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 2023
June 21, 2023
Substitute for Gold Layer in Perovskite Clears Way for Cheaper Commercialization
A thin layer of gold or silver helps improve the efficiency of perovskite solar cells, but researchers have found a less expensive material that will enable commercialization of the technology without exorbitant cost.
June 20, 2023
NREL’s New High-Performance Computer Has a Tremendous Supporting Cast
Kestrel—the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's newest and fastest supercomputer—is being built at NREL by a coordinated team.
June 20, 2023
NREL Windows Research Clearly Making a Difference
Builders began erecting edifices with massive walls of windows after World War II. The trend continues to this day, but the 1970s saw the adoption of double-pane windows to reduce energy consumption. Researchers at NREL have been working to improve windows since 1983.
June 20, 2023
NREL Researchers Traveled the Southwest To See the Future of Transportation in Action
To see the future of on-demand transit, researchers from NREL spent three days touring innovative mobility systems across the Southwest. Here's what they learned.
June 15, 2023
Beneath the Surface: The 'Spark Squad' Behind the Spark Squad
Learn about the "spark squad" behind the Spark Squad comics, a series created to inspire today's kids to become tomorrow's clean energy champions.
June 14, 2023
News Release: NREL Announces Participants for the 2023 Executive Energy Leadership Program
Eighteen leaders from around the country have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy's NREL to participate in the 2023 Executive Energy Leadership program.
June 12, 2023
Take a Trip to Renewable Energy Discovery Island
Get a sneak peek into a virtual world where water power has huge potential.
June 8, 2023
Clean Cities Thrives for 30 Years as Model for Collaborative Technology Deployment
A long-standing federal effort to decarbonize transportation proves how advanced technologies can make meaningful, real-world impacts by intertwining national goals and initiatives with local, community-based actions.
June 8, 2023
Digital-Twin Project Green-Lights Traffic Congestion Improvements
The Chattanooga Digital Twin Project, a collaboration between NREL and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, aimed to reduce transportation-based energy emissions and commuting delays in the city using advanced computing.
June 8, 2023
How Deep Is Your Ocean Love?
To celebrate National Ocean Month, we spoke to three water power researchers whose lives and work revolve around the 70% of our planet that is covered in ocean.
June 7, 2023
Collegiate Competitions Supercharge the Future Clean Energy Workforce
College students showcased their work in water power and wind energy at the final events for three DOE collegiate competitions: the inaugural Hydropower Collegiate Competition, fourth annual Marine Energy Collegiate Competition, and 10th annual Collegiate Wind Competition.
June 5, 2023
NREL Power Electronics Researcher Wins ASME Avram Bar-Cohen Memorial Medal
Sreekant Narumanchi, who leads NREL's advanced power electronics and electric machines research, has been awarded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Avram Bar-Cohen Memorial Medal.
June 5, 2023
NREL's Gallium Oxide Power Module Represents Innovation on Nearly Every Front
Faisal Khan, chief researcher of power electronics at NREL, is leading a transformational project to revolutionize the power electronics systems within electric vehicles and for high-power, high-voltage, industrial-scale power conversion. How? With a smart, rugged, and wireless gallium oxide power module.
June 1, 2023
News Release: Heliostat Consortium Announces Funding Awards Aimed at Lowering Costs and Barriers to Widespread Heliostat Deployment
NREL and Sandia National Laboratories announced seven awardees from a request for proposals aimed at achieving DOE's goals for heliostat cost reduction, sustained multifaceted innovation, and improved solar field performance.
May 2023
May 31, 2023
NREL Collaborates With Volvo Group To Chart Course Toward Zero-Emission Commercial Vehicles
In collaboration with Volvo Group, NREL researchers charted a path forward for achieving a zero-emission future for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Together, the industry/research team explored the current status and mapped the opportunity space for various technologies that could help turn that vision into reality.
May 30, 2023
Delegation From Bangladesh, NREL's Longest-Running USAID Country Partner, Touches Down in Colorado
Visitors from the USAID Bangladesh mission, the longest running country-partner program in the USAID-NREL Partnership, visited NREL's world-class facilities.
May 24, 2023
Q&A With Andriy Zakutayev: Materials Architect Builds New Energy-Efficient Devices One Atom at a Time
As a materials scientist at NREL, Andriy Zakutayev manufactures materials to find new ways to control electrons, helping them carry electricity inside computers, solar panels, and smartphones.
May 23, 2023
NREL Adds Lab Space With New Building, Preps Other Projects
NREL's newest building, the Research and Innovation Laboratory (RAIL), which will house multipurpose lab space, is the first laboratory building to open at NREL's Golden, Colorado, campus since the fall of 2013.
May 22, 2023
News Release: Inflation Reduction Act Invests $150 Million in NREL Projects
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that NREL will begin work on a series of additions and improvements to two of its campuses made possible by $150 million in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA).
May 18, 2023
NREL Foundation Creates New Opportunities, Enables Nontraditional Funding Sources To Support Research and Initiatives
The NREL Foundation enables philanthropists to seed and drive important research and initiatives in partnership with NREL more easily. And although the NREL Foundation includes NREL in its name and mission, the foundation is a separate, board-governed entity that is not controlled by or attached to NREL.
May 18, 2023
Piloting Future Fuels: Calvin Mukarakate Sees a Problem, Solves a Problem
As a group manager in NREL's Bioenergy Science and Technology Directorate, Calvin Mukarakate, with a world-class team of biofuel engineers and scientists, is applying his mind to realize an important dream: commercializing processes for making billions of gallons of low-carbon sustainable aviation fuel.
May 16, 2023
Industry Growth Forum 2023: Faster, Smarter, More Connected
In its 28th year, the IGF is the premier event for cleantech entrepreneurs, investors, and partners from industry and the public sector to build relationships, showcase innovative technologies, and identify disruptive business solutions.
May 15, 2023
New Water Treatment Technology Could Help Recycle Even Super Salty Waters
An emerging form of water treatment could be the most cost-effective way to produce clean drinking water from super salty wastewaters from agricultural runoff, groundwater, and more, according to a new study.
May 10, 2023
A Pectin-Synthesizing Enzyme May Help Trees Weather Storms. Could It Be Key to More Sustainable Bioproducts?
Researchers from NREL, the University of Georgia, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered the biological mechanism involved in making one specific component of pectin: galactan.
May 10, 2023
Meet the Researcher: Katherine Hurst, Hydrogen
Katherine Hurst's career is dedicated to investigating how to make hydrogen more affordable and accessible to use across multiple energy sectors.
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