Advanced Manufacturing Research Data and Tools

NREL develops data and tools to help manufacturers find the most energy-efficient and sustainable solutions for their products and processes.

CEWAM: Circular Economy Wind Agent-based Model

The GitHub-based Circular Economy Wind Agent-based Model (CEWAM) is an open-source, agent-based model built with the Mesa python library. This tool enables users to study circular economy strategies by simulating wind energy stakeholders’ decisions.

dsgrid: Demand-Side Grid Model

NREL's demand-side grid (dsgrid) model creates comprehensive electricity load data sets—including industrial sector data incorporating electricity and other fuel use—at high temporal, geographic, sectoral, and end-use resolution. The data sets enable detailed analyses of current patterns and future projections of end-use loads. dsgrid’s industrial energy modeling team is also advancing industrial energy classification methods in an effort funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s former Advanced Manufacturing Office, now the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Office and Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office.

NEBs: Non-Energy Benefits Knowledge Library

The Non-Energy Benefits (NEBs) Knowledge Library provides resources for industrial auditors, energy efficiency learners, and those seeking to maximize the benefits of energy efficiency projects. The NEBs Finding Process, supported by the JUSTIFI software and NEBs protocol, integrates non-energy benefits into assessments using the structured define, measure, analyze, improve, and control methodology, identifying plant-specific NEBs and generating reports on cost savings and added value.

MFI: Materials Flows through Industry

The Materials Flows through Industry tool tracks the material and energy demands and associated greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing supply chains. From evaluating energy and materials inputs in the initial manufacturing stages to those of the final production stages, this tool informs the manufacturing process from resource extraction to the factory gate and beyond.

REopt: Renewable Energy Integration and Optimization

The free, publicly available REopt^® web tool helps guide investment decisions in economic and resilient distributed energy technologies, including solar, energy storage, small wind, geothermal heat pumps, and diesel technologies. The REopt optimization tool also incorporates combined heat and power technologies and allows users to quantify the economic, environmental, and resilience benefits of hybrid combined heat and power.  

URBANopt: Urban Renewable Building and Neighborhood Optimization

URBANopt™ is an advanced analytics platform for high-performance buildings and energy systems within one geographically cohesive area within a city.

Water DAMS: Water Data Analysis and Management System

Water DAMS, available through the National Alliance for Water Innovation, provides access to foundational water treatment technology data that enable researchers and decision-makers to identify and quantify opportunities for technology innovations to reduce the cost and energy intensity of desalination. 

Water-TAP: Water treatment Technoeconomic Assessment Platform

WaterTAP, available on GitHub with documentation, is an open-source, Python-based software package that supports the techno-economic assessment of full water treatment trains. The analytically robust platform, built on WaterTAP³ and ProteusLib through the National Alliance for Water Innovation, allows users to evaluate water technology cost, energy, environmental, and resiliency trade-offs across different water sources, sectors, and scales.