Skip to main content

December 2021

Dec. 15, 2021

Building Better Batteries: Architecture for Energy Storage

A recent breakthrough by NREL and the University of Ulm advances the way researchers measure and analyze battery materials using an artificially generated representative architecture of a Li-ion electrode particle in sub-particle grain detail.

Dec. 14, 2021

News Release: Researchers Publish First Comprehensive Building Stock Characterization Study for the United States

A new report and online dashboard by NREL is the first comprehensive characterization and segmentation of the U.S. building stock, providing a national typology of buildings.

Dec. 13, 2021

In a Circular Economy, Hard Drives Could Have Multiple Lives in the Future

U.S. data storage technologies, like hard-disk drives (HDDs), contain imported rare-Earth elements in their magnets. As the demand for data storage increases, the supply of critical materials will become more limited.

Dec. 13, 2021

College Students Team Up To Design Real-Life Geothermal Concepts

Join the NREL-administered Geothermal Collegiate Competition to win $50,000 in cash prizes this spring.

Dec. 9, 2021

Forget Sci-Fi—This NREL Biotechnology Could Actually Help Colonize Mars

NREL scientists are working on harnessing cyanobacteria to convert growing concentrations of CO₂ in Earth's atmosphere into the same chemicals currently made from petroleum and natural gas—a step toward decarbonizing the chemical industry. With partner Nzyme2HC, they are exploring whether astronauts can use NREL's patented ethylene-emitting cyanobacteria to manufacture building materials and produce oxygen on Mars.

Dec. 9, 2021

New Projects Move Thermophotovoltaic Technology Closer to Commercialization

Throughout the past three years, NREL has partnered with Antora Energy and MIT to engage in two separate projects in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology that have both led to record efficiencies of more than 35%--a very competitive level of performance.

Dec. 8, 2021

Sharing Data in Virtual Hubs Streamlines Energy Materials Research, Spurs Collaboration

A paper co-authored by NREL researchers and others studies the success of the Energy Materials Network Data Hub—a secure, customizable scientific data sharing platform.

Dec. 8, 2021

Machine Learning Method Could Speed the Search for New Battery Materials

To discover materials for better batteries, researchers must wade through a vast field of candidates. New research demonstrates a machine learning technique that could more quickly surface ones with the most desirable properties.

Dec. 7, 2021

SolarAPP+ Speeds Solar Installs for 2,000 Homes (and Counting)

NREL’s solar permitting tool “busts through bureaucracy” to fast-track residential solar projects and expands into energy storage permitting.

Dec. 7, 2021

Riccardo Bracho Advises Energy Transitions in Countries Worldwide, Including His Native Mexico

After two decades working in finance, NREL analyst Riccardo Bracho pivoted to an energy career. Today he leads analysis of international power sector transformations.

Dec. 7, 2021

Extreme Weather, Rapid Innovation, and Rock-Bottom Prices: NREL Researchers Offer Guidance for Solar Systems To Last

Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have laid out a cost-effective five-point plan to improve the reliability of solar panels in light of extreme weather, rapid innovation, and extremely competitive prices.

Dec. 2, 2021

Data-Informed Analysis Reveals Energy Impacts of Shared Micromobility

Driven by the growing popularity of shared micromobility—which typically involves the use of electric bicycles and scooters as well as regular bicycles—a research team from NREL is exploring the energy impacts of such travel modes versus the conventional modes they may replace.

Dec. 1, 2021

NREL Launches New Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, West Gate

Every day, game-changing technologies are introduced that could more easily transition the world to a clean energy future. However, few entrepreneurs have the resources to develop promising new technologies into successful cleantech startups.

Dec. 1, 2021

NREL Acquires Next-Generation High-Performance Computing System

Kestrel will take flight and bring the U.S. closer to a clean energy future.

November 2021

Nov. 30, 2021

Navigating Our Ever-Changing Electric Sector: The 2021 Standard Scenarios Outlook Is Here

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's 2021 Standard Scenarios Outlook is now available. The Standard Scenarios are a suite of annually released future scenarios for U.S. power sector evolution through 2050.

Nov. 29, 2021

Q&A With Alberta ("Birdie") Carpenter: How To Untangle Carbon From the Vast Web of Manufacturing and Supply Chains

In the first Q&A profile in a new series, Manufacturing Masterminds, Birdie Carpenter shares how she is working to reduce industrial energy use, carbon emissions, plastic waste, and more.

Nov. 29, 2021

Scientists Discover Way To Improve Perovskite Efficiency and Stability

Researchers at NREL and affiliated institutions across the country have bolstered the efficiency of perovskite solar cells by as much as 16%.

Nov. 22, 2021

NREL Provides Guidelines for Creating Next-Generation Data Ecosystem

Scientists at NREL are helping pave the way for the next generation of data-driven, AI-enabled material science. In a new journal article, the authors describe a decade-long effort to build a modern data ecosystem to support close interaction between computational sciences and materials sciences.

Nov. 19, 2021

Path to Net-Zero Emissions Runs Through U.S. Buildings

Commercial buildings generate 16% of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

Nov. 16, 2021

U.S. Navy, KIUC, AES, and NREL Innovate and Collaborate for Resilience and Cost-Effective Clean Energy Project on Kauai

Largest 100% clean energy microgrid within U.S. Department of Defense supports island community, Pacific Missile Range facility, KIUC, and Hawaii's ambitious renewable energy goals.


Last Updated May 28, 2025