August 2025
Paving the Road for Cement and Concrete Technologies
NREL brings together specialists from across the country to discuss cement and concrete for its third annual critical technologies meeting.
Applications Open for Collegiate Competitions Aimed at Inspiring Future Water Power Workforce
Application period opens for annual marine energy and hydropower competitions, which challenge college students to find real-world solutions and explore career pathways.
Breaking Rules but Not Waves: Plasmons in Correlated Materials
Researchers discovered that charge waves called plasmons can survive—and even thrive—in a “bad” metal, challenging long-held beliefs about conductivity and coherence in quantum materials.
AI Could Help Bridge Valley of Death for New Materials
More than 50 experts gathered at NREL to consider how incorporating AI into materials synthesis, characterization, and modeling could unlock new insights and speed new technologies to market.
Heavy Metal Meets High Tides With New 3D Printer
New tool lets researchers and partners cut prototyping costs, wait times, and design barriers for ocean energy technologies and more.
Researchers Observe Evidence of Hyperbolic Exciton Polaritons
Promising new pathways for manipulating excitons and light can benefit optoelectronics.
Researchers Surf Magnon Wave To Control Particles in Next-Gen Electronics
A new study demonstrates how magnons, a type of wave found in magnetic systems, can manipulate interactions between excitons—uncharged “quasiparticles” that carry energy.
July 2025
Early-Career Spotlight: From Astrophysics to Applied Artificial Intelligence, Hilary Egan Charts a Creative Path Through Science
This month's Materials, Chemical, and Computational Science Early-Career Spotlight features Hilary Egan, who has been a data scientist at NREL since 2020.
NREL Transportation Researchers Recognized for Leadership, Innovativeness, and Collaboration at Vehicle Technologies Office Annual Merit Reviews
Transportation researchers from NREL received awards at the 2025 Annual Merit Review meeting for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office.
NREL Technical Support Empowers Local Governments and Tribes To Boost Energy Efficiency and Cut Costs
From Sugar Land, Texas, to Chenega, Alaska, NREL is advancing affordable, community-driven energy solutions across the nation through the DOE Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program.
West Gate’s 4th Cohort Innovators Pursue Advanced Energy Applications Throughout Energy Landscape
Innovators bring exciting ideas to the fourth cohort of West Gate—NREL’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program.
News Release: Jud Virden, Ph.D., Appointed Laboratory Director at NREL
The Alliance for Sustainable Energy announced the appointment of Jud Virden, Ph.D., as director of NREL and president of the Alliance, which manages the laboratory for the Department of Energy. Virden will officially join NREL in this role on Oct. 1, 2025.
NREL and Google Host Artificial Intelligence Hackathon To Tackle Data Center Energy Challenges
NREL and Google teamed up to host a hackathon, bringing together researchers from nine DOE national laboratories to explore and leverage Google's generative artificial intelligence and large language model tools to address an array of critical challenges related to energy limitations for U.S. data centers.
Researcher Spotlight: Violeta Sanchez i Nogue’s Journey to Bioprocess Development at NREL
In the summer of 2015, Violeta Sanchez i Nogue joined NREL as a postdoctoral researcher working on a project to produce carbon fibers.
A Career Built on Helping Others: Cory Chovanec's Journey in Weatherization
NREL researcher Cory Chovanec uses his field experience to help increase energy affordability for Americans through the Weatherization Assistance Program.
NREL Modeling Shows Geothermal and Borehole Thermal Energy Storage Can Reliably Heat Buildings in Extreme Cold
New energy storage research from NREL has demonstrated a way to store and reuse heat underground to meet the heating demands of cold regions like Alaska.
Collaboration Between NREL and CubicPV Pushes Perovskite Minimodule Performance to New Heights
A collaborative effort between NREL and CubicPV has yielded a perovskite minimodule that belongs in the record books.
Beyond Flights: Airports Could Bolster Grid Security and Adaptability
Researchers at NREL are using the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform and other capabilities to analyze energy options for airports, utilities, and public regulators. In many cases, they find a win-win for on-site energy generation and storage.
Collaboration Reveals How Light Unlocks Chemistry of Nickel Catalyst
A team of scientists across several national laboratories has unraveled how light and a previously unknown form of certain nickel-based catalysts together unlock and preserve reactivity.
High-Performance Computing Advanced More Than 425 Energy Research Projects in 2024
NREL's Advanced Computing Annual Report for FY 2024 showcases the significant contributions of advanced computing.
Last Updated May 28, 2025