Program News
Access news stories from NREL's research programs.
Dec. 27, 2019
Funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is fueling five new bioenergy research projects involving NREL scientists.
Dec. 20, 2019
The DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office announced 35 student teams from 32 collegiate institutions as finalists in the Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition. The Solar District Cup is a new competition, led by NREL, that challenges multidisciplinary student teams to design and model optimized distributed solar energy systems for a campus or urban district by integrating solar, storage, and other technologies.
Dec. 20, 2019
A new modeling approach takes future climate and water resource conditions into account for long-term electricity generation infrastructure planning.
Dec. 19, 2019
A multiyear system design and validation project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office reached completion in 2019 and resulted in increased knowledge about development and validation of wave energy converter devices and their associated materials.
Dec. 18, 2019
A flagship NREL analysis project, the fifth annual Standard Scenarios Outlook models 36 possible projections for power sector evolution through the year 2050.
Dec. 17, 2019
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) achieved many goals across the spectrum of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in 2019, and the news coming from the laboratory shows it.
Dec. 13, 2019
The ocean may very well be the next frontier, and two major industries—telecommunications and marine renewable energy—are already employing and exploring this vital asset.
Vital to both telecom and marine renewable energy development is careful planning to accommodate their respective operations, as well as those of other users of the ocean.
Dec. 13, 2019
Scientists at NREL achieved a technological breakthrough for solar cells previously thought impossible.
Dec. 12, 2019
Expanding solar energy’s reach, one estimate at a time. Meet PVWatts.
Dec. 11, 2019
Wind turbines with social skills. Potato guns that help researchers better understand wind-wildlife impacts. A fast-growing and long-lasting demand for skilled wind workers. Whatever the story, 2019 saw gale-force developments in wind energy research at NREL, and these currents show no signs of slowing down.
Dec. 11, 2019
Analysts modeled how the future U.S. power system could operate with up to 55% solar energy penetration.
Dec. 9, 2019
Team Wittmeyer-Dasgupta of the Southwest Research Institute won a Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time (FAST) Commissioning for Pumped-Storage Hydropower Prize for a modular steel concept for dams that reduces costs by one-third and cuts construction schedules in half.
Dec. 6, 2019
NREL Senior Research Engineer Julieta Giraldez-Miner assists utilities with managing distributed energy resources (DERs), while leading NREL projects in microgrids, smart grids, and grid integration.
Dec. 6, 2019
The next generation of information technology could take advantage of spintronics--electronics that use the minuscule magnetic fields emanating from spinning electrons as well as the electric charges of the electrons themselves--for faster, smaller electronic devices that use less energy.
Dec. 6, 2019
NREL has partnered with the SolSmart program, which recognizes cities, counties, and regional organizations across the United States that have successfully adopted solar energy into their communities.
Dec. 5, 2019
Paul Veers, the chief engineer at NREL's National Wind Technology Center, collaborated with technical experts from around the world to develop an end-to-end resource covering every aspect of wind energy design, modeling, and simulation. The resulting two-volume book, which includes NREL contributions to 10 of the 18 chapters, explains the principal elements behind multiple subsystem models that are needed to create a full-system optimization framework.
Dec. 5, 2019
The latest REopt Lite upgrades address users' growing focus on providing backup power to sustain critical load during outages. Expanded resilience capabilities enable users to optimally size new diesel generation and better understand the benefits and trade-offs of resilience.
Dec. 3, 2019
The program, informally known as Energy Execs, is accepting applications through Jan. 13. Approximately 20 people are chosen each year.
Dec. 2, 2019
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) are searching for ways to maximize the advantages of large-scale rotors and their potential for increased energy generation. Their work as part of DOE's Big Adaptive Rotor (BAR) project aims to create the next generation of land-based wind turbines with 206-meter (m) rotors, which will increase capacity factors by 10% or more over a typical land-based turbine.
Dec. 2, 2019
New collection of historic U.S. power plant efficiency data can be used to more accurately model the integration of variable solar and wind energy on the grid.
Nov. 26, 2019
NREL researcher Juliette Ugirumurera leads simulation efforts for several transportation projects, including Athena, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded, national-lab-led multiyear
project aimed at improving the efficiency of transportation hubs through advanced high-performance computing. She was born in Rwanda and came to the United States on a scholarship. She
enjoys dancing and hiking in her free time.
