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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December 2023
Dec. 29, 2023
NREL's Brent Logan Named Emerging Leader Under 30 by The Institute of Internal Auditors
The senior Internal Audit and Audit Analytics professional was recently honored by The Institute of Internal Auditors as an Emerging Leader Under 30.
Dec. 29, 2023
Postdoc Tarryn Miller Crafts 3-Minute Talk for First National Lab Research SLAM
NREL Director's Fellowship postdoc Tarryn Miller competed in the first National Lab Research SLAM competition in Washington, D.C.
Dec. 27, 2023
20 Ways NREL Made an Impact in 2023
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and commercialization in 2023. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Dec. 22, 2023
Modeling Breakthrough Allows Researchers To Account for Occupant Comfort and Assess Smart Building Technologies
Homes across the country are incorporating new technologies, such as energy-efficient heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, electric vehicles, rooftop solar, and energy storage systems.
Dec. 22, 2023
Announcing the 2023–2024 JUMP Into STEM Challenge Winners
Nine teams of college students with diverse backgrounds and academic majors have been exploring solutions toward an equitable, clean energy future through building science.
Dec. 18, 2023
Collegiate Students Connect Community and Curriculum To Accelerate Equitable Clean Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the five winners of the CONCEPT Phase for the Collegiate Track of the American-Made Community Energy Innovation Prize.
Dec. 18, 2023
NREL Research Finds Rain Not Enough To Wash Pollen From Solar Panels
Scientists, headed by a team from NREL, found the proliferation of springtime pollen that coated the solar panels reduced performance of the technology at every site.
Dec. 18, 2023
News Release: NREL Research Quantifies Losses From Cardboard, Paper Waste
Piles of cardboard and paper littering America's landfills represent $4 billion in lost economic value, according to a new analysis by researchers at NREL.
Dec. 14, 2023
How Origami, Acrylic Skins, and Flexible Flaps Are Advancing Wave Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy is investing in a new kind of flexible wave energy technology that could convert ocean waves into clean electricity and help power coastal communities, marine research, and even a future clean energy grid.
Dec. 14, 2023
NREL Joins $40 Million Effort To Advance Data Center Cooling Efficiency
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) joined a $40 million program led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to radically rethink how components within data centers are cooled.
Dec. 13, 2023
Douglas DeVoto Earns ASME Excellence in Mechanics Award
For Douglas DeVoto, who leads reliability and prognostics research for automotive power electronics within NREL's power electronics and electric machines group, failure is the most fascinating part of his job. Most recently, that curiosity led to him being awarded the Excellence in Mechanics Award by the Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Dec. 13, 2023
New Wave Energy Testing Platform Could Save Developers Time and Money
NREL built a new testing platform that blends virtual simulation and physical hardware to help wave energy technology developers quickly and inexpensively hone their designs.
Dec. 12, 2023
Behind the Blades: Vahan Gevorgian's 3-Decade Clean Energy Odyssey
Twenty-nine years ago, Vahan Gevorgian was a post-doctoral researcher studying wind and hybrid energy systems at the State Engineering University of Armenia when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented itself.
Dec. 12, 2023
NREL and Amazon Aim To Create Guidebook for Emissions Impact Analysis
NREL and Amazon, the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy worldwide since 2020, are working to modernize greenhouse gas emissions quantification using higher-resolution data and longer-term modeling.
Dec. 11, 2023
Born in a Flood: The Epic Story of the Controllable Grid Interface
Since 2013, NREL's Controllable Grid Interface has helped manufacturers and system operators understand how grid disturbances affect renewable energy systems before they are deployed. Ten years later, the second, more powerful CGI will soon be ready to complement the first CGI and enable NREL to support more experiments.
Dec. 11, 2023
Recyclable, Plant-Based Material Could Take a Spin on Next Generation of Wind Turbines
Nicknamed PECAN, NREL's new, recyclable wind turbine blade resin boasts a novel composition. The name is an acronym representing the material's chemical structure, PolyEster Covalently Adaptable Network. NREL researchers designed the PECAN resin using biobased chemicals that can be easily extracted from plant waste.
Dec. 8, 2023
North American Wind Energy Academy 2023 Recap
Researchers, educators, industry leaders, and more recently convened in Broomfield, Colorado, for the 2023 conference.
Dec. 6, 2023
NREL Will Lead Two $19M Research Centers To Spur Decarbonization Efforts as Part of DOE's Energy Earthshots Initiative
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has announced $264 million in funding for 29 projects to develop clean-energy solutions that will pave the way to achieving a net-zero-carbon economy by 2050.
Dec. 5, 2023
Why the New GCxN Cohort Is Just the Start
This fall, Shell and NREL agreed to extend the GCxN program for another five years, providing another 30 startup companies with access to $250,000 in nondilutive funding to conduct technical assistance projects.
Dec. 5, 2023
A Sustainable Solution To Increase Clean Energy Deployment
In a Nature Energy article, NREL researchers discuss contracts for difference, which ensure renewable energy projects, like offshore wind farms, receive a fixed price for the energy they generate and can pay back their high initial investment costs, lowering the barrier for new projects to help expand clean energy deployment.
Dec. 5, 2023
NREL Interns of 2023 Share Appreciation for Their Mentors
While at NREL, interns work on diverse projects and specialties, but they all have one thing in common: They rely on a mentor to get the most out of their internships.
Dec. 5, 2023
NREL Celebrates Staff Awards for FY 2021, FY 2022
NREL celebrated individual and team achievements in Fiscal Year 2021 and Fiscal Year 2022 at its annual Staff Awards.
Dec. 4, 2023
Q&A With Scott Struck: From Frogs to Jerry Cans to Urban Drool
Scott Struck studies cyclical water supplies that keep humans and ecosystems happy and healthy. In the latest Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A, Struck explains how various water sources could help bolster dwindling water supplies across the country and around the world.
Dec. 1, 2023
NREL Merges Data Collection and Analysis Tools To Evaluate Emerging Transportation Modes
NREL has brought together two pivotal tools to garner real-world data to answer questions and enable in-depth evaluation of emerging transportation modes such as e-bikes.
Dec. 1, 2023
Curious About a Climate Career? Don't Forget Water Power.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office and water power researchers from NREL just published two new career maps for hydropower and marine energy.
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