Energy Analysis News
Explore our archive of Energy Analysis news stories.
Dec. 22, 2023
Homes across the country are incorporating new technologies, such as energy-efficient heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, electric vehicles, rooftop solar, and energy storage systems.
Dec. 18, 2023
Piles of cardboard and paper littering America's landfills represent $4 billion in lost economic value, according to a new analysis by researchers at NREL.
Dec. 12, 2023
NREL and Amazon, the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy worldwide since 2020, are working to modernize greenhouse gas emissions quantification using higher-resolution data and longer-term modeling.
Nov. 30, 2023
While enabling innovative technological advancements, the worldwide growth in advanced computing has created a looming energy crisis.
Nov. 28, 2023
WaterPACT involves collecting samples of plastics in waterways, gathering data about the size and scope of the problem, and eventually coming up with a solution.
Nov. 17, 2023
Decision makers who want to know the impact of potential R&D investments on their energy technology goals now have a new tool: the Technology Characterization and Evaluation (Tyche) software.
Nov. 16, 2023
NREL partners on LA100 Equity Strategies project to identify pathways for underserved LA communities to reap benefits of transition to 100% clean energy.
Nov. 16, 2023
After two years of robust modeling and gathering input from over 100 community members, 14 community-based organizations, and 31 additional stakeholder organizations in Los Angeles, NREL has synthesized its findings into equitable clean energy transition strategies for the city.
Nov. 7, 2023
The latest installment of NREL's Tell Me Something Grid series by grid researcher Luke Lavin discusses the value of combining multiple distributed energy resources to effectively integrate them into the power grid.
Nov. 1, 2023
The rapid adoption of zero-emission electric vehicles will move the nation close to an 80% or more drop in transportation greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from the 2019 level according to NREL.
Oct. 24, 2023
NREL's 2023 PV Cost Benchmark Report documents the potential cost impacts of Inflation Reduction Act manufacturing tax credits, reports costs for community solar, and presents a new transparent cost model.
Oct. 24, 2023
NREL is preparing to unveil a publicly available Solar Mirror Materials Database (SMMD) database containing the results of exposure experiments on solar reflectors conducted over more than four decades.
Oct. 10, 2023
A new report building on NREL's Storage Futures Study highlights challenges and opportunities to increase the value of longer-duration energy storage.
Oct. 9, 2023
As much as 20% of regional power needs along the Atlantic coast could be served by offshore wind farms by 2050, according to NREL.
Sept. 26, 2023
NREL's Elaine Hale discusses the importance of integrated modeling and analysis that capture the characteristics and behavior of multistakeholder systems with diverse objectives in how the electricity system evolves.
Aug. 17, 2023
Closed-loop pumped storage hydropower systems rank as having the lowest potential to add to the problem of global warming for energy storage when accounting for the full impacts of materials and construction, according to analysis conducted at NREL.
Aug. 3, 2023
The number of local zoning ordinances governing renewable energy deployment is growing in the United States, according to new research by NREL. The amount of land available to deploy renewables depends on the characteristics of the ordinances.
July 26, 2023
Four communities received funding to support adoption of permitting solution that speeds residential solar adoption.
July 11, 2023
In this Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A, Sam Reese shares how she ended up traveling around the world and how she is sharing her fix-it mindset with her kids.
June 30, 2023
Zero-emission energy systems have a gigaton-sized challenge: Waste carbon dioxide (CO2) will continue to flow into the atmosphere as long as steel, cement, and chemical plants exist.
June 28, 2023
On a road trip 15 years ago, Clayton Barrows passed by NREL and thought out loud about pursuing a meaningful career in power systems modeling at the laboratory. Today he is the group manager of Grid Operations Planning in NREL's Grid Planning and Analysis Center.
June 28, 2023
Informing energy transitions in the United States, NREL has released the 2023 Electricity Annual Technology Baseline (ATB), a realistic and timely set of technology cost and performance data (current and projected) for the electric sector.
June 21, 2023
A thin layer of gold or silver helps improve the efficiency of perovskite solar cells, but researchers have found a less expensive material that will enable commercialization of the technology without exorbitant cost.