Nov. 26, 2019
The projects expand the work started in 2016 under DOE’s Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium and retain the vision of a secure and resilient modern grid.
Nov. 26, 2019
NREL and its team of partners and external advisors will incorporate systems control co-design principles--designing and optimizing all system components, including the control system, simultaneously--in a revolutionary toolset to enable offshore floating system engineers to design radically new systems at greatly reduced cost.
Nov. 25, 2019
The CyberForce Competition challenged teams to defend one of four realistic system scenarios while communicating with the other three infrastructures to monitor and maintain the integrity of the system as a whole.
Nov. 22, 2019
Wagner had been nominated for the award by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office in recognition of 10 years of leadership in concentrating solar power research.
Nov. 19, 2019
Thanks in part to analyses on how to structure the project for NASA, the Kennedy Space Center will now include a 500-acre solar photovoltaic plant on its western edge. The team received a NASA Group Achievement Award for the effort.
Nov. 19, 2019
The list, compiled annually by Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science Group, this year ran to 6,216 names selected for "their exceptional influence and performance."
Nov. 18, 2019
Sherry Stout is an engineer in the Integrated Decision Support group who specializes in addressing energy challenges in rural, remote, and developing communities. We talked with Stout about her work and the importance of coordinated, diverse stakeholder groups in energy planning.
Nov. 18, 2019
The U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office announced 15 intrepid collegiate teams to embark on the first-ever Marine Energy Collegiate Competition.
Nov. 18, 2019
Collaborative research effort will apply artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches to improve HPC data center operational efficiency.
Nov. 13, 2019
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) innovative SpiderFLOAT technology—named for its modular components that resemble spider legs—has the potential to reduce these costs by simplifying construction and maintenance logistics for deep-water wind systems in challenging offshore marine environments.
Nov. 8, 2019
Students from six colleges will be participating at NREL during the Nov. 16 event.
Nov. 6, 2019
Two teams from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have been selected for the most recent cohort of the U.S. Department of Energy's "boot camp" for national-lab-based startups: Cycle, and HeadCount.
Nov. 5, 2019
A new master's program in Next-Generation Power and Energy Systems offered by the University of Colorado and featuring instructors from NREL helps students learn about grid modernization-related challenges, such as renewable energy source integration, cybersecurity, and the potential of autonomous energy grids.
Nov. 4, 2019
Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) Director Charlie Gay, an internationally recognized pioneer in photovoltaics (PV), retired from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Nov. 1.
Oct. 30, 2019
A new project funded by DOE's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response aims to visualize grid events and train computers to classify them in near real time.
Oct. 29, 2019
Next-gen floating wind systems will use controls to make them more efficient, lighter weight, and lower cost, but first industry needs a foundation built on validated design tools to explore novel controls-integrated design approaches. NREL is generating the first public data set to include advanced turbine and platform control using a 1:60-scale testing setup, which will provide data to validate the modeling tools incorporating control co-design characteristics.
Oct. 23, 2019
Researchers said the strain thrives at high temperature and in saltwater, while rapidly converting carbon dioxide into renewable biomass.
Oct. 16, 2019
Outlined in their article in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, NREL researchers and colleagues proposed an update to the IEEE Reliability Test System (RTS) to bring it into the 21st century.
Oct. 8, 2019
This week the National Renewable Energy Laboratory joins others across the United States to celebrate the fifth National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day on October 8--10.08--a date chosen to represent the atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008).
Oct. 4, 2019
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed the Materials Flows through Industry (MFI) modeling tool, which applies a mine-to-materials analysis to a wide range of manufacturing scenarios, identifying and analyzing opportunities to reduce the energy and carbon intensities of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Oct. 4, 2019
NREL researchers will attend the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Offshore WINDPOWER Conference alongside staff from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO). The event takes place Oct. 21-23, 2019, in Boston and provides attendees an opportunity to engage in panels, presentations, and discussions about the status and future of offshore wind in the United States.
Oct. 3, 2019
Something about a 200-ft blade, heavier than an elephant, and spinning over 100 miles an hour, seems improbable--a triumph of manufacturing that often leaves onlookers in wonder. At NREL however, wonder is mixed with an ambition to improve. Beneath the towering test turbines at the National Wind Technology Center, NREL hosts a collaborative research environment for the growing composite manufacturing industry to build its skills and push its frontiers.
