Program News
Access news stories from NREL's research programs.
Dec. 30, 2020
To expedite distributed energy resource integration and plan for more distributed energy generation, the Michigan Public Service Commission contacted NREL for help updating its rules.
Dec. 30, 2020
A recent feature story in IEEE Spectrum magazine covers current progress and the opportunities ahead for autonomous energy grids (AEGs), and how the Basalt Vista neighborhood has made NREL's vision for AEGs a reality.
Dec. 30, 2020
NREL has been awarded a large share of funds from the Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) 2020 funding program. NREL leads three projects. Two will target broad challenges in systems integration and the third will apply artificial intelligence to solar optimization.
Dec. 22, 2020
Make informed decisions about renewable energy system design and project economics with the latest version of NREL's System Advisor Model.
Dec. 22, 2020
A team of experts from NREL and several collaborating institutions have published the Research Roadmap on Grid-Forming Inverters, a comprehensive guide to understanding inverter-dominated power systems. The roadmap provides a system-wide perspective on the integration of inverter-based resources.
Dec. 21, 2020
This year's JUMP into STEM competition pushed students to research, collaborate, and develop possible solutions for three key issues facing the building science industry.
Dec. 18, 2020
For nearly a decade, JISEA has supported analysis and dialogue on the potential of nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems to provide sustainable, cost-effective, and reliable power, heat, and other energy services.
Dec. 18, 2020
Researchers from NREL and the University of New South Wales achieved a new world-record efficiency for two-junction solar cells, creating a cell with two light-absorbing layers that converts 32.9% of sunlight into electricity.
Dec. 17, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition has announced that 35 teams from 34 schools are advancing as finalists in the Class of 2021 program.
Dec. 17, 2020
NREL researchers are working to fast-track the development of tomorrow's cost-effective marine energy technologies, thanks to an ARPA-E SHARKS funding award.
Dec. 16, 2020
Two awards totaling nearly $10 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program will support two research projects at NREL and partner laboratories that aim to analyze and reduce biosecurity risks of promising bioengineered organisms.
Dec. 16, 2020
In their new report, "Workforce and Economic Development Considerations from the Operations and Maintenance of Wind Power Plants," NREL researchers Matthew Kotarbinski, David Keyser, and Jeremy Stefek seek to expand our understanding of wind's economic impact by examining O&M worker integration in communities.
Dec. 14, 2020
Determining how many years a solar panel will last can take, well, years. Intended to function for 25 years or more, solar panels must be made to withstand the elements. In some cases, panels continue working well after their planned operational lifetime. Nowhere is this more evident than on the sunny hillside where NREL operates the Outdoor Test Facility.
Dec. 9, 2020
The NREL wind program's top 2020 achievements demonstrate not only the laboratory's scientific and research abilities, but also its clear vision for wind energy advancement.
Dec. 4, 2020
While research continues to move perovskite solar technology toward commercialization, scientists at NREL are investigating how to manufacture them with human health in mind.
Dec. 4, 2020
For the first time, researchers with DOE's Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative have shared scientific details that will help the research community and industry identify viable candidates for bio-based fuels that can maximize performance and efficiency when used in turbocharged spark-ignition (SI) engines.
Dec. 3, 2020
Explore 45 forward-looking scenarios and a new interactive data viewer with the latest release of our flagship Standard Scenarios.
Dec. 2, 2020
National Wind Technology Center researchers at NREL apply a range of modeling expertise and tools to help industry, government, and research partners gain objective understanding of the balance among potential offshore wind costs, revenues, and risks within the context of technical, legal, regulatory, tax, and policy issues.
Dec. 2, 2020
The early days of the ongoing pandemic were marked by shortages of personal protective equipment and coronavirus testing materials. To help overcome those challenges, an NREL research team led by Samantha Reese and Alberta Carpenter identified pinch points in the manufacturing process due to simultaneous shortages and increased demand for face shields, N95 respirators, and materials used in coronavirus tests.
Dec. 2, 2020
The Electrochemical Society (ECS) headquarters has awarded the 2021 Energy Technology Division Research Award to Bryan Pivovar, a researcher in the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center at NREL.
Dec. 1, 2020
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Transportation Secure Data Center (TSDC), a national resource providing free online access to a veritable treasure trove of detailed travel behavior data applicable for a host of research applications.
Nov. 30, 2020
An NREL team and external collaborators have invented near-replicas of energy systems—realistic down to individual devices and up to interstate power transmission. The team's creation, Smart-DS, is set to become the new standard in modeling and simulating energy system scenarios.
Nov. 25, 2020
Since joining NREL as a summer intern in 2015, Tarek Elgindy has since become a key engineer, developing SMART-DS: Synthetic Models for Advanced, Realistic Testing: Distribution Systems and Scenarios through the Power Systems Engineering Center.
Nov. 25, 2020
Eight researchers affiliated with NREL are on this year's list of Highly Cited Researchers compiled by Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science Group, with four identified for their influence beyond their own scientific specialty.
