Bilateral Partnerships
NREL works with several countries to help advance renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions through collaborative R&D, analysis, and deployment.
Brazil
NREL is working with partners in Brazil to perform a life-cycle assessment of biofuels. This is part of a multiyear effort to examine the sustainability of biofuels, direct/indirect land-use change, the benefits of integrated biorefineries (greenhouse gas reductions), and international conservation. NREL is also collaborating with partners in Brazil on advanced biofuel production R&D methods, standards, and analysis tools. In the solar area, NREL's National Center for Photovoltaics is working with Brazilian scientists on silicon solar cell technology.
Canada
NREL is working with the National Research Council of Canada (ICPET) to collaborate on future fuels research and development for conventional and homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines.
China
NREL supports biofuels, wind, rural electrification, photovoltaics (PV), and buildings projects in China. The biofuels work includes collaboration on ethanol synthesis processes and organism evaluation, pretreatment, and resource supply characterization. Regarding wind technologies, China and NREL have a continuing partnership on multi-gigawatt project analysis. NREL has assisted China with rural system design and finance evaluation methods now incorporated into rural electrification regulations. NREL has provided technical assistance to Chinese partners on PV standards and certification, and is working with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to establish a world-class measurement and characterization facility in China. The buildings work, part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership, includes developing data sets of simulation inputs that are specific to China and performing climate-sensitive analyses to identify energy efficiency solutions for the Chinese commercial buildings sector.
European Union
The following describes some of the current activities with individual countries in the European Union (EU). NREL also is assisting the Department of Energy (DOE) in advancing collaboration with the European Commission.
Denmark – Implementing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with RISO National Laboratory on wind and other renewable energy development.
Germany – Developing collaborations with DLR (the German Aerospace Center) in the areas of concentrating solar power (CSP) and resource assessment.
Iceland – Developing geothermal research and analysis collaborations.
Netherlands – Developing photovoltaics (PV), policy analysis, wind, and biofuels collaborations with ECN (the Energy Research Center).
Spain – Implementing a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the Renewable Energy National Centre of Spain (CENER) on wind technologies (including blade testing and wind turbine computational codes) as well as solar power software; advancing partnerships on CSP with U.S./Spanish companies Abengoa, Acciona, and CIEMAT; and increasing joint work on photovoltaics with the Solar Energy Institute and Spanish division of the European Space Agency.
Sweden – Developing biofuels biochemical and thermochemical research collaborations.
United Kingdom – Implementing an MOU with the New and Renewable Energy Center (NaREC) on wind and ocean technologies research.
India
NREL supports biofuels, solar, and building efficiency projects in India. NREL is performing a biodiesel life-cycle assessment (LCA) on the environmental impacts of using jatropha biodiesel in rail transport compared with petro-diesel. The LCA model is under development, with initial input data provided by Indian partner IOC. NREL also will provide technical assistance with a cellulosic ethanol pilot plant with IOC and may work on jatropha development with General Motors and partners in India. Solar assessment projects include resource mapping in Rajasthan, methodology training, and outreach efforts at renewable energy industry events in India. NREL also is partnering with public- and private-sector partners in India to help advance energy-efficient building evaluation and design in its rapidly growing commercial sector. Activities include information exchange on high-performance building modeling, codes and standards, and innovative financing mechanisms for energy-efficient upgrades and building-integrated renewable energy technologies. Access the Northwest India Resource Maps and Toolkit page for information on renewable energy resource potential.
Israel
NREL is supporting implementation of a bilateral agreement between DOE/EERE and the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure to advance cooperation on renewable energy and energy efficiency. NREL is working with other laboratories, industry, and Israeli partners to expand collaboration in the areas of biofuels, concentrating solar power (CSP), and electric vehicle battery technologies. This work may be expanded to other topics in the future. NREL also partners with the U.S.-Israel Binational Foundation sharing scientific connections and basic research. The program is based on a 1977 treaty between the United States and Israel.
Japan
NREL is working with the Japan Petroleum Energy Center to share information and respective research regarding vehicle exhaust emissions.
Korea
NREL is working with the Korean Institute of Science and Technology to research electron transport and recombination kinetics in dye-sensitized solar cells.
Newly Independent States
NREL supports the Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (GIPP) of DOE's National Nuclear Safety Administration. Collaborative projects in this program are designed to create civilian employment for former weapons scientists in the Newly Independent States (NIS) countries through the establishment of new enterprises and joint ventures in the NIS countries. NREL's current GIPP projects engage partners in Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and the Ukraine. These cooperative efforts have produced a number of patented inventions and commercial applications in areas including III-V photovoltaic devices, tunable microwave devices for personal electronics, diamond-like coatings, and nanofiber water filters.
South Asia
NREL has worked with USAID's South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy (SARI/E) to develop wind and solar resource data for several countries in the region. These data also have been incorporated into analytical tools to identify potential development areas and identify project opportunities. Outreach and training events have been held in each area where resource assessments have been completed. NREL also provides additional training and technical assistance in regions and for topics identified by USAID and country partners working in collaboration with NREL. The USAID/SARI/E program promotes energy security in South Asia through three activity areas: (1) cross border energy trade, (2) energy market formation, and (3) regional clean energy development. Through these activities SARI/E facilitates more efficient regional energy resource utilization, works toward transparent and profitable energy practices, mitigates the environmental impacts of energy production, and increases regional access to energy. SARI/Energy countries include: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. NREL's focus in SARI/E has been in promoting clean energy development through removal of resource information barriers in participating SARI/E countries.
United Arab Emirates
Through its relationship with the United Nations Environment Programme, NREL is supporting the development of solar and wind resource maps and related geospatial analytic tools for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In addition, NREL is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy and its network of national laboratories to provide technical support to Masdar under the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company. This includes support to Masdar City, the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city currently under development.
More Information
See our NREL Programs page for more information about NREL's work in this area.
