Feature Stories
The following feature stories take an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how NREL is advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
May 2023
May 23, 2023
NREL Adds Lab Space With New Building, Preps Other Projects
NREL's newest building, the Research and Innovation Laboratory (RAIL), which will house multipurpose lab space, is the first laboratory building to open at NREL's Golden, Colorado, campus since the fall of 2013.
May 18, 2023
NREL Foundation Creates New Opportunities, Enables Nontraditional Funding Sources To Support Research and Initiatives
The NREL Foundation enables philanthropists to seed and drive important research and initiatives in partnership with NREL more easily. And although the NREL Foundation includes NREL in its name and mission, the foundation is a separate, board-governed entity that is not controlled by or attached to NREL.
May 16, 2023
Industry Growth Forum 2023: Faster, Smarter, More Connected
In its 28th year, the IGF is the premier event for cleantech entrepreneurs, investors, and partners from industry and the public sector to build relationships, showcase innovative technologies, and identify disruptive business solutions.
April 2023
April 18, 2023
NREL Innovations Help Consumers Invest in Our Planet
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 13, 2023
NREL, GE Research Team Find Critical Adjustments to Improve Wind Turbine Design
Researchers at GE-GRC and NREL are studying the impact of low-level jet stream behavior along the Atlantic coast on coastal wind farm installations to find critical insights for a burgeoning U.S. wind energy economy.
March 2023
March 14, 2023
NREL Teams With Australia's Fortescue Future Industries on a Colorado Innovation Center
It is about 10,000 miles between the main NREL campus and Western Australia. But that distance shrank considerably when Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) announced a partnership with NREL for a U.S.-based FFI Worldwide Green Hydrogen research and development center in Colorado.
March 7, 2023
Full Steam Ahead: Unearthing the Power of Geothermal
While geothermal power plants have delivered renewable power for more than 100 years, recent research and advancements have shown that geothermal is more than a 24/7 clean power source.
February 2023
Feb. 16, 2023
A HERO's Journey: NREL's Wave-Powered Desalination Device Returns to the Outer Banks
In August 2022, researchers journeyed to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to deploy NREL's first wave-powered desalination for a second in-water test. The wave energy converter produced desalinated water for the first time.
Feb. 2, 2023
NREL Patent Activity Climbed in FY 2022 as Researchers Recognize More Eureka Moments
NREL files an average of about 170 patent applications annually and releases roughly 48 open-source software titles.
January 2023
Jan. 19, 2023
Powering the Future: NREL Research Finds Opportunities for Breakthrough Battery Designs
Using ultramodern capabilities and world-class laboratory facilities, NREL's energy storage researchers continue to push battery boundaries with materials development, thermal management, diagnostics, and modeling.
Jan. 12, 2023
New Chapter for Ancient Place: Creating Sustainable Housing and Jobs in Rural Alaska
NREL's Cold Climate Housing Research Center is working with the Native Village of Unalakleet, a small community sprawled on Alaska's northwest coast, to create a new model of housing—an affordable, energy-efficient, adaptable house that meets the myriad challenges facing rural Alaska.
