News and Feature Stories

The following news stories take an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how NREL is advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

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March 2024

March 18, 2024

Behind the Blades: Amy Robertson Takes On the Complexities of Floating Offshore Wind

As a child immersed in the science of NASA, Amy Robertson was bound to end up an engineer—an aerospace engineer, to be exact. At NREL, she has traded in her love of the cosmos for the delightfully challenging dynamics of floating offshore wind energy.

March 18, 2024

Peer Learning Helps San Diego Center Community Voices in Clean Energy Plans

The San Diego Association of Governments has ambitious plans to make local progress toward California's goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.

March 13, 2024

NREL and MSU Denver Partnership Elevates Colorado High School Science Bowl to New Heights

Fossil Ridge High School emerged victorious in the 2024 Colorado High School Science Bowl, continuing its winning streak for the fourth year in a row by narrowly besting second-place finisher Stargate Charter High School.

March 13, 2024

New Report Shows It Is Time To Tap Into Hydropower Investment Opportunities

A new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory explores investment opportunities in hydropower.

March 8, 2024

Beneath the Surface: Alec Schnabel Has the Power (and the Power Electronics) To Advance Wave Energy

Alec Schnabel is working to advance one especially powerful part of marine energy technologies: their electronic guts.

March 7, 2024

A Crystal Ball for Solar Modules

Historically, photovoltaic (PV) modules have demonstrated high reliability, making them a dependable and growing part of global decarbonization efforts.

March 7, 2024

New Resources Spotlight Distributed Wind Energy's Local Value

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has launched the new National Distributed Wind Network and complementary Distributed Wind Energy Resource Hub.

March 7, 2024

Can We Connect Renewable Energy Hubs With Electricity Consumption Hubs?

A new approach to grid planning could make it possible to power your home with the nation's best and lowest-cost wind and solar energy, no matter where you live.

March 7, 2024

Electric Aircrafts Will Need Powerful Ports

An important consideration for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft is where they will charge and whether the existing power grid infrastructure can accommodate this demand.

March 7, 2024

From Instant Grits to Polymers: Scientist Kat Knauer Is Laser Focused on Plastics Pollution

As a polymer scientist and the chief technology officer of the NREL-led BOTTLE consortium, Knauer is responsible for helping solve one of the world's greatest challenges--plastic pollution.

March 5, 2024

NREL's Rail Optimization Software Is Putting Freight Electrification on the Fast Track

Combined, two first-in-the-world products—NREL's ALTRIOS rail optimization software and Parallel Systems' autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles—aim to help shift a portion of the freight currently carried by on-road trucks to rail, catalyzing decarbonization across the whole transportation sector.

March 4, 2024

Nextracker and NREL Partnership Inspires New Look at PV Tracker Industry Design Standards

Over the past year, NREL and industry partner Nextracker teamed up to advance the reliability of photovoltaic (PV) tracker technologies during severe weather events.

March 4, 2024

How Many Transformers Will US Distribution Grid Need by 2050?

New NREL research is providing first-of-its-kind modeling to help curb the current shortage of distribution transformers and ensure a reliable and resilient power grid.

March 1, 2024

40 Collegiate Teams Advance—Solar Decathlon 2024 Design Challenge

Forty teams from 37 collegiate institutions are advancing to the final stage of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon® 2024 Design Challenge based on their cutting-edge, zero-energy building designs.

March 1, 2024

Communities in Hawaii and Alaska Exchange Ideas To Engage Residents in Energy Transitions

When the third cohort of Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project communities was announced in 2023, the inclusion of Molokai, Hawaii, caught the eye of Bri Gabel, a sustainability coordinator for the City and Borough of Sitka, Alaska.

February 2024

Feb. 29, 2024

High Honors From DOE Point to Important Work by NREL Staff

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Feb. 20 honored staffers from NREL for their work on five major projects with far-reaching implications.

Feb. 29, 2024

Renewable Energy Is Green, but We Can Make It Greener

The U.S. energy transition is gaining speed, accelerated by government renewable energy goals and billions of dollars through the Inflation Reduction Act. As we race toward a greener future, understanding the potential adverse effects of renewable energy technologies before they are deployed has never been more critical.

Feb. 29, 2024

Leap Into New Capabilities: REopt Offers Enhanced Energy Solutions

The REopt team at NREL has significantly enhanced the publicly available REopt web tool and its underlying open-source code, providing more powerful capabilities.

Feb. 29, 2024

Second Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator Cohort Evaluates Solutions That Uncover Hidden Risks on Utility Networks

RunZero was selected as the first solution provider to participate in Cohort 2, through which their technology will be evaluated in the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) Cyber Range.

Feb. 29, 2024

On Its Journey To Make Clothing That Leaves No Trace, The North Face Taps the BOTTLE Consortium To Scale Biodegradable Polyester Alternative

Over the next 12 months, BOTTLE will scale the process to produce several pounds of PHA fiber, which The North Face will test and evaluate for use in its product lines.

Feb. 29, 2024

Biorefinery Model Points to Better Method at Producing Co-Products

A next-generation biorefinery model holds the potential to produce biofuels and chemicals through a process that researchers say has proven to be more efficient in converting plant biomass.

Feb. 28, 2024

From Organics to Fuels: Computational Models Can Accelerate and Scale Up Biomass Conversion

Pathways to sustainable biofuels are within view as computational models solve key challenges.

Feb. 28, 2024

10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities Awarded for Plans To Develop Clean-Energy-Focused Partnerships

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the winners of the first phase of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Clean Energy Education Prize Partnerships Track.

Feb. 27, 2024

SLOPE Illustrates Opportunities in Philadelphia's Equitable Carbon Neutrality Quest

The city of Philadelphia has pledged carbon neutrality by 2050, and the State and Local Planning for Energy (SLOPE) Platform is illustrating opportunities to reach that goal equitably.

Feb. 27, 2024

New Virtual Training and How-To Resources Help Leaders Advance Renewable Energy Development

Tools help energy leaders learn essential skills in modeling power systems and provide a "how-to" guide on operating and maintaining battery energy storage systems.

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