Nov. 24, 2020
New feature of NREL's electric vehicle infrastructure projection tool helps utilities, agencies, and researchers predict hour-by-hour impact of charging on the grid.
Nov. 18, 2020
NREL will lead a new collaborative research and development project known as HyBlend to address the technical barriers to blending hydrogen in natural gas pipelines.
Nov. 18, 2020
NREL researcher Scott Jenne and his team are paving the way to the development of the wave energy generation devices of tomorrow.
Nov. 18, 2020
A power outage involving a transformer at NREL's Flatirons Campus provided an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of the new Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) research platform. ARIES was used to repower the Campus exactly as envisioned for renewable microgrid systems of the future.
Nov. 16, 2020
NREL stands at the forefront of the groundbreaking work to improve battery performance, combining extreme fast charging initiatives with grid integration opportunities to meet energy demands.
Nov. 16, 2020
Researchers at NREL are taking a plant-level, systems-engineering approach to maximize offshore wind systems' energy output, lifespan, and economic feasibility, while minimizing forces on individual wind turbines.
Nov. 13, 2020
An NREL-led project is developing tomorrow's tough electronic devices capable of withstanding temps of 600°C and other harsh conditions.
Nov. 11, 2020
The STEM Hydropower and Marine Renewable Energy portals bring all things water power to educators and students. Learn more about the recently added resources.
Nov. 10, 2020
To predict the future, it helps to know a thing or two about the past. If you want to track down where the next viral hotspot might be, it is useful to know how those spreading the disease are moving.
Nov. 10, 2020
As electric vehicles (EVs) have increased in popularity over the past few years, the infrastructure to charge them has similarly expanded along interstate highways, at workplaces, and at public parking lots across the country.
Nov. 9, 2020
NREL has issued a call to action for U.S. manufacturers of small- and medium-sized wind turbines by issuing a notice of intent under the Competitiveness Improvement Project to allow companies to prepare project ideas and teams in advance of a request for proposals planned for release in early 2021.
Nov. 6, 2020
NREL and Argonne National Laboratory researchers have teamed with industry partners such as SKF, Winergy, General Electric, and Afton Chemical to understand the causes of axial cracking, create a design life equation that accounts for it, and develop and validate solutions to reduce this and other causes of gearbox failure.
Nov. 5, 2020
Moving from a linear to a circular economy for energy materials starts with research and development. JISEA Analyst Garvin Heath and a team of researchers are leading the charge.
Nov. 5, 2020
WESyS simulates the possible evolution of the U.S. waste-to-energy industry based on industrial, technological, and policy-related factors.
Oct. 30, 2020
Wind energy industry employment grew more than 50% over 5 years, and yet, 68% of wind energy employers have difficulty filling entry-level jobs, and 83% of students or recent graduates say it is hard to find a position in wind energy. This wind workforce gap is the subject of a recent NREL survey.
Oct. 30, 2020
2020 JUMP into STEM winners were undaunted by the shift of JUMP into STEM's summer internship programs to a virtual experience, and NREL staff members committed to providing a meaningful virtual opportunity for the interns.
Oct. 30, 2020
A new publication looks toward the future of renewable energy and explains research direction in the areas of renewable energy transmission, consumption, and generation.
Oct. 29, 2020
The DOE's researcher-entrepreneurship program forges ahead virtually under the leadership of Shelly Curtiss, former executive director of the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association.
Oct. 29, 2020
As a cybersecurity researcher in NREL's Energy Security and Resilience Center, Charisa Powell spends her time developing current strategies for energy-sector organizations to be vigilant and resilient in their cybersecurity safeguards.
Oct. 27, 2020
The NREL-composed team developed a solid state transformer that allows the independent regulation of solar, battery, load, and grid sources. The team is further working to optimize the technology's performance and cost efficiency.
Oct. 27, 2020
On Oct. 19, DOE announced the 19 Innovation Contest winners of the Solar Desalination Prize, a $9 million prize competition designed to increase access to fresh water and strengthen water security in the United States.
Oct. 26, 2020
NREL named Jennifer Kurtz director of the newly formed Energy Conversion and Storage Systems Center. The new cross-cutting center is dedicated to systems engineering for energy conversion and storage technologies such as batteries, hydrogen, geothermal, thermal, and water power.
Oct. 20, 2020
The consortium will focus on two critical problems that are both essential to tackle the plastics pollution problem. The first challenge is how to upcycle today's waste plastics in a way that incentivizes their reclamation. The second undertakes the challenge of wholly redesigning tomorrow's plastics to be recyclable-by-design.
Oct. 20, 2020
As a University of Texas graduate student in 2011, Ben Sigrin tried to understand how people make decisions about purchasing or leasing rooftop solar panels. He quickly found that it is not black or white—and that there is no average consumer.
Oct. 19, 2020
NREL's Distributed Generation Market Demand (dGen) model is publicly available for the first time. Public users can access model methodology and instructions, run the code, and receive technical support from the dGen team.
