Solar Research News
Explore our archive of solar news stories.
Dec. 26, 2017
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced its selection of two projects led by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), each to receive over $1.5M on projects that will advance predictive modeling of solar power and improve grid reliability.
Nov. 22, 2017
William Tumas, an associate laboratory director for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), has been elected a fellow by the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Oct. 27, 2017
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) established a new world efficiency record for quantum dot solar cells, at 13.4 percent.
Oct. 24, 2017
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has entered into a license agreement with MicroLink Devices, Inc. (Niles, IL) to commercialize NREL's patented inverted metamorphic (IMM) multijunction solar cells.
Oct. 24, 2017
New research shows how to increase reliability of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cells. Key to the improvement is the use of photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy to identify defects in the solar cell that lower its efficiency and cause degradation.
Oct. 23, 2017
NREL is teaming with a range of stakeholders on the Orange Button initiative to drive the creation and adoption of industry-led, open data standards for seamless data exchange across the solar industry.
Oct. 13, 2017
NREL's Solar Technical Assistance Team attends meetings of the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) to stay up-to-date with the needs and concerns of state officials.
Oct. 2, 2017
The REopt Lite web tool helps building owners evaluate the economics of grid-connected solar photovoltaics (PV) and battery storage at commercial sites.
Sept. 26, 2017
Corporations and other institutions have contracted for more than 2,300 megawatts of off-site solar, using power purchase agreements (PPAs), green tariffs, or bilateral deals with utilities.
Sept. 18, 2017
Keeping storage tank corrosion rates to a minimum considered vital for use of molten salts
Sept. 12, 2017
The installed cost of solar power fell to record lows in the first quarter of 2017 because of the continuing decline in photovoltaic (PV) module and inverter prices, higher module efficiency, and lower labor costs, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Sept. 7, 2017
Angelo Mascarenhas and Brian Fluegel, scientists at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), have published a theory for crystal lattices with a tensor periodicity that may inspire a new generation of techniques for growing materials with properties that can be exploited for electronic, photonic, and optical energy-storage applications.
Aug. 25, 2017
The workshop will be October 23-25, 2017, at the Dubai World Trade Center. Three days of technical presentations will cover topics such as soiling losses in harsh climates, modeling and predicting soiling losses, procedures and equipment for measuring soiling losses, robotic cleaning machines, antisoiling coatings, and International Electrotechnical Commission standards in connection to photovoltaic soiling.
Aug. 25, 2017
Collaboration between researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) shows the high potential of silicon-based multijunction solar cells.
Aug. 24, 2017
Commercial electricity customers who are subject to high demand charges may be able to reduce overall costs by using battery energy storage to manage demand, according to research by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Aug. 10, 2017
The Hands-On PV Experience gave thirteen graduate students a chance to spend one week at NREL, deepening their knowledge of photovoltaics and learning from top solar scientists.
July 31, 2017
Detail of NREL analysis showing clear-sky versus cloudy-sky probabilities for the August solar eclipse.
July 14, 2017
The Solar Energy Innovation Network is a new three-year program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, designed to remove soft cost (non-hardware) barriers to wide-scale integration of distributed solar photovoltaics within the U.S. electricity system.
July 5, 2017
Groundbreaking work in advanced energy research sprang from lab's 1977 start as SERI.
July 5, 2017
Student teams from across Colorado enjoy a day racing model electric cars at NREL
July 3, 2017
A free webinar on Thursday, July 20, 2017, from 1–2 p.m. ET, will share exciting new research by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories, and Vanderbilt University on how data analytics, machine learning, and social science can improve marketing and customer acquisition processes for residential solar.
June 1, 2017
NREL has offered no-cost technical assistance to American universities seeking to go solar. The program, in support of the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot initiative, is designed to increase the deployment of mid-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems at universities, engage stakeholders to develop deployment solutions, and empower decision makers.
June 1, 2017
NREL scientists recently demonstrated a dual-junction solar cell with a record one-sun, certified efficiency of 32.6% (±1.4%), surpassing the previous record by a full percentage.
May 16, 2017
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed new designer quantum dot systems with greater control over beneficial properties for photoelectrochemical and photovoltaic solar applications.
April 24, 2017
NREL and Renewable Energy Systems (RES) Americas are testing an energy storage system to help renewable energy resources provide more consistent power.
April 18, 2017
The annual potential of solar energy far exceeds the world’s energy consumption, but the goal of using the sun to provide a significant fraction of global electricity demand is far from being realized.
April 14, 2017
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed a new perovskite ink with a long processing window that allows the scalable production of perovskite thin films for high-efficiency solar cells.
April 13, 2017
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a proof-of-principle photoelectrochemical cell capable of capturing excess photon energy normally lost to generating heat.
April 12, 2017
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recaptured the record for highest efficiency in solar hydrogen production via a photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting process.
April 10, 2017
Overall failure rates for photovoltaic (PV) solar panels have fallen dramatically when compared to installations prior to 2000, according to a comprehensive review by researchers from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
March 28, 2017
Learn about how NREL researchers are making detailed component and system-level cost breakdowns available for residential photovoltaic (PV) solar systems for the first time.
March 28, 2017
NREL, Sandia National Laboratories, and Brookhaven National Laboratory partnered to host two coordinated workshops on PV Reliability, which ran from Feb. 28 to March 2.
Feb. 14, 2017
Researchers at NREL and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have mapped the processing phase space where ideal conditions exist to create perovskite photovoltaic absorbers.