Oct. 2, 2019
The National Graduate Education for Minority Students (GEM) Consortium honored NREL Director Martin Keller with its Corporate Leadership Award.
Oct. 1, 2019
Round 1 of the American-Made Solar Prize concluded as two final winners received $500,000 each.
Oct. 1, 2019
What might the U.S. energy generation mix look like between now and the year 2050? Thanks to the now publicly available Regional Energy Deployment System model, or ReEDS for short, we can now explore how the power system will evolve under changing market conditions.
Sept. 30, 2019
Nearly 30 members of the Wind Energy Technologies Office visited the Flatirons Campus of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to discuss and identify the best wind-wildlife impact minimization strategies for the efficient deployment of cost-effective wind energy projects across the United States.
Sept. 30, 2019
Program Manager Elizabeth Doris discusses the intersection of government and technology.
Sept. 25, 2019
Each winning team receives $67,000, for a total of $1 million awarded.
Sept. 17, 2019
In-state wind turbine manufacturing and installation support both short-term and long-term jobs and other economic impacts, according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) case study of Xcel Energy's 600-MW Rush Creek Wind Farm--Colorado's largest wind energy project. NREL researchers who conducted the study also gained a deeper understanding of how wind plant construction impacts the economies of rural communities, where wind plant construction often occurs.
Sept. 17, 2019
NREL will showcase a fuel cell electric vehicle at a National Drive Electric Week ride and drive event in Denver on September 19.
Sept. 12, 2019
John Barnett brings expertise in energy system planning and national security to focus the growing work in energy security and resilience at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Sept. 11, 2019
A recap of Sheila Hayter's whirlwind year leading the organization that shapes the world's built environment.
Sept. 11, 2019
In a recent article for Nature Sustainability, NREL's Lead Energy-Water-Land Analyst Jordan Macknick and co-authors investigated the potential benefits of co-located agriculture and solar photovoltaic (PV) infrastructure (dubbed “agrivoltaics”) on food production, irrigation water requirements, and energy production.
Sept. 10, 2019
NREL has published a new step-by-step guide for communities evaluating energy savings opportunities in their built environment.
Sept. 10, 2019
NREL's intelligent campus ventures accelerated this week with the introduction of an automated electric vehicle in its employee shuttle fleet. The EasyMile EZ10 shuttle took its inaugural ride on Monday, transporting staff and visitors around NREL's South Table Mountain campus after a dedication ceremony marking its first day of operation.
Sept. 10, 2019
The United States Agency of International Development (USAID) and NREL hosted a modeling group from the Philippines at NREL's campus for a month-long research exchange supporting the Philippines' development of competitive renewable energy zones (CREZ).
Sept. 5, 2019
NREL has selected a new project to receive a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded Technology Development and Innovation (TD&I) subcontract. The recipient will collaborate with researchers and technology developers to advance early-stage wildlife monitoring and minimization technologies for use at wind energy facilities.
Sept. 5, 2019
Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator member company Yotta Solar brought their behind-the-panel battery system to NREL for analysis this summer. It's a technology so new, researchers from multiple disciplines were pushed to develop next-generation evaluation techniques.
Sept. 4, 2019
The three were chosen for their significant contributions to NREL and the larger scientific community.
Aug. 30, 2019
NREL recently partnered with the midwestern utility company Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) on a project targeted to help the utility reduce energy consumption by 21.5% in the greater Illinois area by promoting more energy efficient technologies for buildings.
Aug. 23, 2019
At NREL's 2019 Partner Forum, the laboratory and Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced a new, cutting-edge joint effort to solve complex energy system challenges.
Aug. 22, 2019
Installed outside the laboratory's Energy Systems Integration Facility, the bioreactor uses a selectively evolved microorganism that feeds on renewable hydrogen produced at NREL and a diet of carbon dioxide.
Aug. 22, 2019
A surprising combination of sophisticated sensor technology, tennis balls, a potato gun, and a novel deterrent device could hold the answers to preventing eagles from encountering wind turbines.
Aug. 20, 2019
One of the largest impediments to the mass adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the United States is range anxiety--or, consumers' fear that they will be stranded because the vehicle has insufficient battery power to get them to their destination. A 2012 NREL collaboration with General Motors (GM) continues to inform the improvement of industry apps that help allay range anxiety and increase driver freedom.
Aug. 19, 2019
The brothers both previously worked at NREL, although the older one is now a university professor in Wisconsin.