Oct. 19, 2020
NREL announces concurrent launch of DEVELOP Competition and 90-day DESIGN Contest.
Oct. 19, 2020
NREL researchers are collaborating with academic, conservation, regulatory, and industry partners to understand the potential effects of offshore wind installations on the environment while maintaining optimal energy production.
Oct. 15, 2020
NREL researches, develops, and demonstrates technologies to advance the use of geothermal energy as a clean, renewable, domestic power source for the United States. This research will be showcased during the Geothermal Resources Council 2020 Annual Meeting and Expo, October 18–23, 2020.
Oct. 15, 2020
Get to know tomorrow’s blue economy trailblazers: the recently announced 2021 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition teams.
Oct. 15, 2020
As a partner in a new U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored initiative, NREL aims to bridge energy resiliency gaps by providing resources and access to on-the-ground support for remote and islanded communities seeking to transform their energy systems and lower their vulnerability.
Oct. 12, 2020
NREL and Princeton University recently formalized the first joint appointment under a new master agreement between the two institutions, under which NREL's experts in computational science and combustion simulation will work closely with Dr. Michael Mueller from Princeton.
Oct. 12, 2020
On Sept. 23-24, 2020, NREL joined forces with the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) to host a high-power electric vehicle charging connector test event.
Oct. 8, 2020
The H2NEW consortium will conduct R&D to enable large-scale manufacturing of affordable electrolyzers that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Oct. 8, 2020
Global installed offshore wind capacity reached 27,064 MW in 2019—a 19% increase from the previous year. This and other trends can be found in the "2019 Offshore Wind Technology Data Update," released by NREL on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Energy Technologies Office.
Oct. 8, 2020
October 8—10/08—is National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day, a date chosen to represent the atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008). The U.S. Senate officially designated Oct. 8, 2020, as National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day with the passage of Senate Resolution 720, and Colorado's governor issued a proclamation to proclaim the date as Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day in Colorado.
Oct. 8, 2020
H2@Scale Initiative finds achievable 2X to 4X U.S. hydrogen market growth.
Oct. 6, 2020
Do not delay! The deadline for submissions to the JUMP into STEM competition is quickly approaching. Make sure your submission is in before Nov. 13, 2020.
Oct. 6, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition announces the list of schools participating in the Class of 2021 competition.
Oct. 5, 2020
DOE announces winners of the Solar Prize Round 2, awarding another $1 million in prizes to solar innovators.
Oct. 2, 2020
A new version of OpenOA has been released, which includes features designed to help wind plant operators identify and analyze the different factors that drive wind plant performance.
Oct. 2, 2020
To help the wind industry recruit the best and brightest and to provide students with the essential resources to set them on a path toward a rewarding career in the wind energy workforce, NREL, in partnership with the American Wind Energy Association, hosted a three-part Wind Workforce Webinar Series as part of American Wind Week.
Oct. 1, 2020
The FCC recently ruled that utilities can secure and prioritize their communications via broadband wireless in a spectrum that offers wide-area coverage. What does this mean for NREL and Anterix, who partnered to better understand resilient and secure communications for emerging energy systems?
Sept. 30, 2020
Algorithms developed by Andrey Bernstein have become the basis for a growing research agenda named autonomous energy grids. Now, Bernstein is revisiting math from his academic past to merge machine learning and distributed control for wide-scale energy systems operation.
Sept. 24, 2020
A combined award of nearly $40 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office will support NREL researchers, along with partners from universities and industries, to develop and scale up 11 groundbreaking bioenergy projects.
Sept. 17, 2020
Improvements to regulations governing PV-plus-storage and better standards for PV quality and safety will help India achieve their distributed PV targets.
Sept. 17, 2020
In a recently published journal article, NREL researchers investigated the soil impacts of solar PV array installations and considered how energy and agriculture can coexist.
Sept. 15, 2020
Do you have the technological know-how to develop the desalination systems of tomorrow? Help strengthen the United States’ long-term energy and water security by joining forces with the largest federal investment in water treatment research in 50 years.
Sept. 15, 2020
The Automated Mobility District (AMD) modeling and simulation toolkit makes it easier for researchers and city planners to quantify the advantages and disadvantages of similar transportation evolutions.
Sept. 15, 2020
Electric vehicles (EVs) typically produce fewer emissions than conventional vehicles, but when measuring emissions, the source of electricity matters. The emissions benefit varies from one state to the next depending on how the electricity to charge the battery was generated.
Sept. 14, 2020
We are inspiring tomorrow's water power workforce. Visit the updated STEM Hydropower and Marine Renewable Energy Portals and learn how.
Sept. 9, 2020
Seven U.S. manufacturers selected to enter into negotiation to receive DOE Competitiveness Improvement Project awards, designed to accelerate deployment of small- and medium-sized wind turbines across the country and lower the cost of energy from distributed wind.
