Multilateral Partnerships
NREL works with international agencies to advance the development and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and to conduct global and regional energy assessments.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
NREL provides analytical support in the area of biofuels for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and its Biofuels Task Force. Several products were developed in FY08, including a survey of biomass resource assessments and an APEC Biofuels Web site. NREL is continuing work on a biomass resource assessment on marginal lands.
Asia-Pacific Partnership
In cooperation with international institutions, NREL provides technical support to U.S. government initiatives under the Asia-Pacific Partnership (APP). The lab supports three distinct APP working groups including Building Materials and Appliances, Power Generation, and Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation. With a focus on the Chinese and Indian energy sector, these collaborations focus on engaging NREL technical expertise to remove market barriers and to improve technology awareness and access. These efforts include improved building performance modeling, enhancing access to renewable energy resource data, and improving testing methodologies for photovoltaics.
Energy Development in Island Nations
NREL is providing technical support for the International Partnership for Energy Development in Island Nations (EDIN), which was launched by the United States and New Zealand. EDIN aims to further the development of energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies in island nations and territories by working on projects that help develop clean energy technologies, policies, and financing mechanisms. The partnership will focus on deploying the maximum amount of RE and EE technologies possible to achieve specific, measurable clean energy targets.
International Clean Energy Cooperation
NREL's International Advisory Council launched a series of consultations with representatives from the clean energy business and financial community and nongovernment organizations to seek broad input on U.S. programs to advance global clean energy cooperation.
The group has identified four overarching strategies to advance this goal:
- Establish government-wide goals, an action plan, and strengthened international leadership
- Revitalize U.S. investment-facilitation programs
- Accelerate clean energy technology cooperation
- Pursue market-reform partnerships with key developing countries.
These strategies and actions in support of each are presented in a new report (PDF 1.4 MB) available on the NREL Web site. Download Adobe Reader.
International Energy Agency
NREL provides technical support to DOE for work under International Energy Agency (IEA) technology implementing agreements in the areas of biomass, buildings, solar, wind, and hydrogen. NREL conducts a variety of activities with partners from other countries through these IEA agreements, including sharing research results and methods, developing performance and testing standards, and conducting joint technology assessments.
International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation
NREL is assisting DOE/EERE in design of technical activities in support of the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC), an initiative launched by the United States, Japan, the European Union, and Russia to promote energy efficiency best practices around the world. NREL is teaming with others to evaluate energy efficiency policies and programs, data, and analytic tools as well as share information on best practices in theses areas.
International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy
NREL supports the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) through its work with the HyWays IPHE program. This effort assesses and compares the development efforts for the European Hydrogen Energy Roadmap prepared by HyWays with international road mapping or comparative activities of IPHE partner countries. NREL has participated in an in-depth assessment and comparison of the individual elements of the national/regional strategies, modeling approaches, and experiences in the European Union and the United States. This includes infrastructure analysis; stakeholder consultation processes; actor analysis; micro–, meso– and macro-economic modeling; well-to-wheels (WtW) analyses; cash-flow analysis; interfaces and interaction between the different types of models used; and scenario development.
More Information
Also access the Climate and Environmental Initiatives and Global Energy Assessments and Knowledge Transfer sections for information on multilateral partnerships in these topic areas.
