News Release: R&D Magazine Honors Duo of NREL Innovations

Energy management system, chemical process named winners of annual competition

Nov. 19, 2018 | Contact media relations

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) won two R&D 100 Awards during a ceremony in Orlando Friday night.

Given annually by R&D Magazine, the awards honor the 100 most innovative technologies of the past year and were chosen by an independent panel of judges. This year the magazine chose to honor these NREL-developed innovations:

Foresee, an energy management system that relies on user preferences to control and coordinate a home's connected appliances and electronics. The software first asks users to rank what's most important to them about living in their home. Then it takes those preferences into account and automatically adjusts the devices accordingly.
Acrylonitrile through nitrilation, which provides a cleaner process to produce acrylonitrile, a building block for carbon fiber. Biomass replaces petrochemicals as the starting point, making the process renewable. More than 7 billion kilograms of acrylonitrile are produced globally each year for use in such products as clothes and carpets.

“It’s always exciting when cutting-edge technologies being pioneered at NREL are recognized,” said NREL Director Martin Keller. “Hopefully these award-winning technologies will soon play a role in transforming America’s energy future.”

NREL has won 63 R&D 100 Awards since 1982.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.