Sept. 9, 2020
Among the winners of the U.S. Department of Energy's Waves to Water Prize DESIGN Stage, five industry teams are now ready to take their desalination design to the next level.
Sept. 2, 2020
The devastating hurricane that struck northwest Florida in October 2018 proved an ideal case study for a risk assessment tool developed by NREL.
Sept. 1, 2020
NREL recently released cOnvecting LAgrangian Filaments (OLAF), a new wake module included in NREL's OpenFAST wind turbine simulation tool. Programmed to generate realistic representations of the wakes of large, flexible turbine blades, OLAF can provide a complex, accurate model of the physics of turbine wakes, yet it can still run on a personal computer.
Aug. 31, 2020
A new online course called "Achieving Zero-Energy Building Design" was adapted from the "Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings" and unveiled in August. The training will give building professionals the knowledge to design zero-energy schools in any climate in the United States.
Aug. 28, 2020
Nine teams vie for the Fish Protection grand prize to be announced at the American Fisheries Society Virtual Annual Meeting in September.
Aug. 27, 2020
Finding energy solutions for a changing global climate and advocating for women to choose careers in science and technology drive Sakshi Mishra's mission as an energy researcher and power systems engineer.
Aug. 27, 2020
The first-ever Transportation Annual Technology Baseline consolidates U.S. vehicle and fuel technologies data for current and future markets through 2050.
Aug. 26, 2020
With support from U.S. Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), NREL developed the Distributed Energy Resources Cybersecurity Framework (DERCF), a web-based application designed to help users pinpoint gaps in their distributed energy systems' cybersecurity.
Aug. 26, 2020
In an effort to advance distributed wind energy innovation, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory invites manufacturers to express their interest in installing distributed-scale wind turbines as research hardware at NREL's Flatirons Campus, located south of Boulder, Colorado.
Aug. 24, 2020
NREL, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory launches the Groundbreaking Hydro Prize.
Aug. 24, 2020
A recent upgrade by NREL's Data Analysis and Visualization Group (DAV) has brought some order to laboratory data flow with a platform that makes data streaming and access much easier for ESIF researchers and partners.
Aug. 21, 2020
NREL is supporting Obermeyer Hydro Inc. in their efforts to design a cost-effective, highly flexible pumped-storage hydropower system that reduces project costs, shortens deployment timelines, and is optimized for U.S. energy storage requirements.
Aug. 19, 2020
Shared automated electric vehicles (SAEVs) may bring lower costs, reduced emissions, and a better travel experience, but their uncoordinated charging at scale could stress the electric grid and increase costs. So, an NREL research team explored the potential charging flexibility of future SAEV fleets.
Aug. 18, 2020
NREL plans to issue a request for proposals in September 2020 for colleges and universities interested in participating in the DOE Collegiate Wind Competition in the spring of 2022. The competition is designed to help prepare college students from a variety of backgrounds for careers in wind energy.
Aug. 18, 2020
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, launches its third JUMP into STEM collegiate competition this August.
Aug. 17, 2020
A new literature review suggests climate change is anticipated to impact regional and global energy systems, with varying magnitudes of effects across regions and technologies.
Aug. 14, 2020
The Technical Resilience Navigator, a resilience planning tool co-developed by NREL and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, helps organizations identify their resilience gaps and prioritize solutions that reduce risk from energy and water service disruptions.
Aug. 13, 2020
Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette introduced two new acronyms to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) lexicon on Aug. 12: RAIL and ARIES. RAIL stands for Research and Innovation Laboratory, while ARIES is short for Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems.
Aug. 13, 2020
Ocean Observing Prize competitors are integrating marine renewable energy systems with ocean-observing platforms to collect ocean and weather data that can be used to better forecast natural disasters.
Aug. 11, 2020
NREL has joined forces with Tetra Innovation Institute to advance a high-rate drilling system that could transform the geothermal industry. This game-changing technology has the potential to increase geothermal drilling rates tenfold and reduce well drilling costs by 75%.
Aug. 11, 2020
Four academic teams emerge victorious in the DESIGN Stage of the U.S. Department of Energy's Waves to Water Prize. Next up, they'll validate their designs in the ADAPT Stage.
Aug. 7, 2020
A study unveils a new strategic vision for floating offshore wind. NREL researchers identify barriers that must be overcome to bring down the overall cost of energy produced, then outline a vision for an integrated systems approach with the potential to significantly improve the market feasibility of floating wind plants.
Aug. 7, 2020
The Research Support Facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory continues to set an example for high-performing zero energy buildings worldwide in the design and construction process.
Aug. 7, 2020
NREL researchers have found a promising group of materials for tomorrow's super-efficient solar cells, demonstrating how a carefully designed molecule can efficiently split the energy imparted by one photon into two excited states and keep them separated for several microseconds.
Aug. 6, 2020
Resilient Energy Platform develops resources, trainings, and tools to help developing nations identify power system vulnerabilities and plan for sustainable, secure power systems.