Aug. 19, 2019
A new paper reports a cell efficiency of 20.8%, representing a crossing point for the new group V technology relative to historic copper technology.
Aug. 16, 2019
NREL researchers believe wind plant operators can increase energy capture using plant-level controls. By steering individual turbine wakes away from downstream turbines, existing facilities can achieve annual energy production gains of 1%-2% depending on the plant size and design.
Aug. 13, 2019
NREL's Geothermal Laboratory Program Manager Kate Young and Operations Manager Caity Smith are members of the U.S. team selected as the new global chair of Women in Geothermal (WING), an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the education, professional development, and advancement of women in the geothermal industry.
Aug. 1, 2019
Cara Lubner's research focuses on a novel method organisms use to generate energy, called flavin-based electron bifurcation. How this works was a mystery until Lubner and other researchers at NREL discovered the secret.
Aug. 1, 2019
The research will attempt to solve the mystery of what really happens when white-rot fungi -- the best lignin degraders in nature -- meet lignin.
Aug. 1, 2019
Nitride semiconductors have played an important role in certain technologies, such as light-emitting diodes and radio frequency transistors, but these materials aren't found in nature.
Aug. 1, 2019
The three were among 70 other researchers from institutions across the country named in an announcement made by the Office of Science.
Aug. 1, 2019
Balancing the needs of food, water, and energy is becoming one of the most important trends in sustainability strategy, and we talked with one of its experts, Jennifer Daw, the group manager of strategy, policy, and implantation within NREL’s Integrated Application Center.
Aug. 1, 2019
NREL has released a 2019 update to the Annual Technology Baseline, a key source of reliable electricity generation technology cost and performance data used to support and inform electric sector analysis in the United States.
July 31, 2019
NREL's Chuck Booten shares how managing rental properties changed the way he thinks about buildings research and entrepreneurship.
July 31, 2019
A new NREL report, The Wind Energy Workforce in the United States: Training, Hiring, and Future Needs, assesses the national wind energy workforce and the hiring needs of the industry, along with the educational programs that are preparing students for work in the wind industry.
July 26, 2019
The newly published research in Nature Communications details how the NREL researchers refined the D-HVPE process to produce solar cells more than 20 times faster than the process now commonly used.
July 26, 2019
Earlier this month, NREL hosted a multi-stakeholder workshop to evaluate the growing potential for cybersecurity vulnerabilities on U.S. wind farms. The workshop, "Assessing the Impact of Cybersecurity on the Nation's Wind Farms," brought together the expertise of researchers across the national lab complex, the wind energy industry, original equipment manufacturers, cybersecurity product vendors, and standards organizations.
July 19, 2019
Leveraging the innovative spirit of the world’s startup community along with Shell and NREL’s resources, expertise, and facilities, the Shell GameChanger Accelerator Powered by NREL (GCxN) identifies and helps advance emerging transformative energy technologies with the potential to significantly impact the future energy landscape.
July 19, 2019
Expanded training and education programs are needed to meet future hydropower industry workforce needs, according to a new report produced jointly by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Center for the New Energy Economy.
July 16, 2019
NREL hosted twelfth annual symposium on energy storage.
July 16, 2019
NREL research could lead to the development of leading-edge, high-performance vertical transistors.
July 16, 2019
Winners of the PECASE are nominated by a participating federal agency--the Department of Energy in this case--with the final selections made by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
July 10, 2019
While solar generation helps to significantly reduce emissions in the energy sector, ground-mounted solar arrays can still lead to environmental impacts. NREL analysts argue that a new framework can help mitigate, or even avoid, environmental degradation.
July 10, 2019
Declining cost trajectory could pave the way for battery storage to serve peak electricity demand.
July 10, 2019
As wind technology grows in scale and productivity, researchers continue to look for ways to boost the energy captured while driving down costs.
July 8, 2019
NREL engineer Rachel Romero has been recognized with an ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award at the society's annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
July 8, 2019
Finding a solution wasn't easy. The NREL-developed process at first ran into the problem of a hydrogen deficiency.
July 8, 2019
Researchers provide early insights into the potential market impacts of the expansion of community choice aggregations, including how they might drive demand for renewable electricity.
