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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June 2018

June 15, 2018

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Bus Evaluation Project Reveals Success for Transit Partner

Results from a National Renewable Energy Laboratory evaluation of hydrogen fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) at Alameda Contra-Costa Transit District (AC Transit) in California show that FCEBs have made significant progress toward commercialization, surpassing Department of Energy's ultimate technical targets for fuel cell operating hours and reliability.

June 12, 2018

Enhanced Resilience Features Help REopt Lite Users Size Solar+Storage Systems to Support Critical Building Loads

NREL's REopt Lite web tool now offers enhanced resilience analysis capabilities that allow building owners and energy managers to size PV and storage systems to meet a specified outage duration and compare the sizing and costs of a resilient system with a system sized to maximize savings.

June 12, 2018

Trends in Ground Transportation to and from Airport Reflect Nationwide Mobility Shift

Passenger transportation and aviation systems are on the frontline of innovation in moving more people faster, cheaper, and better—fueled in part by greater convenience and increased choices. An NREL study focuses on the growing use and impacts of ride-hailing services to and from airports, with implications for the future of ride-hailing, parking, and car rental services in cities.

May 2018

May 31, 2018

NREL Connects with the Community--Next Door and Across the Country

Although NREL's recent community open house is a highly visible outreach effort, it is only one of many connecting the laboratory with communities in Colorado and across the country.

May 31, 2018

Collaboration Initiates New Early-Stage Research

The U.S. Department of Energy’s interest in increasing national energy security and lowering the cost of transporting goods spurred a $3 million effort to support cost-shared research to improve high-efficiency natural gas engines. NREL is collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories to further this early-stage research.

May 31, 2018

Planning a City, Virtually

NREL has developed an immersive visualization environment to help plan for Denver's new smart community, Peña Station NEXT.

May 30, 2018

When the Gears Stop Turning

NREL teams with PG&E to stabilize grid frequency with synthetic inertia.

May 29, 2018

New CSP Funding Is Getting Hotter

NREL has received $7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the next generation of liquid-phase concentrating solar power technology.

May 29, 2018

News Release: NREL Researchers Measure Impact of Eclipse on Electrical Grid

A recent analysis from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that, during last summer's total eclipse, solar energy output in the West dropped by about 5.9 gigawatts (GW).

May 22, 2018

Middle School Students Take the STEM Wheel

On May 19, NREL hosted its 19th annual Middle School Electric Car Competition, where students raced solar and lithium-ion powered cars that they designed and built.

May 22, 2018

Breakdown Breakthrough: NREL Finds Easier Ways to Deconstruct Biomass

Technical challenges have stymied efforts to produce bioethanol on a commercial scale, but research underway at NREL may hold the key to overcoming those barriers.

May 22, 2018

Enhanced Vehicle Simulation Tool Enables Wider Array of Analyses

New and enhanced versions of NREL's Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim) are now available for free download in Python and Microsoft Excel formats at www.nrel.gov/fastsim. FASTSim provides a quick and simple way to compare powertrains and estimate the impact of technology improvements on light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicle efficiency, performance, cost, and battery life.

May 18, 2018

Access to Data Accelerates Innovation and Adoption of Geothermal Technologies

The future of the geothermal sector is being driven by data-informed decisions and research. NREL's geothermal team is developing several tools and platforms to streamline the collection and sharing of geothermal data sets, enabling new breakthroughs in geothermal research and development.

May 17, 2018

Research Turbine Leaves Legacy in Its Wake

The conclusion of a successful multiyear industry partnership will soon alter the landscape for Denver-area residents. This week, GE will remove the largest of the megawatt-scale research turbines at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) National Wind Technology Center (NWTC), located near Boulder, Colorado.

May 16, 2018

NREL's EVI-Pro Lite Tool Paves the Way for Future Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Planning

A new NREL-developed tool called EVI-Pro Lite is helping communities across the country evaluate existing electric vehicle charging infrastructure and determine future needs for charging infrastructure to support increased regional adoption of EVs. Using data from personal vehicle travel patterns, electric vehicle attributes, and charging station characteristics, the tool projects demand for charging infrastructure by state or city/urban area.

May 14, 2018

Webinar May 17: Fuel Cell Electric Bus Progress toward Meeting Technical Targets

In this DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Office webinar, NREL's Leslie Eudy will present the most recent performance results from fuel cell electric buses operated by six transit agencies and discuss progress made toward meeting technical targets.

May 10, 2018

News Release: NREL Names Four Scientists Senior Research Fellows

Mowafak Al-Jassim, Andy Walker, Robert McCormick, and Gregg Beckham were chosen for their significant contributions to NREL and the larger scientific community.

May 9, 2018

News Release: NREL's Gregg Beckham Wins Prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Award

Gregg Beckham, a senior research fellow and group leader at NREL, was awarded the prize for the development of hybrid biological-catalytic and recycling processes to convert biomass and waste plastics to useful chemicals and high-value materials.

May 8, 2018

Remember the Algae that Went to Space? Here's What Happened Next

NREL scientists and Chatfield High School students are seeing the results of their collaborative experiment that sent a novel bioreactor housing two different strains of algae into space last summer.

May 8, 2018

News Release: NREL Releases Major Update to Wind Energy Dataset

A massive amount of wind data was recently made accessible online, greatly expanding the amount of information available on wind flow across the continental United States.

May 2, 2018

News Release: NREL Validates Go Electric's Technology As Part of Wells Fargo IN2 Program

The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has completed technology validation testing for Go Electric Inc. as part of the NREL-administered Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) program.

May 2, 2018

Analysis Quantifies California's Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Needs

How many electric vehicle chargers does the State of California need to accommodate 1.3 million EVs? That was the subject of a collaborative study conducted by the California Energy Commission (CEC) in partnership with NREL with respect to the state's 2025 zero-emission vehicle goal.

April 2018

April 30, 2018

Q&A with Andy Walker: The Ins and Outs of Renewable Energy Optimization

NREL researcher Andy Walker sits down to discuss a new role as research fellow, and his work in developing renewable energy optimization techniques.

April 25, 2018

Low- and Moderate-Income Residences Can Help Modernize the U.S. Electric Grid

Pairing solar photovoltaics with rooftops of low and moderate-income housing represents an opportunity to help modernize the U.S. electric grid and improve energy affordability in low-income communities

April 24, 2018

NREL Researchers Create New Materials With Unusual Properties

Few scientists reference Kurt Vonnegut in their academic journals, but researchers at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found the parallels between his work and theirs compelling. Both invoke polymorphism--the ability of a material to adopt multiple crystal structures.

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