February 2021
NREL Software Automates Residential Solar Permitting, Replacing Painstaking Process for Local Governments
NREL has released a no-cost resource for cities and counties across the country to streamline distributed solar installation: SolarAPP (Solar Automated Permit Processing).
NREL Research Identifies Motivations, Methods for Achieving a Circular Economy for Wind Energy
Researchers at NREL are addressing critical challenges when it comes to achieving a circular economy for wind turbine components. The motivations for pursuing this research are outlined in a new journal article, "Wind turbine blade material in the United States: Quantities, costs, and end-of-life options."
NREL Discusses Circular Economy With High-Profile Partners in Fourth Partner Forum
At its fourth annual Partner Forum, NREL showcased its stable of leading experts and opened its virtual doors to partners, extending invitations to companies from around the world to engage in a collaborative effort to design a future replete with renewable energy solutions to the energy challenges of today.
New E-ROBOT Prize Encourages Robotic Innovation To Drive Energy Efficiency in Envelope Retrofit Solutions
The future of buildings is affordable, comfortable, and energy efficient. However, the current reality is that buildings consume 39% of all U.S. energy and 74% of all U.S. electricity at an annual cost of more than $400 billion.
CEMAC/JISEA Releases Global Clean Energy Manufacturing Data and Insights
The latest Benchmarks of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing report assesses market characteristics, global trade flows, and manufacturing value added for four clean energy technologies to support deeper insights into balance of trade effects on upstream materials.
Using Mathematical Models To Enable Transportation Decarbonization and Combat Climate Change
Conducted in partnership with USAID, an NREL study assessing the electrification potential of transit fleets in two Mexican cities determined that at least 80% of the operational bus days for the studied routes were suitable for electrification—with a 250-kWh battery in Mexico City and a 300-kWh battery in León.
NREL's dGen Analysts Team Up With Orlando Utilities Commission To Forecast Household Solar Adoption
NREL analysts tailor the Distributed Generation Market Demand model for Orlando energy planners, simulating individual household rooftop solar photovoltaic adoption potential through 2050—the highest-resolution projections for Orlando to date.
News Release: NREL Heats Up Thermal Energy Storage with New Solution Meant To Ease Grid Stress, Ultimately Improving Energy Efficiency
Scientists from NREL have developed a simple way to better evaluate the potential of novel materials to store or release heat on demand in your home, office, or other building in a way that more efficiently manages the building's energy use.
Data Democratized: RE Data Explorer Enhancements Deliver High-Value Renewable Energy Resource Data To Inform Decision-Making
Upgrade features new, high-resolution data sets and a streamlined, state-of-the-art interface.
Documenting a Decade of Cost Declines for PV Systems
NREL marks ongoing cost reductions for installed photovoltaic (PV) systems, while also establishing benchmark of PV-plus-storage systems.
News Release: From Saltwater to Drinking Water: NREL Announces 10 Winners of the Waves to Water Prize ADAPT Stage; Launch of CREATE Stage
NREL revealed 10 winners of the third stage of the Waves to Water Prize. These teams will walk away with a cash prize and an invitation to advance to the next stage of the prize, CREATE, where they will bring these ideas to life with proofs of concepts and prototyping of their novel wave-energy-powered desalination systems.
New Design Strategy Pushes Organic Photovoltaics Past 18% Efficiency
Holistic strategy optimizes electronic structure and morphology, opening a new route to higher-efficiency organic photovoltaic devices.
Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Drives Recovery of Spent Batteries
On December 17, 2020, the Department of Energy announced seven winners of the Phase II Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize. These winners advance to the third and final phase of the competition.
REopt Lite Adds a Fresh Dimension: Combined Heat and Power
In its latest release, the REopt Lite team, which includes NREL and partners at Colorado School of Mines and Clean Energy Group, has added combined heat and power, expanding the model's scope beyond electric-only strategies to include a new universe of thermal energy opportunities.
How To Solve the Mounting Problem of Plastic Waste? Focus on Its Chemical Roots
DOE funding pairs NREL with academic, nonprofit, and industry scientists to transform how we create and recycle plastic.
NREL's Bryan Pivovar and Mark Ruth Recognized by DOE for Excellence in Integrated Energy Systems Research
Researchers analyzed commercial electricity generator with high-temperature steam electrolysis technology, advancing H2@Scale initiative.
Better Cost Estimates Build Better Systems: NREL Updates SAM Wave and Tidal Tools
Techno-economic analysis just got a bit easier for the marine renewable energy industry. Learn more about the updates to the wave and tidal SAM tool.
Offshore Wind Plugs Energy Into Homes and Businesses Back on Shore
NREL has launched plans to develop the technologies and strategies needed to integrate the coming wave of offshore wind installations into the grid. The laboratory's success with integration—from its world-renowned work on utility-scale renewable energy systems to its comprehensive vision for offshore wind development and collaboration with industry partners—is steering efforts to deliver power efficiently and affordably from offshore plants.
January 2021
Reliability Analysis of the U.S. West Reviews Barriers to a Renewable Future
As part of a multistate collaboration, NREL has modeled and assessed long-term reliability and integration impacts of solar PV growth in the western United States, with broader lessons for power grids and renewable policies.
"It Was a Grand Experiment, and It Worked"
A Q&A with David Narang and Richard DeBlasio, two of the pioneers of IEEE Standard 1547 and its 2018 revision that have become the definitive technical standards for interconnecting distributed energy resources into the grid.
Last Updated May 1, 2025