Bilateral Partnerships
NREL works with several countries to help advance renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions through collaborative R&D, analysis, and deployment.
Key partnerships include:
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 partners in Canada on clean energy projects including production of biofuels from large-scale cultivation of microalgae and thermochemical conversion of beetle-killed pines.
Caribbean Region
NREL is providing the Caribbean Region with training on energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and practices. Chile NREL is assisting Chile's National Commission on Energy (CNE) as it establishes a new renewable energy center to serve as a clearinghouse of information and analytic tools on RE technologies and policies.
China
NREL teams with Chinese partners on biofuels, wind, solar, and buildings projects. The biofuels work includes collaboration on ethanol synthesis processes. In 2010, NREL is coordinating an enhanced renewable effort with China supporting the US-China Renewable Energy Partnership signed by the DOE and China's National Energy Agency in late 2009. That work will build on a longstanding partnership on wind resource assessment and economic analysis. NREL has provided technical assistance to Chinese partners on photovoltaics (PV) standards and certification. The buildings work includes adapting building energy efficiency simulation models for use in China.
Costa Rica
The government of Costa Rica and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are creating an Energy Efficiency Center in Costa Rica. NREL will help create training programs and training materials to run two initial energy efficiency auditor courses.
Denmark
NREL is working with research institutes in Denmark on several large-scale wind projects including wind atmospheric flow, as well as aerodynamics and array interactions. As partners in the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the groups are also working on wind resource assessment through the Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) program. Joint research is also being performed on the analysis of integrating hydrogen storage in large-scale renewable energy systems and evaluation of wind/hydrogen generation and storage.
Dominica
NREL is assisting Dominica in assessing the viability of smaller, distributed wind generation as an alternative to traditional, megawatt-class, utility-scale turbines.
Finland
NREL is working with research institutes in Finland on feasibility biomass pyrolysis for power generation and transportation fuels, including market studies and life cycle analyses.
France
NREL is exploring cooperation with research institutes in France in the areas of concentrating solar power (CSP) heat transfer fluids, photovoltaic (PV) thin-film device development and performance rating and prediction of PV arrays, and joint research on lithium-ion batteries.
Germany
NREL's primary focus of work with Germany is solar energy. Projects include developing standards for durability and performance of CSP systems, cost and performance of advanced CSP storage systems, and solar resource assessment using satellite data analysis and forecasting (NREL and DLR performed joint resource assessment analyses in the UNEP SWERA project).
Haiti
NREL is assisting Haiti with use of energy efficiency and renewable energy to support reconstruction activities.
India
NREL teams with partners in India on biofuels, solar, wind, and building efficiency projects. This includes biodiesel life cycle assessment (LCA), solar resource and policy assessment, joint work on wind turbine testing and assessment, and energy-efficient building design in its commercial sector.
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 projects include resource mapping, methodology training, and outreach efforts at renewable energy industry events in India. NREL is also partnering with India on solar cities, policy analysis, and grid analysis. 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 India Resource Maps 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 several projects including the production of biofuels from microalgal feedstocks. 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 institutions in Japan on a concentrating solar PV project, as well as collaboration on vehicles and hydrogen.
Korea
NREL is working with partners in Korea on photovoltaic research projects and other RE areas.
Mexico
DOE/NREL and Mexico's Secretary of Energy/Electrical Research Institute are partnering on wind resource assessment and mapping, advanced wind technology development and testing, and technical assistance to the manufacturing industry.
Netherlands
NREL is working across a broad inventory of research sectors with institutes in the Netherlands, including joint policy-related research and publications, and analysis of wind wake effects at wind farms and wind costs (with the IEA). Future work will expand to joint research on biofuels, PV thin-film devices, and international collaboration on broad analysis issues and Web-based information and tools development.
Peru
NREL is supporting the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines as it develops an Energy Efficiency Center.
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.
Spain
NREL collaboration with research institutes and companies in Spain includes CSP component and system characterization and assessment, assistance for wind turbine and blade test center development, and PV thin-film cell research and cell/module testing.
Sweden
NREL is collaborating with institutes and universities in Sweden in joint research on biochemical and thermochemical conversion of biomass to transportation liquid fuels. Research topics include biomass gasification kinetics, membrane technology for alcohol separation, and feedstock characterization and treatment for cellulosic ethanol.
Turkey
NREL is providing training and analysis to support utility-scale solar development in Turkey.
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.
United Kingdom
NREL joint research with institutes in the United Kingdom includes policy and market analyses, wind offshore technology development and testing, and ocean energy technology development.
More Information
See our NREL Programs page for more information about NREL's work in this area.