Aug. 3, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office and NREL announced the winners of the American-Made Challenges® Individuals Taking Energy Action in Manufacturing (ITEAM) Prize.
Aug. 3, 2020
As part of an effort to recruit the best and brightest to the water power workforce, the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office and NREL launched STEM education portals for water power technologies.
July 30, 2020
For Jeff Logan, a curiosity came alive when he went to college. This curiosity has brought him around the world to study the clean energy transition.
July 29, 2020
Fei Ding is an electrical engineering researcher at NREL who publishes a substantial number of reports and articles about her work on grid resilience and reliability.
July 29, 2020
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
What can the Renewable Energy Potential (reV) model calculate when it comes to renewable energy potential? Just about everything.
July 16, 2020
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
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 9, 2020
Released each year, electricity-generation technology cost and performance data power forward-looking analyses at NREL and beyond.
July 9, 2020
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
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 6, 2020
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
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
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 30, 2020
Learn more about marine renewable energy, from powering remote coastal communities to the devices that predict hurricanes.
June 29, 2020
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 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.
June 26, 2020
This year, DOE funded 21 NREL submissions--worth more than a total $6.8 million--through its Technology Commercialization Fund, accounting for 25% of all funded projects, more than any other DOE national laboratory and improving upon NREL's 2018 total of 16.
June 25, 2020
According to NREL researchers, seasonal energy storage can facilitate the deployment of high and ultra-high shares of wind and solar energy sources.
June 25, 2020
As health care workers continue to fight on the front lines, NREL volunteers do what they can to help by manufacturing face shields for healthcare workers, paramedics, and firefighters in Colorado.
June 24, 2020
As hydrogen fuel cell electric cars and trucks grow in popularity, a new publicly available Hydrogen Filling Simulation (H2FillS) tool is laying the groundwork for the safe design of hydrogen fueling systems.
June 23, 2020
Challenging the best and brightest to unlock the power of the ocean, in August, the MECC will begin accepting applications for the 2021 competition.
June 22, 2020
What if carbon dioxide (CO2), a prevalent greenhouse gas, could be transformed into higher-value fuels and chemicals using low-cost, renewable electricity? Recent results from NREL may enable the scale-up of an electrochemical process to reduce CO2 that has not been possible until now.
June 19, 2020
Some soul-searching and road-tripping set her on the right route to her goal of working with NREL's System Advisor Model.
June 18, 2020
Eight of the 17 winning teams in the DESIGN stage of the Waves to Water Prize received awards for their entrepreneurial wave-powered desalination designs.
June 18, 2020
Eight teams from across the United States are working with NREL to develop and test novel applications of solar energy in rural communities and commercial-scale settings as part of the second round of the Solar Energy Innovation Network.
June 12, 2020
NREL experts and industry leaders focus their knowledge on focused sunlight—an on-demand, renewable power source.
June 11, 2020
During National Oceans Month, we celebrate water power researchers who are discovering innovative ways to harness marine energy to generate electricity.
June 10, 2020
Offshore wind, with its potential for domestic electricity-generating capacity of more than 2,000 gigawatts, could supply enough electricity to meet the needs of the entire United States twice over. NREL researchers are working with partners to make reliable, affordable, and accessible offshore wind energy a reality.
June 10, 2020
NREL has launched MHKiT, an open-source software designed to support marine and hydrokinetic R&D through data processing and analysis.
June 8, 2020
Passenger cars and light-duty trucks typically account for 55% of U.S. transportation energy use. Recently, sharp increases in demand for deliveries have pressed some commercial trucks—which usually account for more than 25% of transportation-related fuel consumption—into overtime.
June 5, 2020
Global Wind Day, celebrated worldwide on June 15, offers an opportunity to highlight NREL's leadership in wind energy research. On behalf of the U.S. DOE, NREL represents the United States by participating in 16 of the 18 International Energy Agency Wind Technology Collaboration Programme research tasks.
June 5, 2020
From workforce development programs that prepare young people for jobs in the wind industry to a new reference wind turbine that expands capabilities to assess offshore designs, NREL led some exciting projects featured in the Wind Energy Technologies Office's biannual Research and Development Newsletter.
June 1, 2020
Sandra Loi, project leader with the Technology Integration section in NREL's Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences, has been awarded the 2020 U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office Distinguished Achievement Award for her outstanding service to technology integration partners.
June 1, 2020
Daniel Bennett, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former director of research for the U.S. Army Cyber Institute at West Point, joined NREL in September 2019 as the senior technical advisor for NREL's Energy Security and Resilience Center.
June 1, 2020
A new National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) technical report details a milestone capability at NREL to develop, emulate, and visualize interconnected power and communications systems for the study of cybersecurity and distributed energy.
June 1, 2020
NREL has launched a new website featuring information on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard 1547-2018 for integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) into the modernized electrical grid.
June 1, 2020
The new standard, IEEE 1547.1-2020, clarifies the test and evaluation procedures to ensure distributed energy resources comply with established standard 1547-2018.
