Energy Systems Integration Facility News

Explore our archive of energy systems integration news stories.

Dec. 27, 2021

Sakshi Mishra Named One of Forbes' 30 Under 30

NREL researcher Sakshi Mishra was named to the North America 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy List, part of an annual recognition of groups of 30 young professionals in areas such as health care, media, and science.

Dec. 2, 2021

Q&A With Eric Lockhart: Centering Community Needs Within Clean Energy Solutions

Eric Lockhart leads the Integrated Decision Support (IDS) group at NREL, in addition to being the principal investigator for the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN), a project focused on novel applications of solar and storage in domestic settings.

Nov. 15, 2021

Interlaboratory Consortium Broadens Technical Support Opportunities for South Asia

USAID and three Department of Energy national laboratories partner to advance clean and sustainable energy in South Asia.

Nov. 4, 2021

News Release: NREL's Kate Anderson Honored for Clean Energy Leadership

The U.S. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) program has honored Kate Anderson of NREL for her leadership and achievement in the field of renewable energy.

Nov. 1, 2021

NREL Tool Provides Cybersecurity and Savings for Hydropower Plants

A new NREL and Argonne National Laboratory tool named the Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework provides hydropower operators complete and customized assessments of their cybersecurity risks and demonstrates how different investments will help improve overall resilience.

Oct. 29, 2021

Q&A With Jon White: Achieving Security by Design

NREL's Cybersecurity Program Director Jon White shares his own path into the field and the laboratory's strategy for deploying technologies that stay one step ahead of adversaries.

Oct. 28, 2021

Large-Scale Experiments Demonstrate Advanced Controls for Autonomous Energy Systems

In a breakthrough for the autonomous energy systems research program, NREL has demonstrated new methods for optimizing more than 1 million distributed energy resources with autonomous controls. The updated approach cuts the computation time by more than tenfold, enabling real-time distribution system optimization for economics and stability in high-renewable power systems.

Oct. 26, 2021

Nothing To Fear for High-Renewable Systems: NREL Shows Scalable, Resilient, and Secure Systems With Communication-Less Controls

NREL has shown that relatively simple controls can enable power grids to operate with 100% wind, solar, and storage, without the need for dedicated device-to-device communications.

Oct. 21, 2021

News Release: R&D 100 Awards Honor Two NREL Innovations

R&D World magazine today presented NREL with two of its annual R&D 100 Awards for research innovations.

Oct. 20, 2021

Energy Storage Ecosystem Offers Lowest-Cost Path to 100% Renewable Power

As states reach higher toward 100% renewable operation, energy storage will be key to enabling a more variable power supply. But no single technology will be a silver bullet for all our energy storage needs.

Oct. 18, 2021

Where the East Meets the West: Interconnections Seam Study Shows Value in Joining U.S. Transmission Grids

A novel multi-model analysis led by NREL explores the benefits and costs of uniting two of the world’s largest power systems.

Oct. 8, 2021

Electric Hydrogen Partnership Hopes To Repeat Success With Renewable Hydrogen Technology

An upcoming partnership with company Electric Hydrogen will draw on deep experience in developing breakthrough renewable technologies; this time, they are targeting robust and cost-effective electrolyzers for clean hydrogen.

Oct. 6, 2021

Introducing the Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator

An exciting new initiative has been created by DOE and NREL to catalyze the development of cybersecurity solutions for the nation's clean energy grid of the future. The Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator brings together federal infrastructure and expertise, asset owners in the energy sector, and technology innovators in a way that has not yet been done before.

Oct. 1, 2021

Compact Medium-Voltage Converters To Enable Advanced Grid Architectures and Operations

An NREL-led project is working on a new type of grid device that could segment sections of the grid, providing advanced control for flexibility and resilience for our power systems.

Sept. 2, 2021

Webinar Series Presents the Building Blocks of Cybersecurity

A new webinar series from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in collaboration with the Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) aims to raise awareness about all aspects of security and help utilities develop a well-rounded cybersecurity program.

Aug. 31, 2021

NREL To Lead Grid-Forming Inverter Consortium, Streamlining Renewable Integration at All Scales

NREL will lead the Department of Energy's new Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming Inverters Consortium to develop a universal set of guidelines enabling seamless integration of inverter-based resources like solar, wind, batteries, and electric vehicles.

