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.
December 2023
Dec. 27, 2023
20 Ways NREL Made an Impact in 2023
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and commercialization in 2023. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Dec. 12, 2023
NREL and Amazon Aim To Create Guidebook for Emissions Impact Analysis
NREL and Amazon, the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy worldwide since 2020, are working to modernize greenhouse gas emissions quantification using higher-resolution data and longer-term modeling.
November 2023
Nov. 28, 2023
NREL-Led Effort Addresses Problem of Plastic in Rivers
WaterPACT involves collecting samples of plastics in waterways, gathering data about the size and scope of the problem, and eventually coming up with a solution.
Nov. 16, 2023
NREL Partners To Identify Strategies for a More Equitable Clean Energy Transition in Los Angeles
NREL partners on LA100 Equity Strategies project to identify pathways for underserved LA communities to reap benefits of transition to 100% clean energy.
Nov. 14, 2023
15 Years In, Energy Execs Program Participants Keep Making a Difference
The Executive Energy Leadership Academy program at NREL, also known as Energy Execs, invites executives interested in learning more about advanced energy and energy efficiency technologies to NREL repeatedly over the course of several months.
October 2023
Oct. 18, 2023
Electric Utility Companies and Co-Ops Can Unleash the Grid Edge With This Unique NREL Asset
There is a secret weapon for making the right distribution grid investments: the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) test bed at NREL.
September 2023
Sept. 29, 2023
Moving Toward Equity, One House at a Time
NREL has worked with eight rural villages across Alaska on HUD Healthy Homes projects to improve the health, safety, and energy efficiency of homes in extreme climates.
Sept. 14, 2023
NREL Researchers Reveal How Buildings Across United States Do—and Could—Use Energy
Buildings are responsible for 40% of total energy use in the United States, including 75% of all electricity use and 35% of the nation's carbon emissions. Although today's decarbonization efforts often focus on renewable electricity or electric vehicles, decarbonizing the building stock is also essential.
Sept. 7, 2023
NREL's Annual Partner Forum Eyes Pathways to Future Energy Systems
On the brink of extraordinary energy investments, partners from utilities, companies, and cities gathered at NREL's 7th Partner Forum, August 21-23, to discuss how to navigate the complex challenges of future energy systems through technological integration and detailed planning.
August 2023
Aug. 23, 2023
10 Years of Leading Energy Systems Innovation
Ten advancements that represent the full uniqueness, foresight, and continued importance of NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility.
July 2023
July 27, 2023
Ukraine Fights To Build More Resilient, Renewable Energy System in Midst of War
NREL is providing tools and technical support to help Ukraine realize a resilient, decentralized, renewable Energy Grid.
June 2023
June 20, 2023
NREL Windows Research Clearly Making a Difference
Builders began erecting edifices with massive walls of windows after World War II. The trend continues to this day, but the 1970s saw the adoption of double-pane windows to reduce energy consumption. Researchers at NREL have been working to improve windows since 1983.
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.
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