May 28, 2020
A new video and report explain the historical role of inertia in maintaining a reliable power system—and how this role is changing as the grid evolves.
May 28, 2020
The Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has announced $3.4 million in project funding for an NREL-led team in a new program designed to assess the delivery risk of grid assets' ability to provide expected power.
May 28, 2020
Research performed by the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI)—a joint effort between NREL and the University of Colorado, Boulder—shows how RASEI researchers traced the growth of individual cyanobacteria, providing new insights into the biological pathways that enable efficient photosynthetic growth, and ultimately high-value renewable fuels and chemicals.
May 22, 2020
Hydropower may be the missing puzzle piece that offers the flexibility and storage necessary to effectively bridge the gap between traditional and renewable resources on the grid.
May 21, 2020
This spring, a new cohort of Power Connectors joined the American-Made Challenges team following a competitive application process. The group was chosen for their expertise in areas that would ensure the success of competing teams and the overall program.
May 20, 2020
The NREL Education Programs team put their creativity to the test by hosting the 30th Colorado High School Science Bowl online for the first time in the event’s history. Cherry Creek High School's team won first place this year, unseating three-time champion Fort Collins High School.
May 20, 2020
NREL is supporting distance learning for K-12 students through exciting, hands-on Wind for Schools programs such as KidWind and NEED (National Energy Education Development).
May 18, 2020
Since taking the helm of NREL's vehicle technologies research in 2013, John Farrell has been instrumental in directing R&D initiatives for the U.S. DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office, ranging from high-density energy storage to vehicle automation, as well as co-optimization of fuel and engine technologies to vehicle-to-grid interactions.
May 14, 2020
The American-Made Challenges program is giving a boost to geothermal energy by bringing the additive manufacturing and geothermal industries together in its newest competition—the American-Made Geothermal Manufacturing Prize.
May 13, 2020
Learn about the Wind Workforce Webinar Series and how we are bringing the wind energy experts to you.
May 12, 2020
A new machine-learning tool developed at NREL has significantly speeded up calculating the thermodynamics of chemical reactions. Developed as part of the DOE Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines initiative, the new tool—called ALFABET—makes it possible for researchers to identify the most promising fuels for lower emissions and greater engine efficiency in seconds rather than days.
May 6, 2020
The Gulf of Mexico presents many advantages and unique challenges for offshore wind. Now, two recent studies conducted by NREL and funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have yielded promising results for the future of offshore wind energy in this region.
May 5, 2020
In the first stage of the Powering the Blue Economy: Ocean Observing Prize, participants launched on a 90-day mission to DISCOVER new ways to help overcome energy constraints that stand in the way of effective and comprehensive ocean observation.
May 4, 2020
NREL's partnership with the U.S. Air Force has led to smarter, stronger, and more flexible base infrastructure, strengthening their ability to execute its missions worldwide.
May 1, 2020
NREL and industry partner Anterix have validated essential communications functions over a 900 MHz private LTE network. Within the ESIF, the ability to transmit system protection signals at low latency to a network of devices was demonstrated on a realistic power system.
April 30, 2020
Based on user feedback, NREL recently upgraded the Materials Flows through Industry modeling tool for improved ease of use and enhanced accuracy in modeling the U.S. industrial sector supply chain.
April 28, 2020
NREL's residential battery test bed provides a research environment that allows any stakeholder to understand the inner workings of batteries—for any use (backup, self-consumption, arbitrage), from any vendor, and in any climate.
April 28, 2020
Jerry Davis works with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to develop renewable energy technologies for military operations and installations. Davis sat down with us to talk about his work on bringing advanced microgrid technologies and cybersecurity measures to support DoD and mission readiness.
April 28, 2020
On April 27, with support from NREL, the U.S. Department of Energy kicked off the Solar Desalination Prize, a $9 million competition that's part of the American-Made Challenges series. The competition is designed to accelerate the development of systems that use solar-thermal energy to produce clean drinking water from salt water.
April 21, 2020
NREL's pioneering thermoplastics work is helping close the circle, ensuring today's blades become tomorrow's blades, too.
April 16, 2020
This Earth Day, we recognize five teams of entrepreneurs who are integrating marine energy and desalination to provide clean water.
April 15, 2020
Scientists at NREL have performed a comprehensive review of a unique, emerging class of materials called chalcogenides that hold the potential for use in solar cells, water splitting, and other energy applications.
April 13, 2020
Three 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.
April 9, 2020
Bats are notoriously difficult to study, and there is still much we do not know about them. To help improve understanding of bats and their behavior around wind turbines, NREL is collaborating on several research and development projects funded by the U.S. DOE Wind Energy Technologies Office. These efforts are helping minimize wind turbine-bat encounters through monitoring, deterrence, and curtailment.
April 8, 2020
NREL has extended the U.S. Department of Energy's Competitiveness Improvement Project distributed wind request for proposals submission deadline to May 5 at 2 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
April 3, 2020
A collaboration between NREL and three other national laboratories has yielded new insight into the ability of bacteria to break down the hardy part of a plant known as lignin. The additional understanding of the process could open a path to industrial applications.
