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January 2016
News Release: DOE Announces New Projects to Modernize America’s Electric Grid
Today, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced up to $220 million in new funding for a consortium of DOE national laboratories and partners to support critical research and development over the next three years to help modernize our nation’s electrical power grid. The secretary also announced the release of DOE’s comprehensive new Grid Modernization Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP), a blueprint for the Department’s research, development, and demonstration agenda to enable a modernized grid. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will be strongly supporting this effort, bringing its unique array of experts and resources together to participate in 48 of the 88 awarded projects announced today.
News Release: NREL Theorizes Defects Could Improve Solar Cells
Scientists at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are studying what may seem paradoxical - certain defects in silicon solar cells may actually improve their performance.
News Release: Renewable Energy used in State Renewable Portfolio Standards Yielded Sizable Benefits and Other Impacts in 2013
A new study by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) estimates that $2.2 billion in benefits came from reduced greenhouse gas emissions and $5.2 billion from reductions in other air pollution, in mid-range estimates, for state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies operating in 2013. RPS policies require utilities or other electricity providers to meet a minimum portion of their load with eligible forms of renewable electricity.
News Release: NREL and CSEM Jointly Set New Efficiency Record with Dual-Junction Solar Cell
Scientists at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) have jointly set a new world record for converting non-concentrated (1-sun) sunlight into electricity using a dual-junction III-V/Si solar cell.
NREL's Cybersecurity Initiative Aims to Wall Off the Smart Grid from Hackers
NREL is working with two-way power grid communications technologies, which can act like an independent "electricity-only Internet."
December 2015
News Release: NREL Research Advances Hydrogen Production Efforts
Researchers at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have made advances toward affordable photoelectrochemical (PEC) production of hydrogen.
Inventive Thinkers at NREL Reach Record Number
Researchers register ideas on everything from wave power to methane use.
NREL Records Progress Toward Understanding of Nanotubes
Scientists at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have made progress towards answering a fundamental question about single-walled carbon nanotubes: do absorbed photons create only neutral excitations (excitons) or are some free charges created also?
Helping Electric-Drive Vehicle Power Electronics Keep Their Cool
Conventional thermal interface materials can pose a significant bottleneck to heat removal from power electronics packages. High-performance thermal interface materials are a critical enabler to compact, high-performance, low-cost power electronics components for transportation and other applications.
NREL Reveals Benefits of O2 Contact with Defects in 2D Semiconductors
Researchers at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have explained the unusual behavior that stems from oxygen molecules interacting with defects in two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors.
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Last Updated May 5, 2025