Aug. 30, 2021

NREL Study Shows a Bright Future for Energy Storage in South Asia

NREL performed a first-of-its-kind assessment of opportunities for grid-scale energy storage in South Asia over the next three decades.

Aug. 12, 2021

NREL's International Programs Overcome Travel Restrictions To Provide Global Trainings

While COVID-19 Travel Restrictions Prevent NREL Researchers From Hosting In-Person Trainings, Virtual Solutions Are Creating Opportunities To Build Partnerships at a Distance

July 30, 2021

NREL Methods Assist Maui in Approaching 100% Renewable Operations

NREL is developing and validating multi-timescale tools that will bring Maui and other systems closer to 100% clean and stable energy futures.

July 30, 2021

Advancing NREL's Capabilities in Cybersecurity and Grid Communications

As group manager of NREL's Secure Cyber-Energy Systems group, Dane Christensen is seeking to mitigate the impact of cyberattacks and severe weather events on the grid.

July 30, 2021

Workshop Presents New Approaches to Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Supply Chains

A workshop hosted by the DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and NREL brought speakers from the counterintelligence community, national laboratories, and renewable energy industry to share their perspectives on securing power systems of renewables and distributed energy resources.

July 27, 2021

'Fort Renewable' Shows Benefits of Batteries and Microgrids for Military and Beyond

Early-stage companies used microgrid validations at NREL to size-up commercial systems, and the results have high-impact lessons for the larger grid.

July 20, 2021

NREL Open-Source Modeling Framework Cracks the Code of Simulating Low-Inertia Energy Systems

The United States has 37 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar capacity—enough to power over 4,070,000,000 LED lights—with an impressive additional 112 GW of capacity currently under development.

July 1, 2021

NREL Issues Request for Information on Advanced Distribution Management System Research

NREL is soliciting feedback from industry, utilities, grid operators, governments, and other grid stakeholders around applications of the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) Test Bed, a capability for validating advanced grid architectures, controls, and operations.

June 29, 2021

NREL Follows Up Groundbreaking LA100 Study With New Equity Strategies Initiative

Partnership with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power continues with stakeholder-driven effort to ensure equitable transition to 100% renewable energy for Los Angeles.

June 29, 2021

From Satellite Launches to Expert Energy Analysis for Earthlings

NREL's Modeling and Analysis Group is an interdisciplinary team of technical experts who support government and private entities with techno-economic modeling and analysis of energy efficiency, renewable energy, storage, and microgrids.

June 28, 2021

NREL Finds Keeping Renewables at Today's Levels—or Limiting Their Growth—Results in Higher U.S. Power System Costs

Simulations show nonlinear relationship between renewable contribution and costs—and that the U.S. can get to 80+% renewables at the same cost as keeping the system at today’s 20%.

June 24, 2021

North American Renewable Integration Study Highlights Opportunities for a Coordinated, Continental Low-Carbon Grid

Multiyear analysis shows that increasing electricity trade between countries and expanding interregional transmission can support a reliable future power system.

June 22, 2021

Study Kicks Off Multiyear Effort To Modernize U.S. Electricity Markets

To address challenges for future electric markets, a major research collaboration has published its first study for a national project targeting grid modernization and understanding current market design challenges and opportunities.

June 17, 2021

Are Hybrid Systems Truly the Future of the Grid? NREL's Magic 8-Ball Says: "Concentrate and Ask Again."

Recent analyses suggest a need for coordinated dialogue and consistent modeling to understand the value of hybrid renewable energy systems.

June 16, 2021

The Challenge of the Last Few Percent: Quantifying the Costs and Emissions Benefits of a 100% Renewable U.S. Electricity System

Large-scale simulations by NREL researchers show that the U.S. can get close to 100% renewable generation cost-effectively—but the final few percent drive a nonlinear increase in total system cost.

May 26, 2021

Researchers Take a Practical Look Beyond Short-Term Energy Storage

An article in Nature Energy by NREL research engineer Omar J. Guerra describes research needs for longer-duration and seasonal energy storage solutions and opportunities to develop a stronger understanding of how long-term and seasonal storage technologies can become cost-effective and grid-supportive energy solutions.

May 19, 2021

What We Know—and Do Not Know—About Achieving a National-Scale 100% Renewable Electric Grid

Published in the journal Joule, "The Challenges of Achieving a 100% Renewable Electricity System in the United States" offers important insights into the technical and economic challenges that would need to be overcome to achieve 100% renewable electric power across the United States.

