd Terawatt Workshop of the Global Alliance of Solar Energy Research Institutes, May 16-17 in Freiburg, Germany.
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