July 5, 2019
As part of the DOE-sponsored Open Energy Data Initiative, NREL collaborated with Amazon Web Services to bring the lab’s WIND Toolkit and National Solar Radiation Database to the cloud, enabling unprecedented access to massive solar and wind resource data
June 26, 2019
Matching funds from the private sector will contribute $3,229,096 toward the commercialization of emerging energy technologies.
June 25, 2019
Researchers with the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines initiative have identified the six blendstocks from two chemical families that exhibit the greatest potential to dramatically increase efficiency when combined with petroleum-based fuels in boosted (or turbocharged) spark-ignition engines for light-duty vehicles.
June 24, 2019
The U.S. Department of Energy honored two NREL research teams for their outstanding achievements at the Vehicle Technologies Office's Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting.
June 21, 2019
Since joining NREL in 2018, Behavioral Scientist Paty Romero-Lankao has been a dynamic force in integrating the social sciences into the more traditional engineering approach to mobility research.
June 19, 2019
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently honored three NREL researchers for their outstanding achievements at the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting.
June 19, 2019
This summer, NREL supported a local camp that explores the intersection of art and science, giving campers the opportunity to make connections between creativity and future career paths.
June 18, 2019
Rebecca Hanes and team developed a new ground-breaking analysis, Quantifying Adoption Rates and Energy Savings over Time for Advanced Energy-Efficient Manufacturing Technologies, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
June 18, 2019
For the first time, researchers capture 3D images of the crystal structure inside of operating single electrode particles. The images revealed unexpected results, as detailed in a recent journal article.
June 17, 2019
New Mapping Application Visualizes Costs of Developing Renewable Energy Resources
June 13, 2019
As part of its partnership with ExxonMobil, NREL researchers will take a closer look at air pollutant emissions from the entire biofuels supply chain, as well as the resulting impacts on air quality.
June 12, 2019
The Waves to Water Prize invites competitors to help accelerate early-stage technologies through a series of contests. Participants will demonstrate small, modular, cost-competitive desalination systems that use the power of ocean waves to supplement existing technologies that can provide drinking water to remote and coastal communities.
June 7, 2019
Scientists and Engineers to Discuss Ways to Surpass Current State-of-the-Art for Transportation and Electrical Grid Applications
June 7, 2019
Renewable portfolio standards, or RPSs, can be designed in numerous ways. New research details best practices for ensuring RPS policies meet their desired objectives, highlighting examples from around the globe.
June 6, 2019
The seeds of microbiology were planted in the inquisitive mind of a young Steve Decker when a microscope—gift-wrapped with his name on it—arrived on a cold Wisconsin morning.
June 6, 2019
By looking closely at battery cells, researchers hope to unlock the secret to scalable lithium-ion battery recycling.
June 5, 2019
Solar cells made from elements in the third and fifth columns of the periodic table have been shown to be highly efficient at converting sunlight into energy, but their high costs pose a drawback and limited their use to niche applications.
June 3, 2019
Gruchalla's experience working on an icebreaker helps him design, build NREL's visualization lab, show researchers their projects in new ways.
May 28, 2019
We need the ability to plan our power, whichever way the wind blows. This means that system operators need real-time information--easily navigable and visually coherent--to truly build an intuition around wind power. They now have access to such a tool with WindView, a tool for visualizing wind power forecasts, created by NREL, Argonne National Laboratory, and University of Texas-Dallas.
May 24, 2019
NREL's recent groundbreaking advanced manufacturing work was on display at the InnovationXLAB Advanced Manufacturing Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on May 7-8.
May 21, 2019
NREL and Sandia completed a performance evaluation study, determining the Aquarius, high-performance computing cooling system provides a very high percentage of heat capture direct to water--as high as 98% when evaluation computer nodes only.
May 20, 2019
NREL experts are helping continue the momentum of U.S. wind power at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) WINDPOWER 2019 by making presentations, building industry connections, and sharing their research in a top DOE publication developed for conference attendees.
May 17, 2019
NREL’s wind plant performance optimization software framework, FLORIS, has been enhanced to provide greater usability and additional representation of flow physics.
May 14, 2019
New cohort of five agtech companies will validate their innovations with Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
May 10, 2019
Five startups shine among some of the world's best cleantech entrepreneurs.
May 9, 2019
In an effort to help stakeholders keep up, NREL has recently published a first-of-its kind comparison of some of the nation's most notable cleantech incubators and accelerators.
May 8, 2019
Middle school students from 19 schools across Colorado race their solar and lithium-ion powered vehicles at NREL's 29th Annual Middle School Car Competitions.