April 2, 2020
Over 26,000 megawatts (MW) of planned offshore wind capacity exists in the offshore wind development pipeline. Rapidly falling technology costs for offshore wind, including floating offshore wind technology, have aided the growth of this pipeline, and promise to help wind become a significant part of the power mix in coastal communities.
April 2, 2020
Phil Pienkos, who retired from NREL this month, already has his next project underway. He has been selected to participate in an international initiative called Fashion for Good that aims to bring sustainability into the fashion industry.
March 30, 2020
A new report summarizes findings from the first phase of the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines initiative, which focused on turbocharged spark-ignition engines for light-duty vehicles, identifying the fuel properties and engine parameters that mitigate knock and emissions, while maximizing efficiency and performance.
March 30, 2020
Researchers at NREL have developed a framework for quantitatively modeling resilience metrics to show communities and utilities the benefits of investing in resilience strategies for the grid.
March 30, 2020
After months of hard work, the efforts of American-Made Solar Prize Round 2 teams have been rewarded at Set! Demo Day, with 10 finalist teams each winning $100,000 in cash prizes and $75,000 in support vouchers to be used at national laboratories and other partner facilities.
March 30, 2020
Ben Kroposki works at the innovative edge of renewable energy in power systems, leading to his current role at NREL as director of the Power Systems Engineering Center.
March 30, 2020
NREL celebrates Women's History Month by highlighting the innovation and leadership of three women in marine energy research.
March 26, 2020
Researchers at NREL, working in collaboration with their counterparts in the Republic of Korea, have validated the potential of using a combination of perovskite and silicon to create solar cells that are more than 30% efficient. Their initial solar cell achieved a certified efficiency of 26.2%.
March 25, 2020
World-renowned photovoltaics expert and longtime NREL alumna Sarah Kurtz was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering for her contributions to the development of high-efficiency solar cells and leadership in solar cell reliability and quality.
March 24, 2020
NREL-led assessments are helping remote, off-grid communities such as Igiugig in Alaska identify self-sustaining microgrid options, while the team’s resource characterization work in Cook Inlet has the potential to deliver power to the grid for distribution across the state.
March 20, 2020
In light of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, NREL has changed the format of the 2020 Industry Growth Forum to an entirely virtual event.
March 18, 2020
What does it take to grow the clean energy industry long-term? Former director Charlie Gay was there at the beginning – and is returning to keynote the IGF’s 25th forum. Check out the list of 40 new presenting companies, posted here.
March 17, 2020
The vast majority of solar panels are living up to expectations for energy production after five years, according to a new analysis of 100,000 photovoltaic (PV) systems across the United States.
March 17, 2020
Sreekant Narumanchi was recently selected as an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) fellow. This recognition honors his extensive involvement with ASME and his excellence in mechanical engineering research at NREL.
March 16, 2020
In November, DOE announced the 20 CONCEPT stage winning teams, each awarded $10,000 from a $200,000 cash prize pool. Wielding their book smarts, seven academic teams were among the 20 winners.
March 10, 2020
NREL researchers demonstrated a new advanced material used to manufacture wind turbine blades to manufacturing industry representatives during a Women in Manufacturing (WiM) event.
March 9, 2020
NREL has released a new version of its FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) model for wind plant performance optimization. The latest update enhances FLORIS's ability to accurately design and analyze wind farm control strategies for larger arrays of turbines.
March 6, 2020
Science fiction authors and graphic artists from the Denver area joined NREL researchers as they unharnessed their imaginations during a unique workshop that used science fiction as a lens to explore the technological, social, and cultural aspects of a transition to a clean energy future powered by renewables.
March 3, 2020
To unlock the power of the ocean and the burgeoning field of marine energy, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office launched the first-ever Marine Energy Collegiate Competition. Fifteen teams, comprising undergraduate and graduate students, answered the call to participate, putting their heads together to develop innovative marine energy solutions to power the Blue Economy.
March 2, 2020
Biennial data compilation identifies changes in markets and power system operations as renewables are integrated onto the grid.
Feb. 28, 2020
A recent report from NREL has provided the first demonstration of how the revised standard helps improve stability of the overall power system.
Feb. 27, 2020
At a glance, the towns of Norman, Oklahoma, and Potsdam, New York, have little in common. You can say the same about Lakewood, Colorado, and Grayson, Georgia. In fact, all of these towns have one thing in common: a small business that applied for, and won funding from, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) for distributed wind.
Feb. 26, 2020
The REopt Lite web tool evaluates the economic viability of grid-connected photovoltaics, wind, and battery storage at a site. REopt Lite Open Source lets programmers, software developers, and researchers access the code behind the web tool.
Feb. 21, 2020
As new group manager for NREL's Energy Security and Resilience Center, Eliza Hotchkiss is developing resilience strategies for community, state, and federal agencies and organizations.
