Samantha Bench Reese is a member of the Strategic Energy Analysis Center and works with the Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC) under the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis. She collaborates with researchers to understand technoeconomic tradeoffs of early stage research. As an analyst, she helps put research problems in context and analytically shows technology potential through supply-chain analysis, trade-flow mapping, market research, and building bottoms-up cost models.

Samantha's background is in mechanical and electrical engineering. Prior to joining NREL, she helped transition products from R&D to volume manufacturing overseas, in addition to other manufacturing- and quality-focused efforts.

Research Interests

Advanced Manufacturing

Wideband Gap Semiconductors

Solid-State Lighting

Combined Heat and Power

Resiliency

Buildings and Building Systems

Battery Storage

Global Supply Shain Analysis

Technical and Economic Feasibility Analysis

Power Electronics

Education

M.S., Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University

B.S., Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology

Professional Experience

Quality Engineer, SpectraLogic, Boulder, CO (2007–2015)

Application Engineer, ZYGO, Middlefield, CT (2004–2007)

Senior Analysis Engineer/Product Engineer, Finisar, Sunnyvale, CA (2001–2004)

General Computing Administrator, LIGO, Pasadena, CA (1998–2001)

Featured Work

Benchmarks of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing, 2014-2016, NREL Technical Report (2021)

Technoeconomic Design of a Geothermal-Enabled Cold Climate Zero Energy Community, Journal of Energy Resources Technology (2021)

Research Note: LED Lighting –A Global Enterprise, Lighting Research & Technology (2020)

How Much will Gallium Oxide Power Electronics Cost?, Joule (2019)

Why Wideband Gap Needs Techno-Economics, IEEE 7th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (2019)

Performance and Techno-Economic Evaluation of a Three-Phase, 50-kW SiC-Based PV Inverter, IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (2019)

A Manufacturing Cost and Supply Chain Analysis of SiC Power Electronics Applicable to Medium-Voltage Motor Drives, NREL Technical Report (2017) 

View all NREL publications for Samantha Bench Reese.