May 8, 2019
A new $100 million agreement between ExxonMobil, NREL, and other DOE national laboratories will focus on developing transformative advanced energy technologies with a focus on reducing emissions.
May 7, 2019
The society singled Beard out specifically for his "outstanding contributions to controlling ultra-fast carrier dynamics in nanostructures and perovskite semiconductors."
May 2, 2019
Plastics are essential to modern life--but it's hard to turn on the TV or browse the web without seeing poignant examples of the plastic life cycle extending far beyond usefulness. NREL Senior Research Fellow Gregg Beckham testified before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee about one possible solution to the plastic pollution problem: chemical recycling.
April 25, 2019
Adarsh Nagarajan is the group manager for Power System Design and Planning at NREL. One of his specializations includes finding solutions and understanding grid integration challenges of various emerging technologies, such as solar, wind, and energy storage systems. We sat down with Nagarajan to learn more about the exciting new collaborations he's part of at NREL.
April 18, 2019
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory report making a significant breakthrough by producing a tandem perovskite solar cell that pushes the technology closer to its maximum efficiency.
April 17, 2019
With support from USAID, NREL's International Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (I-JEDI) Model is a free, online tool for analyzing the economic impacts of renewable energy development in a specific country.
April 17, 2019
As a founding member of the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative, NREL has spent 15 years working to protect bats by developing innovative technological solutions to monitor and minimize wind energy's impacts to bats.
April 16, 2019
NREL and Georgia Institute of Technology announce a new joint appointment program as part of an effort to enhance research collaboration between the lab and universities.
April 16, 2019
NREL's cell and module performance recently developed a new procedure for measuring the power of commercial crystalline-silicon photovoltaic modules that reduces the uncertainty in module maximum power.
April 9, 2019
More than 85% of chemical processes rely on catalysts, but limited information on their cost can lead to roadblocks during early-stage research and development and along the path to commercialization. To address this challenge, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed a catalyst cost estimation tool that incorporates industry-standard estimation methods into an intuitive, user-friendly suite of tools.
April 2, 2019
NREL is supporting a new water prize to fund innovators who are working to address the non-regulatory challenges pumped-storage hydropower developers face when deploying new projects. The team aims to shorten commissioning times and reduce both risk and required up-front investments.
March 27, 2019
The patented device eliminates leaking air that comes with a window-mounted unit, reduces noise, and operates with more efficiency.
March 25, 2019
When a series of cyberattacks surged through the Denver Tech Center, NREL Cybersecurity Analysts Joshua Rivera, Adarsh Hasandka, and Anuj Sanghvi could just watch--and wait. That's because they were volunteers at the eighth Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.
March 21, 2019
A special NREL Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) procurement team is responsible for directly supporting almost $14 billion worth of upgrades to federal energy infrastructure projects using unique contracting and financing mechanisms, ensuring federal facilities received the energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades they needed.
March 20, 2019
Since its inception, the Colorado High School Science Bowl has given students the opportunity to engage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) enrichment beyond the classroom.
March 19, 2019
Advancements in wind energy have allowed the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere to drop considerably, and all without raising the levelized cost of energy. However, disposing of the materials used to create these energy-efficient machines can be complicated and have unintended consequences. Thanks to researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), this could soon be a thing of the past.
March 15, 2019
The initial Champion Module Efficiencies chart contains 73 data points, dating to 1988, and broken out into 19 different technologies.
March 6, 2019
Building owners and energy managers looking to evaluate renewable energy and storage economics for their site can use REopt™ Lite's custom utility rate tariff capabilities and an integrated critical load profile builder—new features that allow a more detailed energy analysis without leaving the tool.
Feb. 28, 2019
The U.S. Department of Energy recently launched the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize, with NREL as prize administrator. The $5.5-million phased prize competition is designed to incentivize American innovators and businesses to develop and demonstrate processes that, when scaled, have the potential to profitably capture 90% of all discarded or spent lithium-ion batteries in the United States.
Feb. 26, 2019
Urban planners have not historically dealt in energy issues, yet clean energy is a growing focus around the world and urban planners' role in energy transitions is evolving as demand increases.
Feb. 25, 2019
The 12th Beyond Lithium Ion Symposium will focus on scalable energy storage beyond the current state-of-the-art for transportation and grid applications.
