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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May 2024
May 13, 2024
NREL Celebrates Fiscal Year 2023 Staff Awards and Tech Awards
NREL's Staff Awards event has taken place annually since 1980.
May 10, 2024
New Database Aims To Accelerate Electrocatalyst Development Through Atomic-Scale Insights
The quest for more productive catalysts for the creation of sustainable fuels and commodity chemicals via electrochemical reactions just became easier.
May 10, 2024
Water Research Hub Earns 5 More Years of Funding
Launched in 2019, the National Alliance for Water Innovation is a research hub that brings together a world-class team of partners from industry and academia as well as the hub's public membership organization.
May 9, 2024
NREL Biomass Technology a Cornerstone of SAFFiRE Renewables Biofuel Pilot Plant Going Up in Kansas
On its path to opening a facility designed to turn agriculture residue into a scalable biofuel business, SAFFiRE Renewables, LLC plans to break ground on its pilot plant near Liberal, Kansas, in late 2024.
May 8, 2024
Zooming in on Electric Vehicles: How Duluth, Minnesota, Is Preparing for the EV Future
Nearly 33 million electric vehicles (EVs) nationwide—that is the number of vehicles the Unites States should be prepared to support through a national charging network by the year 2030, researchers at NREL estimated in a recent landmark study.
May 8, 2024
Clean Energy Is for Everybody, NREL Says
Diversity is a core value of the laboratory—one that is pivotal to achieving its ambitious goal.
May 7, 2024
NREL’s Artificial Intelligence Work Reveals Benefits to Wind Industry
The wind industry could benefit from the use of artificial intelligence to design and deploy wind plants, according to an article in Nature Energy written by researchers at NREL.
May 6, 2024
Streamlined Life Cycle Assessments of Natural Gas Systems Can Inform Near-Term Energy Transition
The natural gas industry is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the United States, and significant amounts of natural gas are used for electricity, heating, and industrial and chemical processes.
May 3, 2024
News Release: More Awards Given Out Than Ever Before at 2024 NREL Industry Growth Forum
NREL gave awards to eight top cleantech innovators at the 2024 NREL Industry Growth Forum on May 1–3, 2024, the most honors ever awarded during the annual event.
May 3, 2024
Additive Manufacturing Could Turn the Tides for Marine Energy Technologies—Here Is How
Researchers have been exploring how additive manufacturing could complement marine energy technologies. Hint: the two are a promising pair.
May 2, 2024
Popular NREL Cell Efficiency Chart Now Better Presents Tandem Photovoltaics
NREL photovoltaics researchers created a new version of the iconic chart that tracks world-record photovoltaic cells across many technologies and time.
May 2, 2024
Tidal Energy Is Coming to Alaska. But How Much?
Alaska's Cook Inlet contains huge amounts of untapped tidal energy. But little is known about how much economic value this powerful inlet could bring to Alaska—until now.
May 2, 2024
News Release: NREL Invites Robots To Help Make Wind Turbine Blades
Researchers at NREL have successfully leveraged robotic assistance in the manufacture of wind turbine blades, allowing for the potential to improve the consistency of the product.
May 1, 2024
Solar Prize Round 7 Finalists Enter Last Phase of Competition
On May 1, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the 10 Solar Prize Round 7 finalist teams who were each awarded $100,000 in cash and $75,000 in technical support vouchers for their innovative ideas for advancing solar deployment.
April 2024
April 30, 2024
Department of Energy Announces Solar District Cup Class of 2023–2024 Winners
On Monday, April 29, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the division winners and Project Pitch Champion in the Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition's Class of 2023-2024. In the five years of this competition, this was the largest ever class of competing teams.
April 30, 2024
NREL Selected As Part of $1.6M in Federal Funding To Explore Potential of Geologic Hydrogen
NREL was recently selected as one of 16 teams to research enhanced production of geologic hydrogen by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program.
April 30, 2024
A Look at the Future of Transmission: Getting Clean Electrons to Where They Need To Be
The latest Tell Me Something Grid article features Jarrad Wright and his analysis of transmission expansion needs and trade-offs in a low-carbon future.
April 26, 2024
2024 JISEA Annual Meeting Convenes Diverse Clean Energy Voices To Address Emerging Challenges
Tackling clean energy challenges means bringing diverse voices to the table, and that is exactly what happened at the 2024 JISEA Annual Meeting (JAM24).
April 25, 2024
NREL Keeps Getting Greener
Three NREL labs were awarded green certifications by My Green Lab late last year.
April 25, 2024
News Release: NREL Proof of Concept Shows Path to Easier Recycling of Solar Modules
The use of femtosecond lasers to form glass-to-glass welds for solar modules would make the panels easier to recycle, according to a proof-of-concept study conducted by researchers at NREL.
April 25, 2024
NREL Researchers Outline Path Forward for Tandem Solar Cells
Researchers at NREL have prepared a roadmap on how to move tandem solar cells—particularly those that mesh different photovoltaic technologies—closer to commercialization.
April 24, 2024
IN² at 10 Years: How It Started, How It's Going, What's Next, and Beyond
For its 10th anniversary, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²) is expanding in a major way.
April 22, 2024
With Great Power Comes Great Possibility
Three teams are building better conductor systems—or even superconductors—to supercharge transmission lines, wind turbines, MRI machines, electric motors, airplanes, and more.
April 22, 2024
Behind the Blades: How Cris Hein Helps Bats and Wind Turbines Share the Sky
Armed with a Ph.D. in bat studies, NREL's lead environmental scientist Cris Hein helps bats—and other wildlife—share the skies with wind turbines.
April 22, 2024
Short-Circuiting on Purpose: How NREL-Licensed Tech Continues To Make a Difference in Space
NASA and NREL created a device that causes an internal short circuit inside the layers of a battery cell, providing information that allows NASA to meet its stringent battery safety requirements.
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