Advanced Manufacturing Research News
Explore our archive of advanced manufacturing news stories.
Dec. 11, 2023
Nicknamed PECAN, NREL's new, recyclable wind turbine blade resin boasts a novel composition. The name is an acronym representing the material's chemical structure, PolyEster Covalently Adaptable Network. NREL researchers designed the PECAN resin using biobased chemicals that can be easily extracted from plant waste.
Dec. 6, 2023
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has announced $264 million in funding for 29 projects to develop clean-energy solutions that will pave the way to achieving a net-zero-carbon economy by 2050.
Dec. 4, 2023
Scott Struck studies cyclical water supplies that keep humans and ecosystems happy and healthy. In the latest Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A, Struck explains how various water sources could help bolster dwindling water supplies across the country and around the world.
Nov. 27, 2023
The Re-X Before Recycling Prize seeks innovations to unlock new or expanded supply chains that can reintegrate end-of-use products into a circular economy.
Nov. 15, 2023
NREL's far-reaching research on batteries helps ensure their safety, longevity, and sustainability through reuse and recycling, minimizing the environmental impact of recycling processes, and investigating how to scale up recycling from benchtop testing to industrial scenarios.
Nov. 2, 2023
A new ion exchange model can help utilities and researchers simulate and study different system designs to remove forever chemicals from water.
Oct. 19, 2023
A new material could help make clean energy technologies, like tidal energy turbines, even more sustainable.
Oct. 16, 2023
Rob Hovsapian, a mechanical engineer, is building a massive machine—one that could help solve future crises. In NREL's latest Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A, Hovsapian shares what kind of rare, national events the SuperLab might help solve.
Oct. 5, 2023
As one of six core partners in the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, NREL just received an additional round of funding for research to help lower the cost and boost quality and sustainability of wind turbine blades.
Sept. 12, 2023
DOE is launching a new challenge that combines the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize and the Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize, this time expanding the reach to community organizations, manufacturers, nonfederal government entities, and college students.
Sept. 7, 2023
NREL Researcher Abhishek Roy is working to make fuel cells, water-purification devices, and carbon-capture technologies more efficient and cost effective to help save the planet.
Aug. 15, 2023
The new Renewable Energy Materials Properties Database, the development of which was led by NREL, compiles information on materials used in wind and solar power plants.
July 27, 2023
New funding awards from the National Alliance for Water Innovation will help NREL researchers improve the energy efficiency of U.S. desalination and water reuse technologies.
July 12, 2023
The newly launched Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize, a $5.1 million competition administered by NREL, aims to help the country develop a cost-effective and sustainable domestic recycling industry for two high-impact categories of wind turbine materials to create a circular U.S. wind energy economy.
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 21, 2023
Six teams competing in the the inaugural Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize have been named grand prize winners after their year-long efforts to advance an equitable and just clean energy ecosystem within their communities.
June 5, 2023
Sreekant Narumanchi, who leads NREL's advanced power electronics and electric machines research, has been awarded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Avram Bar-Cohen Memorial Medal.
May 24, 2023
As a materials scientist at NREL, Andriy Zakutayev manufactures materials to find new ways to control electrons, helping them carry electricity inside computers, solar panels, and smartphones.
May 15, 2023
An emerging form of water treatment could be the most cost-effective way to produce clean drinking water from super salty wastewaters from agricultural runoff, groundwater, and more, according to a new study.
May 2, 2023
Seven winning teams have designed conductive materials that could dramatically lower manufacturing and energy costs and make it easier for the country to reach the levels of electrification needed to meet its goal of a carbon-pollution-free economy by 2050.
May 2, 2023
In just five short years, the American-Made program--funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and administered by NREL--has surpassed $200 million in cash prizes and support to competing innovators and entrepreneurs across 58 prizes.
May 1, 2023
A new technical assistance program in support of the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program is available to support small- and medium-sized manufacturers in communities that have experienced coal mine or coal-fired power plant closures. Applications are due May 26, 2023.
April 18, 2023
Much aligned to Earth Day's theme of "Investing in Our Planet," the research and innovations developed at NREL are helping consumers contribute to our beautiful blue marble's future. Here are just a few of the ways.
April 11, 2023
Like a blizzard, a hacker could cut off power to millions of Americans—but not if Danish Saleem can help it. In our latest Q&A profile, Saleem explains how he is working to build security into distributed clean energy technologies to protect the country's power grid from the rising threat of cyberattacks.
April 6, 2023
LIBRA uses powerful system dynamics modeling to analyze the supply chain and evaluate the economic viability of Li-ion battery manufacturing, reuse, and recycling.
March 28, 2023
In Fiscal Year 2022, NREL played a critical role in computing advancements for 300-plus clean energy research projects through high-performance computing (HPC), efficient data center operation, and state-of-the-art data visualization.
March 10, 2023
The American-Made program, administered by NREL, features a collection of prizes designed to lower the barriers of entry to government funding, making the reward for great innovations accessible to all.
And now, the program's inherent goals--to leverage diversity, equity, and accessibility to accelerate the nation's collective problem solving
March 8, 2023
The new Microbattery Design Prize offers a total prize pool of $1.1 million in federal funding and performance and safety testing services with DOE national laboratories.
Feb. 2, 2023
As part of the Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A profile series, NREL senior staff scientist Mou Paul shares how she wanted to be a "great writer and a great scientist, too." Today, Paul has published fictional short stories as well as more than 40 scientific publications, won several high-profile awards, and earned more than 50 patents.
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. 17, 2023
In the coming decades, water scarcity and insecurity is likely to intensify across much of the United States, which is why NREL researcher Hari Sitaraman is working to improve reverse osmosis systems.
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.
