May 2022
Celebrating Solar Reliability Pioneer Dick DeBlasio
Deblasio was instrumental in getting the solar photovoltaics and distributed energy industries going. Sadly, he died on April 27 at the age of 80.
Getting in the Water With SHARKS
With SHARKS, ARPA-E and NREL could make it possible for marine energy devices to power up in rivers across the country and play a valuable role in combating the climate change crisis.
Building Experts Needed To Tackle Critical Challenges for Clean Energy Economy
NREL provides technical support to the residential construction industry through its Subject Matter Experts (SME) program.
Plugging Into Offshore Wind Will Power Up California's Renewable Energy
Using novel analyses for floating wind turbines, researchers at NREL have assessed the best way to divide up the first West Coast offshore wind energy areas into leasing areas that could power 1.5 million homes, bringing California and the United States closer to their clean energy goals.
Wind Resources Expand With OpenOA Upgrade and Partner Input
NREL has released version 2.3 of its Open Operational Assessment (OpenOA) software, which helps demystify wind plant operations for wind plant operators.
NREL Work With Defense Department’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program Accelerates Priority DOD Energy Projects
U.S. Department of Defense's ESTCP is working to identify and demonstrate the most promising, innovative, and cost-effective technologies and methods that address DOD's highest-priority environmental requirements.
Connecting the Country: Are Quick, Electrified Flights From Local Airports Possible?
Trick question: What is your nearest airport? You might think of the urban hub you always catch flights from, even if that airport is hours away.
What Are Geophones?
Deploying 60 gigawatts of geothermal electricity would be enough to provide clean, reliable power for 129 million American homes and businesses. A key factor to unlocking that amount of always-available geothermal energy could be through innovation in subsurface seismic sensors, or geophones.
Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis Launches Green Computing Catalyzer
The third catalyzer in the JISEA Catalyzers initiative will explore algorithmic energy efficiency, in addition to ways to limit energy usage of computing and potential pathways to reuse, repair, or recycle hardware products and materials.
NREL Pledge Curbs Emissions as Part of Larger DOE Initiative
Martin Keller, director of NREL, said he expects the Flatirons Campus near Boulder, Colorado, will reach net zero emissions annually by the end of fiscal year 2023 and the South Table Mountain Campus outside Golden, Colorado, to hit that achievement three years later.
World's Leading Solar Energy Research Institutions Discuss Shared Challenges, Growth Opportunities at 3rd Terawatt Workshop
Representatives from solar research institutes around the world and international participants from academia and industry discussed the implications of the multi-terawatt photovoltaics market at the 3rd Terawatt Workshop of the Global Alliance of Solar Energy Research Institutes, May 16-17 in Freiburg, Germany.
Battery Policies and Incentives Database Contributes to U.S. Efforts To Build a Secure Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain
Drastically increasing fleet and consumer use of electric vehicles (EVs) and developing energy storage solutions for renewable energy generation and resilience are key strategies the Biden administration touts to slash national transportation emissions and curtail climate change.
News Release: Experts Forecast the Wind Plant of the Future To Be Taller and More Economical
Researchers Philipp Beiter and Eric Lantz from NREL, together with collaborators from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, elicited opinions from more than 140 of the world's leading experts about their expectations of future wind plant design in 2035.
ARPA-E Funding Drives Innovation, Industry Partnerships at NREL
Among NREL's many funding agencies, the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funds what is perhaps some of NREL's most innovative work.
News Release: NREL Creates Highest Efficiency 1-Sun Solar Cell
Researchers at NREL created a solar cell with a record 39.5% efficiency under 1-sun global illumination. This is the highest efficiency solar cell of any type, measured using standard 1-sun conditions.
Capturing Light From Heat at 40% Efficiency, NREL Makes Big Strides in Thermophotovoltaics
NREL has a long history of building solar cells that capture light from the sun at record-setting efficiencies. But the sun is not the only light source from which photovoltaics can capture energy.
Autonomous Energy Systems Expand Into Real-World Applications
NREL's Autonomous Energy Systems work has been used commercially, applied in cross-cutting demonstrations, and is continually pushing the scientific edge of controls and optimization.
Beneath the Surface: A Champion of Renewable Energy
Meet NREL senior legal and regulatory analyst Aaron Levine, who examines how environmental regulations and hydropower could help protect the planet.
Expanded Nanoscale Imaging Lends a Clearer Vision for the Future of Batteries
At NREL, there is a common consensus that X-ray imaging techniques hold the key to unlocking critical information about the performance of energy storage systems.
The Future of Distributed Wind in the United States: Considerations for Unlocking Terawatt-Level Potential
The U.S. federal government has set a goal of 100% clean electricity in 2035 and a net-zero carbon economy in 2050. To achieve these ambitious targets, all forms of renewable power will be important—including distributed wind.
Last Updated May 1, 2025