April 30, 2021

NREL Study Explores the Security Benefits of 5G for Distributed Energy Operations

New research from NREL explores the security features of 5G, highlighting network-slicing characteristics that can provide enhanced control, protection, and monitoring of distributed energy systems.

April 29, 2021

NREL Joins Industry in Leading Cybersecurity Threat Evaluation for the U.S. Wind Fleet

NREL and six leading industry organizations have joined forces in developing a national Wind Cybersecurity Consortium. The consortium aims to improve the cybersecurity of the U.S. wind fleet through collaborative analysis, development, and information sharing.

April 29, 2021

LA Is Prioritizing Environmental Justice on Path to 100% Renewables: Q&A with LA100 Study Lead Jaquelin Cochran

Prioritizing environmental justice was a crucial component of the recently released Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100).

April 21, 2021

Eleven Communities to Chart Paths to a More Resilient and Equitable Energy Future

NREL will bring cross-cutting technical assistance to remote and island communities seeking resilient energy solutions as part of the DOE-funded, multi-lab, multi-partner Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP).

March 31, 2021

NREL Work Helps Visitors to National Parks Get Home Again

NREL has been consulting with the National Park Service on where to install electric vehicle charging stations at select sites in California. The last of the new charging stations is expected to begin operating by the end of this year.

March 31, 2021

NREL Clears Hurdle to Dynamic Stability for Renewables

To strengthen bulk grid stability for highly renewable grids, NREL has developed a breakthrough impedance measurement system for understanding how wind, solar, and other modern energy devices interact to affect the grid's moment-to-moment stability.

March 30, 2021

Q&A with Alexandra Aznar: USAID-NREL Partnership Readies for Rapid Expansion To Help Meet Needs of Global Community

In December of 2020, Alexandra Aznar took over leading the USAID-NREL portfolio, a partnership which currently comprises a mutli-year interagency agreement that spans multiple project to assist over 40 countries around the world.

March 24, 2021

Pioneering NREL Analysis Empowers Los Angeles in Its Pursuit of 100% Renewables

Results from the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100) show meeting LA's goal of reliable, 100% renewable electricity by 2045—or even 2035—is achievable and will entail rapid deployment of wind, solar, and storage technologies. The study paves the way for other jurisdictions to reach their own clean energy goals, equitably and economically.

March 24, 2021

News Release: Groundbreaking NREL Analysis Points to No-Regrets Pathways to Meet LA's Ambitious Clean Energy Goals

Unprecedented in scale and the first of its kind—the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100) provides insights into how the city can meet its clean energy targets. LADWP, the largest municipal utility in the country, currently generates more than half of its electricity from renewable and zero-carbon resources.

Feb. 26, 2021

Community Microgrids From All Angles

With funding from the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), NREL will lead and contribute to multiple projects that emphasize microgrid controls and stability for community-scale systems, building and demonstrating new microgrid designs in a variety of real-system scenarios.

Feb. 26, 2021

Q&A with Kristin Munch: Advancing Computing Capabilities To Efficiently Simulate, Analyze Complex Energy Systems

As laboratory program manager for Advanced Computing, Kristin Munch helps develop the vision and strategy for NREL's computational infrastructure and ecosystem.

Jan. 29, 2021

Centrica Partnership Shows Optimal Strategies for Hybrid Storage Systems

NREL and project partner Centrica have looked beyond single battery energy storage system (BESS) types to hybrid solutions, discovering that untapped potential exists when battery types are combined and optimally controlled.

Jan. 29, 2021

"It Was a Grand Experiment, and It Worked"

A Q&A with David Narang and Richard DeBlasio, two of the pioneers of IEEE Standard 1547 and its 2018 revision that have become the definitive technical standards for interconnecting distributed energy resources into the grid.

Jan. 26, 2021

NREL Launches Storage Futures Study with Visionary Framework for Dramatic Increase in Deployment

The first report in the study outlines four phases of utility-scale energy storage deployment, providing a potential roadmap to 100+ gigawatts of installed capacity in the United States.

Jan. 11, 2021

NREL Positions for Growth in Cybersecurity for Renewables, Launches New Program Office

NREL recently announced the launch of the new Cybersecurity Program Office, established to accelerate NREL's leadership in securing renewable energy technologies and distributed energy systems.

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