May 5, 2023
An "unprecedented ramp-up of production capacity" over the next two decades is needed to provide enough solar power to completely decarbonize the global electrical system, but that goal can be achieved, according to an analysis led by researchers at NREL.
May 3, 2023
Communities that used SolarAPP+ processed more than 11,000 solar permits and eliminated more than 134,000 days of delays in 2022.
April 13, 2023
The Global Power System Transformation (G-PST) Consortium hosted international partners for a study tour across Colorado and Arizona.
April 6, 2023
Global experts on solar power strongly urge a commitment to the continued growth of photovoltaic manufacturing and deployment to power the planet, arguing that lowballing projections for PV growth while waiting for a consensus on other energy pathways or the emergence of technological last-minute miracles "is no longer an option."
March 27, 2023
The USAID-NREL partnership's Advanced Energy Partnership for Asia released a high-fidelity wind data set for Southeast Asia through the Renewable Energy Data Explorer.
March 16, 2023
When Chemical Engineer Arpit Bhatt and his NREL colleagues observed a gap in knowledge of how regional variables work together to affect sustainable aviation fuel production and delivery for individual airports across the country, they got to work—using Chicago O'Hare International Airport as a case study.
March 15, 2023
After a short period of dormancy, the Clean Energy Solutions Center has revitalized its programming and recommitted to its three pillars of activities: ask-an-expert services, trainings and peer-to-peer learning, and management of a comprehensive resource library.
March 13, 2023
In the latest installment of NREL's Tell Me Something Grid series, Amy Rose, a senior grid researcher, discusses how the Global Power System Transformation Consortium is supporting power system operators around the world with achieving reliable, low-carbon grids.
Feb. 22, 2023
NREL researchers developed a new tool, the Justice Underpinning Science and Technology Research (JUST-R) metrics framework, that aims to help researchers think more about the social impacts of technologies from the earliest stages of research and development.
Feb. 20, 2023
In the latest installment of NREL's Tell Me Something Grid series, energy systems researcher Pieter Gagnon describes the value of NREL's Cambium data sets for making decisions about the future grid.
Feb. 16, 2023
In August 2022, researchers journeyed to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to deploy NREL's first wave-powered desalination for a second in-water test. The wave energy converter produced desalinated water for the first time.
Feb. 9, 2023
The use of thermochromic windows in office buildings improves energy efficiency across all climate zones in the United States by modulating the temperature inside, leading to a massive savings, according to a research effort led by NREL.
Feb. 8, 2023
Did you know there is potential for more than 1.6 million new jobs to be created across America by the year 2030 to help build the country's clean energy future? Insights such as this are now available through NREL's State and Local Planning for Energy (SLOPE) Platform.
Feb. 8, 2023
The city of Tallahassee, Florida, has a long history of environmental stewardship and in 2019 set a goal to achieve 100% net clean, renewable energy by 2050. To assist in its planning efforts, the city sought insights from NREL.
Feb. 1, 2023
From geospatial modeler to role model, Anthony Lopez shines in the STEM community.
Jan. 31, 2023
A pair of NREL reports evaluates how the U.S. supply chain can evolve to support the national offshore wind energy target and position the industry for sustainable growth beyond 2030.
Jan. 30, 2023
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has selected Paul Denholm from NREL to be a 2023 fellow based on his contributions to energy storage and renewable energy systems.
Jan. 30, 2023
The PR100 one-year update on progress made during the first year of this two-year, stakeholder-informed study was presented to the advisory group of stakeholders and then to the public in a webinar on Jan. 23.
Jan. 26, 2023
Staffers from NREL were honored for their work in helping move the country further away from the use of fossil fuels. The Secretary of Energy Achievement Award ranks as the highest form of recognition for federal and contractor employees within the department (DOE).
Jan. 24, 2023
To reduce the emissions from natural gas service, blending hydrogen into natural gas pipelines could prove to be a promising, cost-effective pathway.
Jan. 18, 2023
Publications from eight teams capture insights for communities seeking to harness the resiliency and economic benefits of solar energy.
Jan. 17, 2023
Researchers at NREL examined the benefits and trade-offs of current and emerging technologies for recycling certain types of plastics to determine the most appropriate options.
