News and Feature Stories
The following news stories take an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how NREL is advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
Subscribe
Stay connected with the latest news and research breakthroughs from NREL.
May 2024
May 31, 2024
Power System Model Results Made Easier
"It can help everybody because it should lead to better decisions in the end." That is the goal of a new resource developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, according to NREL energy analyst Wesley Cole.
May 31, 2024
5G and Microgrids Might Be a Great Match
To study the newest generation of wireless communications and what it offers power systems, NREL built a 5G research platform inside a replicated military microgrid and put it through resilience scenarios and cyberattacks.
May 31, 2024
Ice Breaker: Q&A With Director of NREL's Alaska Campus
Originally a mechanical engineer, Bruno Grunau now spends his days testifying before Congress, meeting regularly with the Alaska governor's office, and learning from Alaska's utilities, communities, and Indigenous people whose ancestors have lived here for thousands of years.
May 30, 2024
Longtime NRELian Arthur Nozik Elected Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
NREL Senior Research Fellow Emeritus Arthur Nozik investigates methods to turn photons from our solar system's star into fuels, chemicals, and electricity.
May 30, 2024
On the Road to Increased Transmission: Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems
Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems provide a way to steer electricity to less-congested transmission lines, like a navigation app.
May 22, 2024
Behind the Blades: How Jason Roadman's Daily Commute Inspired a New Career Path
Jason Roadman's interest in wind turbines began during his daily commute past the NREL Flatirons Campus. This curiosity, coupled with a desire to use his aerospace engineering skills to make a positive impact, led him to a career at NREL.
May 22, 2024
Understanding Bifurcating Enzymes Could Lead to More Efficient Renewable Fuel and Chemical Production
One method organisms control and manipulate energy for cellular metabolism and survival is the focus of an award-winning NREL research team: flavin-based electron bifurcation.
May 22, 2024
Asimily Joins Second Cohort of Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator
The Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator (CECA) program recently selected Asimily for Cohort 2. Asimily joins runZero as the cohort's second participant.
May 20, 2024
Zero-Energy Design From The University of Arizona Earns Top Honors in the Solar Decathlon 2024 Design Challenge
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon®—DOE's longest-running student competition—announced the winners of the 2024 Design Challenge at a livestreamed awards ceremony on April 21!
May 20, 2024
Star Tech: Eric Payne on Joy of Taking an Idea, Getting a Patent, and Helping Create a Company
Senior Licensing Executive Eric Payne was named a Distinguished Member of Operations Staff in NREL's first cohort.
May 20, 2024
DuraMAT Forecasts How New Photovoltaic Module Technologies Might Perform Over 20, 30, or 50 Years
For the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry, rapid growth can produce rapid—and sometimes unpredictable—changes.
May 20, 2024
Startups Break New Ground at 2024 Industry Growth Forum
NREL's 29th annual Industry Growth Forum sold out for the second year in a row with nearly 900 attendees.
May 20, 2024
Venu Garikapati Designated as Chair of Transportation Research Board Committee on Travel Choices
NREL's Venu Garikapati, a senior transportation data researcher, started his three-year term as chair of the Transportation Research Board's Technical Committee on the Effects of Information and Communication Technologies on Travel Choices on April 15, 2024.
May 16, 2024
NREL's Open-Source Vehicle and Mobility Tools Offer Routes to Reduce Transportation Energy Use, Emissions
Energy efficiency and on-road performance are central to the future of transportation and the clean energy transition.
May 16, 2024
On the Road to Increased Transmission: Dynamic Line Ratings
Dynamic line ratings provide one way to increase transmission on the U.S. grid while cutting costs and improving reliability.
May 15, 2024
Mastering Fundamentals: First Step for Promising New Sustainable Vehicle Fuels
NREL's fuels and combustion researchers studied the combustion and chemical properties of a potential new biodiesel made by sugar-eating bacteria. This fundamental research is a necessary step to creating well-vetted, reliable, and appropriate new vehicle fuels to hasten the clean energy transition.
May 15, 2024
Winners of Second Phase of Wind Prize Bring Floating Offshore Wind Energy Closer to Fruition
The U.S. Department of Energy just announced the five teams who took home $450,000 each in Phase Two of the FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess (FLOWIN) Prize.
May 15, 2024
NREL Battery Supply Chain Database Maps Out the State of North America's Manufacturing Base
As the United States continues to transition to clean energy, strengthening the domestic supply chain by increasing the availability of critical materials and domestic manufacturing is paramount to enabling greater domestic manufacturing.
May 15, 2024
Resilience at the Edge: City of Eastport Considers Harnessing Tidal Power for Island Microgrid
The 1,300 people who call Eastport, Maine, home live in the easternmost point in the continental United States. The bridged island, connected to the mainland by a single causeway, faces powerful Atlantic Ocean winds and is susceptible to disruptive power outages. But it was not always that way.
May 14, 2024
New Device Architecture Enables Streamlined Production of Formic Acid From CO₂ Using Renewable Electricity
A research team led by NREL developed a conversion pathway to produce formic acid from CO₂ with high energy efficiency and durability while using renewable electricity.
May 13, 2024
NREL Celebrates Fiscal Year 2023 Staff Awards and Tech Awards
NREL's Staff Awards event has taken place annually since 1980.
May 10, 2024
New Database Aims To Accelerate Electrocatalyst Development Through Atomic-Scale Insights
The quest for more productive catalysts for the creation of sustainable fuels and commodity chemicals via electrochemical reactions just became easier.
May 10, 2024
Water Research Hub Earns 5 More Years of Funding
Launched in 2019, the National Alliance for Water Innovation is a research hub that brings together a world-class team of partners from industry and academia as well as the hub's public membership organization.
May 9, 2024
NREL Biomass Technology a Cornerstone of SAFFiRE Renewables Biofuel Pilot Plant Going Up in Kansas
On its path to opening a facility designed to turn agriculture residue into a scalable biofuel business, SAFFiRE Renewables, LLC plans to break ground on its pilot plant near Liberal, Kansas, in late 2024.
May 8, 2024
Zooming in on Electric Vehicles: How Duluth, Minnesota, Is Preparing for the EV Future
Nearly 33 million electric vehicles (EVs) nationwide—that is the number of vehicles the Unites States should be prepared to support through a national charging network by the year 2030, researchers at NREL estimated in a recent landmark study.
Share