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.
July 2010
July 30, 2010
Molten Salt Transfers, Stores Heat in Italian CSP Plant
The first parabolic trough concentrating solar power plant in the world to use molten-salt as a heat transfer fluid and to store heat began operating in Italy in mid-July. The 5-megawatt plant in Sicily is also the first to integrate a combined-cycle gas facility and a solar thermal power plant for electricity generation.
July 28, 2010
Fuel Cell Buses Show Significant Increase in Durability and Reliability
NREL first began evaluating hydrogen-fueled transit buses in 2000. Over the years, NREL has collected and analyzed data on nine early generation fuel cell buses operated by four transit agencies in the United States. In 2007, one of the manufacturers replaced the early generation fuel cell power systems in five of the buses with newer systems that featured improvements based on lessons learned during prior operation. According to NREL's evaluation, these current generation systems show significant improvements in durability and reliability.
July 23, 2010
First Hybrid CSP-Coal Power Plant is Fired Up in Colorado
Concentrating solar power (CSP) is boosting the energy produced by a coal-fired power plant east of Grand Junction, Colorado. The first of its kind in the United States, the hybrid demonstration plant is expected to increase energy production 5% above what the coal plant previously produced, plus reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2,000 tons per year. The project is considered an important test in proving the commercial viability of integrating coal plants with CSP.
July 23, 2010
Nevada Desert Site Chosen to Demonstrate CSP Technology
A new Solar Demonstration Zone has been established in the Nevada desert by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Interior. The departments will collaborate in the effort to demonstrate advanced concentrating solar power technologies and thus help push them to full-scale commercialization.
July 22, 2010
NREL Scholarship Gives Columbine Grads a Boost
Ten years ago, in the wake of tragedy, NREL set up a fund to help students at Columbine High School. The investment still pays dividends.
July 20, 2010
DOE Announces $30 Million to Small Businesses for Clean Energy Technology Commercialization
$30 million in funding from the Recovery Act and DOE fiscal 2010 budget appropriations will be made available to qualified small businesses to support the commercialization of promising new technologies.
July 16, 2010
Report Explores Acceptance of Concentrating Solar Power in San Luis Valley
A new report published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in a joint effort with the University of Colorado, provides important insight into the social acceptance of utility-scale concentrating solar power plants in the San Luis Valley. The valley, approximately 200 miles southwest of Denver, is an ideal source of solar energy for Colorado because of its abundant solar resource.
July 15, 2010
Wind and Solar Energy Power Polar Research
NREL researchers deploy renewable energy systems at National Science Foundation bases in forbidding, fragile Antarctica.
July 8, 2010
NREL Solar Research Garners Two Prestigious R&D 100 Awards
An etching technique that makes silicon wafers more efficient and a mammoth power generator that sets a new standard for the production of solar energy – both developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory – have been named among this year's most significant innovations by Research & Development (R&D) Magazine.
July 8, 2010
DOE Offers $1.45 Billion Loan Guarantee to Abengoa Solar
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a $1.45 billion conditional loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar to build a concentrating solar power generating facility in Arizona. The project will create 1,600 jobs during construction and will deliver electricity to 70,000 Arizona homes.
July 8, 2010
Building Better Batteries for Cars and Spacecraft
NASA and NREL combine experience and experiments to make safer more reliable batteries for outer space and Interstates.
July 2, 2010
Geothermal in the Oil Field Symposium
The U.S. Department of Energy's Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC), NREL, and the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Geothermal Laboratory are partnering to host a two-day geothermal symposium in Casper, Wyoming.
July 1, 2010
NREL Researcher Discusses Revitalized Algae Program
Dr. Philip Pienkos, Principal Research Supervisor at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), will discuss NREL's efforts to rebuild the Aquatic Species Program for algal biofuels research on July 7, from 3-5 p.m., at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus. The presentation is free, open to the public, and will also be broadcast online at http://umconnect.umn.edu/IonE.
July 1, 2010
New Low-Energy Building a Landscape Leader, Too
The grounds of the Research Support Facility will help shape the nation's first rating system for green landscape design and construction.
June 2010
June 22, 2010
NREL Evaluates Secondary Uses for Lithium Ion Vehicle Batteries
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory requested proposals from potential industry and academic partners to help evaluate secondary uses for lithium ion batteries that have reached the end of their useful lives in electric-drive vehicles. Proposals were due May 26, 2010.
June 22, 2010
BLM Announces Solar Energy Rental Rates for Public Lands
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its rental schedule for solar energy right-of-way authorizations on public lands. The schedule will provide some additional cost certainty for the solar energy industry.
June 21, 2010
NREL Launches Partnership with Solarmer Energy to Extend Lifetime of Plastic Solar Cells
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Solarmer Energy, Inc., have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to collaborate on improving the lifetime of plastic solar cells, a promising new solar conversion technology. The joint research covered by the CRADA will explore the lifetime and stability of the organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices that make up the energy-harvesting layers of plastic solar cells.
June 17, 2010
NREL Garners Awards for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research and Development
NREL staffers and subcontractors received awards at the Annual Merit Review.
June 15, 2010
NREL to Partner with University of Delaware on Offshore Wind Research
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Delaware (UD) today announced they will work to facilitate the potential establishment of a test site for commercial wind turbines off the Delaware coast.
June 14, 2010
Brownfields' Bright Spot: Solar and Wind Energy
NREL helps the Environmental Protection Agency find ways to generate renewable energy on blighted land.
June 11, 2010
NREL Selects Team to Begin Design and Construction for ESIF
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has signed a contract with the design build team of JE Dunn and SmithGroup to begin design and construction for the latest research building on the NREL campus. The Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) will be the nation's only facility that can conduct integrated megawatt-scale testing of all components and strategies critical to deploying renewable energy and other energy-efficiency technologies into the nation's electric grid at utility scale.
June 11, 2010
Energy Saving A/C Conquers All Climates
NREL melds technologies to invent a better air conditioner that could mean more comfortable summers and lower energy bills.
June 10, 2010
EPRI Joins SolarTAC
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has become a sponsoring member of the Solar Technology Acceleration Center or SolarTAC—one of the world's largest solar test and demonstration centers. The center is a private, member-based, outdoor facility in Aurora, Colorado, where the solar industry tests, validates, and demonstrates advanced solar technologies. EPRI's involvement will allow its members to conduct research at the facility and is expected to help hasten utility-scale solar technologies to the marketplace.
June 4, 2010
NREL To Provide Community Support through Loaned Executive
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced today that it has entered an agreement with the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver (ULMD) to provide a loaned executive to the organization to support its important mission of helping African Americans and other residents of metro Denver attain job training and educational achievement. Syl Morgan-Smith, a 29-year NREL employee who currently manages NREL's diversity outreach programs, will become ULMD's development director effective June 7.
June 3, 2010
Putting the Forklift before the Horseless Carriage
Hydrogen fuel cells tested in forklifts provide data on performance and safety key to widespread use of the power plants in cars and trucks.
