Photovoltaic Research News
Visit the NREL news section for a complete list of NREL press releases and feature stories related to PV.
December 14, 2018
Two new reports from NREL track the evolving costs of PV and establish a new cost benchmark for PV-plus-storage.
November 5, 2018
The REopt Lite web tool's new wind optimization module lets building owners and energy managers evaluate the economic viability of grid-connected wind at a site, in addition to solar photovoltaics and battery storage.
October 24, 2018
Dan Friedman, manager of NREL's High Efficiency Crystalline Photovoltaics Group, has been elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society for this work on III-V semiconductor physics and multijunction photovoltaic science, including numerous device efficiency records.
October 8, 2018
NREL has recently combined two structures of III-V materials into one, providing a "two-for-the-price-of-one" benefit. The combination enables novel, potentially record-setting, multijunction solar cells.
October 4, 2018
Painting Solar Cells Provides New Path to Market
September 26, 2018
To aid cites in solar adoption, NREL launched the City and County Solar PV Training Program, or PV Cities, in January 2018. The five-month program was designed specifically for cities and counties and aimed to increase the deployment of midscale solar PV systems by engaging stakeholders to develop deployment solutions and empowering city and county staff.
September 24, 2018
The Hands-On PV Workshop brings graduate students from across the United States to NREL each year to increase their knowledge about photovoltaics and see practical applications of PV technologies.
July 19, 2018
A new NREL report finds that community and regional financial institutions , such as community banks and credit unions, are experiencing positive early performance of loans for photovoltaic systems.
June 18, 2018
NREL released an API for REopt(TM) Lite, enabling streamlined integration with other tools inside and outside NREL and allowing building owners and researchers to evaluate the economics of grid-connected solar PV and battery storage at multiple commercial sites. The API opens opportunities for research collaboration and broader market impact, driving solar and storage deployment.
June 12, 2018
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.
May 29, 2018
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).
April 25, 2018
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
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.
April 20, 2018
NREL and the Hawaiian Electric Companies are evaluating energy trends and simulating future grid scenarios to ensure stability--and their findings could help other islands, and even mainland states, apply similar solutions.
April 20, 2018
NREL helped the Hawaiian Electric Companies respond to new stability challenges associated with the rapid addition of solar power and other renewables to Hawaii's six isolated island grids.
April 12, 2018
NREL has played a significant role in the increased efficiency of perovskite solar cells.
April 10, 2018
A new software package developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and industry partners SunPower and kWh Analytics is making the measurement of PV system expected lifetime performance more reliable, consistent, and accurate.
April 9, 2018
Adding higher penetrations of solar photovoltaics (PV) to the electric power grid could increase the potential for energy storage to meet peak demand, according to new analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
April 5, 2018
As perovskite solar cells set efficiency records and the nascent technology becomes more stable, another major challenge remains: the issue of scalability, according to researchers at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
April 3, 2018
An extensive experimental database of inorganic thin-film materials that organizes a decade's worth of research at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is now publicly available.
January 30, 2018
Researchers at NREL created an environmentally stable, high-efficiency perovskite solar cell, bringing the emerging technology a step closer to commercial deployment.
January 16, 2018
A microscopic analysis of perovskite solar cells reveals new insight into how the devices degrade--information necessary for moving the technology closer to commercialization.
January 12, 2018
NREL will host the ninth annual PV Reliability Workshop from Feb. 27 to March 1 in Lakewood, Colorado. Sessions at the workshop will cover key topics in reliability, such as stability of high-efficiency modules, module soiling, inverter reliability, monitoring and failure detection, international standards, and accelerated testing of modules.
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