Feb. 20, 2020
Researchers at NREL and the University of Southern California demonstrated a new process to synthesize metal carbide nanoparticles that may be used to convert waste carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels or precursors to chemical products.
Feb. 19, 2020
New Data Compilation Includes Information on Industrial Energy Prices and Economic Activity for 2016-2018.
Feb. 19, 2020
What does it take to fast-track pumped-storage hydropower projects? Four hard-working teams of innovators may hold the answer.
Feb. 18, 2020
Across the country, teams of entrepreneurs are competing to build an innovative supply chain that addresses the collection, separating and sorting, safe storage and transportation, and reverse logistics of recycling lithium-ion batteries.
Feb. 18, 2020
The Waves to Water Prize competition invites participants to develop wave-powered desalination systems that can be deployed in disaster-relief scenarios and remote coastal locations to provide potable drinking water. DOE selected 20 teams as winners of the CONCEPT Stage of the prize.
Feb. 18, 2020
New edition also shows continued growth in U.S. installed wind and solar photovoltaic capacity, energy storage, and electric vehicle sales.
Feb. 12, 2020
NREL recently released the International Energy Agency 15-megawatt reference turbine, or IEA 15-MW for short, which features options for both fixed-bottom turbines and those with floating substructures. This open-source model can accommodate multiple software tools and will provide industry, researchers, and academics a public-domain tool for designing next-generation offshore wind turbines.
Feb. 6, 2020
The Hands-On Photovoltaic Experience is aimed at providing in-depth training and expertise on the latest in solar technology and advancements, with the benefit of individualized research training and access in a small-group setting.
Feb. 6, 2020
NREL was recently selected by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for a two-year, $500,000 collaboration with the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) and Global Marine Group to develop solutions to address commercial fishing access in U.S. offshore wind farms.
Feb. 5, 2020
Produced through the USAID-NREL Partnership, a new guidebook synthesizes a decade of lessons learned and best practices for conducting high-quality grid integration studies.
Feb. 4, 2020
Energy storage researcher Donal Finegan, a staff scientist at NREL, recently received the 2020 Young Scientist Award for his groundbreaking work at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF).
Feb. 3, 2020
The impact of NREL Principal Engineer Paul Torcellini's research can be seen in hundreds of commercial buildings worldwide. After three decades of dedication to energy-efficient buildings research, Torcellini has earned the distinction of ASHRAE Fellow.
Jan. 31, 2020
NREL researchers developed a framework for estimating the energy equivalence of transportation safety at intersections. The new framework evaluates the full economic costs of safety and their gross domestic product-weighted energy equivalences. Initial study results underscore the value of collision-avoidance technologies for benefits beyond safety.
Jan. 30, 2020
Through a partnership with NREL, Autodesk has added an integrated building-design-to-energy-analysis workflow to Revit, referred to as "BIM-to-BEM." By closely coupling building information modeling (BIM) with building energy modeling (BEM), Revit makes it easy for buildings professionals to evaluate the impacts of their design choices on energy use.
Jan. 29, 2020
DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office launched the Water Resource Recovery Prize, a $1 million two-phased competition designed to increase resource recovery from municipal wastewater treatment plants across the U.S.
Jan. 27, 2020
NREL's 21st Century Power Partnership shares energy planning insights and computational tools with analysts from the Brazilian Energy Research Office to support Brazil's plans for energy expansion.
Jan. 24, 2020
As leader of the Integrated Decision Support Group at NREL, Andrea Watson advances complex energy projects and programs that require strategy development.
Jan. 23, 2020
Perovskite solar cells have rapidly emerged in the past decade as an extremely efficient method to transform sunlight into electricity, but the issue of stability has so far kept them from commercialization. Four NREL researchers are part of a global consensus on the ways in which stability of perovskite solar cells should be assessed and reported.
Jan. 14, 2020
On November 6, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office awarded $128 million to 75 new projects that will advance solar technologies in five major areas. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) earned a major portion of this funding—nearly $20 million.
Jan. 13, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy has also taken notice of researcher achievements, providing interviews, career highlights, and advice from several NREL buildings experts on their website.
Jan. 13, 2020
Wind farm development in the United States often takes place in rural areas with land that is largely the property of farmers and ranchers who lease their land to developers. With wind power capacity additions projected to continue growing, rural residents often wonder if wind energy will be a good neighbor.
Jan. 10, 2020
In three days at NREL, undergraduates from across the country learn about energy research opportunities through lab tours and hands-on activities led by scientists.
Jan. 9, 2020
The contiguous United States has the technical resource potential to generate up to 32,700 terawatt-hours of electricity per year--more than eight times the amount of electricity consumed in the United States in 2018. However, significant cost and performance improvements in wind power technology are needed for the wind industry to reach this potential.
Jan. 7, 2020
A series of reports identify how Bangladesh, India, and Nepal might develop a coordinated regulatory framework to effectively implement cross-border electricity trade.
