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 2022
May 27, 2022
Plugging Into Offshore Wind Will Power Up California's Renewable Energy
Using novel analyses for floating wind turbines, researchers at NREL have assessed the best way to divide up the first West Coast offshore wind energy areas into leasing areas that could power 1.5 million homes, bringing California and the United States closer to their clean energy goals.
May 26, 2022
What Are Geophones?
Deploying 60 gigawatts of geothermal electricity would be enough to provide clean, reliable power for 129 million American homes and businesses. A key factor to unlocking that amount of always-available geothermal energy could be through innovation in subsurface seismic sensors, or geophones.
May 26, 2022
NREL Work With Defense Department’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program Accelerates Priority DOD Energy Projects
U.S. Department of Defense's ESTCP is working to identify and demonstrate the most promising, innovative, and cost-effective technologies and methods that address DOD's highest-priority environmental requirements.
May 26, 2022
Connecting the Country: Are Quick, Electrified Flights From Local Airports Possible?
Trick question: What is your nearest airport? You might think of the urban hub you always catch flights from, even if that airport is hours away.
May 26, 2022
Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis Launches Green Computing Catalyzer
The third catalyzer in the JISEA Catalyzers initiative will explore algorithmic energy efficiency, in addition to ways to limit energy usage of computing and potential pathways to reuse, repair, or recycle hardware products and materials.
May 24, 2022
World's Leading Solar Energy Research Institutions Discuss Shared Challenges, Growth Opportunities at 3rd Terawatt Workshop
Representatives from solar research institutes around the world and international participants from academia and industry discussed the implications of the multi-terawatt photovoltaics market at the 3rd Terawatt Workshop of the Global Alliance of Solar Energy Research Institutes, May 16-17 in Freiburg, Germany.
May 24, 2022
Battery Policies and Incentives Database Contributes to U.S. Efforts To Build a Secure Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain
Drastically increasing fleet and consumer use of electric vehicles (EVs) and developing energy storage solutions for renewable energy generation and resilience are key strategies the Biden administration touts to slash national transportation emissions and curtail climate change.
May 23, 2022
News Release: Experts Forecast the Wind Plant of the Future To Be Taller and More Economical
Researchers Philipp Beiter and Eric Lantz from NREL, together with collaborators from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, elicited opinions from more than 140 of the world's leading experts about their expectations of future wind plant design in 2035.
May 19, 2022
ARPA-E Funding Drives Innovation, Industry Partnerships at NREL
Among NREL's many funding agencies, the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funds what is perhaps some of NREL's most innovative work.
May 18, 2022
Capturing Light From Heat at 40% Efficiency, NREL Makes Big Strides in Thermophotovoltaics
NREL has a long history of building solar cells that capture light from the sun at record-setting efficiencies. But the sun is not the only light source from which photovoltaics can capture energy.
May 18, 2022
Autonomous Energy Systems Expand Into Real-World Applications
NREL's Autonomous Energy Systems work has been used commercially, applied in cross-cutting demonstrations, and is continually pushing the scientific edge of controls and optimization.
May 18, 2022
Beneath the Surface: A Champion of Renewable Energy
Meet NREL senior legal and regulatory analyst Aaron Levine, who examines how environmental regulations and hydropower could help protect the planet.
May 18, 2022
News Release: NREL Creates Highest Efficiency 1-Sun Solar Cell
Researchers at NREL created a solar cell with a record 39.5% efficiency under 1-sun global illumination. This is the highest efficiency solar cell of any type, measured using standard 1-sun conditions.
May 16, 2022
Expanded Nanoscale Imaging Lends a Clearer Vision for the Future of Batteries
At NREL, there is a common consensus that X-ray imaging techniques hold the key to unlocking critical information about the performance of energy storage systems.
May 12, 2022
From Full Fare to Fast Charging
Researchers from NREL are working to make sure that New York City's electric vehicle charging network and local utility can meet the eventual demands of more than 100,000 electric cars for hire.
May 12, 2022
The Future of Distributed Wind in the United States: Considerations for Unlocking Terawatt-Level Potential
The U.S. federal government has set a goal of 100% clean electricity in 2035 and a net-zero carbon economy in 2050. To achieve these ambitious targets, all forms of renewable power will be important—including distributed wind.
May 11, 2022
Laboratory Partnerships Bolster Battery Recycling Prize Solutions
The Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize allows entrepreneurs to access state-of-the-art research facilities as technical partners in collaboration within the American-Made Network.
May 9, 2022
Q&A With Nicholas Rorrer: Plant-Based Plastics and Plastic Plants
As part of the Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A profile series, Nic Rorrer shares why he loves polymers as well as Legos, yoga, RuPaul's drag races, and saving the world.
May 6, 2022
No Time, No Chips: No Problem for NREL
Amid global supply chain delays and semiconductor shortages, NREL researchers use creative problem-solving to deploy two high-performance computing solutions within one year.
May 5, 2022
15 NREL Researchers Receive Distinguished Member of Research Staff Designation
Fifteen researchers across NREL have been awarded the Distinguished Member of Research Staff designation for their exemplary contributions to NREL's mission, the respect they have earned from peers around the world, and their leadership at the laboratory and beyond.
May 5, 2022
A TEAMER Approach to Fighting Climate Change
Through the U.S. Department of Energy's Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) program, developers, researchers, companies, and national laboratories are teaming up to share resources.
May 5, 2022
News Release: NREL Scientists Advance Renewable Hydrogen Production Method
Perovskite materials may hold the potential to play an important role in a process to produce hydrogen in a renewable manner, according to an analysis from scientists at NREL.
May 4, 2022
Georgia Institute of Technology and The University of Arizona Named DOE Solar Decathlon 2022 Design Challenge Grand Winners
DOE announced the winners of the 20th annual Solar Decathlon, DOE's longest-tenured student competition that has challenged 40,000 students across the world to use the latest technologies to design and build the most sustainable buildings possible.
May 4, 2022
Department of Energy Announces Solar District Cup Class of 2021–2022 Winners
On Monday, April 25, DOE announced the top division winners and Project Pitch Champion in the Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition Class of 2021–2022. A total of nine student-led teams won first, second, or third place across the three divisions, plus four honorable mentions.
May 2, 2022
The Building Blocks of Power Sector Security for Utilities Across the Globe
To help electric utilities better understand what a full cybersecurity program looks like, NREL partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in support of the Resilient Energy Platform, providing assistance to a variety of stakeholders to improve security for the electrical grid.
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