Feb. 25, 2019
Annabelle Pratt is a principal engineer for the Power Systems Engineering Center at NREL. Pratt specializes in microgrid and home energy management systems (HEMS), and her work has included the evaluation of microgrid controllers and advanced distribution management systems (ADMS). We sat down with Pratt to learn more about her work and the newest research in these areas.
Feb. 20, 2019
A new report examines novel approaches to microgrid financing and deployment in sub-Saharan Africa, where about 600 million people live without electricity.
Feb. 19, 2019
The findings reveal gallium oxide wafers could be three to five times cheaper to manufacture than another related technology, silicon carbide.
Feb. 19, 2019
Driving down costs for algae-based biofuels and bioproducts involves enhancing algae productivity through selection of the most promising algae strains and implementation of effective cultivation strategies. To support this effort, NREL and its national laboratory partners formed a consortium project called Development of Integrated Screening, Cultivar Optimization, and Verification (DISCOVR).
Feb. 14, 2019
When industry, government laboratories, and universities work together, creative solutions can arise to environmental challenges. The latest example of this originated when NREL partnered with BHP--a global mining, metals, and petroleum company--to research sustainable ways to clean up legacy mining impacts and develop feedstocks for biofuels.
Feb. 14, 2019
NREL is participating in a project led by Oak Ridge National Lab to create a large-scale, real-time “digital twin” of traffic conditions in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Feb. 13, 2019
On January 9, a group of 20 undergraduate students from around the country participated in a mini-hackathon that melded their ingenuity and the lessons learned in the classroom.
Feb. 11, 2019
Dr. Achilles Karagiozis joins the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as the new director of the Buildings and Thermal Sciences Center on Feb. 19.
Feb. 11, 2019
A partnership between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the wind solutions company WindESCo, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy's Small Business Voucher Project, aims to improve wind plant performance by applying solutions that facilitate communication among turbines.
Feb. 4, 2019
In this DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Office webinar, researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will discuss the HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials (AWSM) consortium's extensive materials research capabilities to address R&D challenges in efficiency, durability, and cost.
Jan. 31, 2019
Download the 2018 ESIF Annual Report to get highlights on the ESIF's greatest achievements from the year. In 2018, research at the ESIF adapted and aligned to address the challenges that are shaping the electric grid today and into the future—from new types of partnerships, to developments in autonomous energy systems research, to a greater focus on energy security and resilience.
Jan. 31, 2019
Murali Baggu is the laboratory program manager (LPM) for grid integration at NREL. Through his work with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Electricity and Grid Modernization Initiative program, Baggu has been shaping the direction of power systems research at NREL. Baggu sat down with us to discuss his role at NREL and his work on various projects.
Jan. 29, 2019
The Department of Energy's Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP) project published three new pathways to use data to inform more strategic energy decisions at the local government level.
Jan. 21, 2019
Concentrating solar power (CSP) could play an increasingly significant role in generating electricity in the contiguous United States by 2050 if the technology's levelized cost of electricity can be lowered to goals set by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2016.
Jan. 10, 2019
A group of NREL researchers recently collaborated with expert modelers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Electric Power Research Institute to improve the treatment of variable renewable energy, such as wind and solar, in the flagship planning models used by these research organizations.
Jan. 9, 2019
NREL researchers Matthew Beard, Keith Emery, Giles Eperon, Joseph Luther, and Arthur Nozik were named among the most internationally influential scientists according to the 2018 list of Highly Cited Researchers.
Jan. 8, 2019
Researchers from NREL and two other national labs have discovered an alternative catalytic fast pyrolysis approach--using fixed-bed reactors and bifunctional catalysts--that significantly improves bio-oil yields and the overall economics of the process to turn biomass into biofuels and bioproducts.
Jan. 8, 2019
Now in production use, the ultra-efficient Eagle high-performance computer will power scientific insights to accelerate our energy system transformation.
Jan. 8, 2019
In this DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Office webinar, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories will expand on the Hydrogen Materials-Advanced Research Consortium's (HyMARC's) mission to accelerate the development of innovative hydrogen storage materials.
Jan. 8, 2019
This upgrade will enable megawatt-scale research that generates nearly twice that amount of power to occur at the same time--increasing opportunities for more grid-connected technologies, including solar panels, batteries, and additional wind turbines.
Jan. 4, 2019
Former tribal energy intern follows the wind to a career at NREL.
