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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September 2022
Sept. 29, 2022
Science Needs the Right Attitude
"Science" was a class you probably took in school, but the subject matter you studied was not the only thing you learned.
Sept. 29, 2022
First Cohort of Innovators Enter West Gate
West Gate is a program that embeds innovators at NREL and pairs them with national laboratory scientists and capabilities over a period of two years, during which they have prime access to world-class national laboratory capabilities and expertise to significantly advance the development of their clean-energy technologies.
Sept. 27, 2022
News Release: International Heliostat Consortium Releases Roadmap and Solicitation To Improve Commercial Viability of Heliostats
NREL, joined by partners at Sandia National Laboratories and the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute, released its multiyear heliostat roadmap, which identifies research and deployment gaps in heliostat technologies as well as the strategies to overcome them during the next five years.
Sept. 26, 2022
Your Rechargeable Batteries Need Lithium. Geothermal Energy Could Soon Help
As product managers at NREL, Nicholas Gilroy and Haiku Sky help turn complex information into a compelling journey on the web. Their work allows users to interact with data, and even download information as the story of research unfolds.
Sept. 22, 2022
NREL and Cemvita Factory Team Up To Put Carbon Dioxide to Good Use
For some entrepreneurs, carbon dioxide is more than a greenhouse gas. It is an opportunity and a business case for decarbonizing fuel and chemical production.
Sept. 22, 2022
Matthew Beard Wins Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award
National Renewable Energy (NREL) Senior Research Fellow Matthew Beard accepted the prestigious Ernest Orlando (EO) Lawrence Award on Thursday at a hybrid awards ceremony held in Washington, D.C.
Sept. 22, 2022
Department of Energy Renews NREL's Center for Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy
Cutting-edge semiconductor research at NREL will continue at the Center for Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE) as part of funding announced last week.
Sept. 22, 2022
News Release: Catalytic Process With Lignin Could Enable 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Researchers at three institutions—NREL, MIT, and Washington State University—report success in using lignin as a path toward a drop-in 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Other parts of plants are used for biofuels, but lignin has been largely overlooked because of the difficulties in breaking it down chemically and converting it into useful products.
Sept. 21, 2022
Considerations To Achieve a Sustainable U.S. Commercial Building Stock
New study led by the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis identifies drivers, barriers, and costs of adopting building sensors and controls systems.
Sept. 19, 2022
Patented Wave Energy Technology Gets Its Sea Legs
Distributed embedded energy converter technologies (or DEEC-Tecs) could eventually transform sources of everyday energy into electricity or other forms of usable energy.
Sept. 19, 2022
Electric Vehicle Battery Models Inform Crash Simulation Evaluations To Improve Real-World Safety, Reliability
As electric vehicle (EV) adoption increasingly gains momentum, NREL is collaborating with Hyundai Motor Company to ensure EV batteries can safely and reliably go the distance.
Sept. 15, 2022
NREL To Manage New Wind Energy Competition
The new FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess (FLOWIN) Prize, administered by NREL, invites competitors to help drive down the costs of floating offshore wind energy by 70% by 2035.
Sept. 14, 2022
Q&A With Avantika Singh: The Cautious Optimist Who Hates Waste (Like, Really Hates Waste)
As part of the Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A profile series, Avantika Singh shares why she hates waste and what she's doing to help combat it.
Sept. 14, 2022
NREL Authors Publish Quantum Computing First in Nature Communications
An NREL-led team demonstrated cellular automata on a quantum computer, teasing out the underlying nature of complexity.
Sept. 13, 2022
What's the Damage? New Customer Damage Function Calculator Estimates Costs of an Electric Grid Outage
Free online calculator helps quantify impacts to support resilience investments.
Sept. 12, 2022
On the Road to 100% Clean Electricity: Six Potential Strategies To Break Through Last Few Percent
A growing body of research has demonstrated that cost-effective high-renewable power systems are possible, but costs increase as systems approach 100% carbon-free electricity—what has become known as the "last 10% problem."
Sept. 12, 2022
New Insights Revealed Through Century-Old Photochemistry Technique
A collaborative team from NREL and Princeton University has resurrected a century-old microwave technique to reveal a surprising feature of well-established light-driven chemistry. The study outlines how an important class of "photoredox catalysts" operates, leading to unforeseen ways to manipulate their efficiency and selectivity.
Sept. 12, 2022
Advancing Geothermal Data Through the Eyes of an Early-Career Scientist
If every journey starts with one footstep, Nicole Taverna knew exactly where to begin: Colorado.
Sept. 8, 2022
Protecting Power System Frequency With Increasing Distributed Energy Resources
Distributed energy resources (DERs) with advanced controls can provide services to the grid such as frequency response. However, unlike conventional generators, DERs have to regularly exchange signals with faraway control centers.
Sept. 2, 2022
Q&A With Danish Saleem: Campaigning for Common Ground in Cybersecurity
Danish Saleem is a senior cybersecurity researcher who supports multiple efforts to develop novel cyber-technology solutions, advance next-generation networking concepts, and standardize the cybersecurity requirements for systems of renewable energy technologies through consensus building.
Sept. 1, 2022
News Release: NREL-Led Breakthrough Pushes Perovskite Cell to Greater Stability, Efficiency
A unique architectural structure enabled the researchers to record a certified stabilized efficiency of 24% under 1-sun illumination, making it the highest reported of its kind. The highly efficient cell also retained 87% of its original efficiency after 2,400 hours of operation at 55 degrees Celsius.
August 2022
Aug. 30, 2022
Exploring the Big Challenge Ahead: Insights on the Path to a Net-Zero Power Sector by 2035
NREL study identifies the opportunities and challenges of achieving the U.S. transformational goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.
Aug. 30, 2022
International Collaboration Strengthens Sustainable Battery Research
Researchers from NREL and various DOE national laboratories recently participated in a collaborative electrochemical energy storage workshop hosted by the United Kingdom's Faraday Institution.
Aug. 30, 2022
NREL Researchers Point to Path for Improved Wind Blade Recycling Rates
Researchers at NREL are considering circular economy strategies to mitigate the impact of wind turbine blades at the end of their useful lifespan.
Aug. 25, 2022
NREL's 6th Partner Forum Digs Deep on Sustainable Aviation Opportunities
On Aug. 9-10, 2022, NREL convened its sixth Partner Forum at its Golden, Colorado, campus, pulling together public and private sector leaders to collaboratively explore solutions for sustainable aviation.
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