Impacts

NREL water power research is advancing the hydropower and marine energy industries and bringing new tools, data, and analysis to enable a future clean power grid.

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NREL's Fiscal Year 2022 Water Power Achievements

The NREL water power team tallied up the most popular events, news stories, and videos published over the last year.

Watch more on the NREL Water Power playlist.


A woman in a canoe with a paddle.

Meet the Staff Powering NREL's Water Power Research and Development

The research and advances in hydropower and marine energy at NREL is only possible thanks to the hard work of the staff beneath the surface.
Read the profiles in our Beneath the Surface Q&A interview series.


Awards and Honors

Wave Energy Converter Simulator (WEC-Sim)
2021 R&D Awards, R&D World

Variable-Geometry, Oscillating, Surge Wave Energy Converter
2020 Technology Commercialization Fund, U.S. Department of Energy

Hannah Ross
2022 Director's Award, NREL (for outstanding efforts in helping to develop open-source tidal turbine simulation methods)
2022 Outstanding Mentor award, NREL
Invited presenter, 2022 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition Outstanding Early-Career Investigators in Energy Conversion and Storage Systems

Casey Nichols
2022 President’s Award, NREL (for fabrication, advanced manufacturing, and software development efforts for marine energy)

Nathan Tom
2022 President’s Award, NREL (for collaborating with NASA to model the behavior of the new reentry capsule, Orion, using WEC-Sim)

Research Highlight

A computer visualization of an island.
NREL researchers created an educational 3D virtual water-powered island to explore.

Upcoming Events

Three researchers in masks sit at a conference table and look up at a wall-mounted screen
NREL hosts and attends many events and opportunities.
Two people in goggles stand behind wires and a water gauge.
"Marine energy technologies could be a big help in fighting climate change. The faster we can get marine energy technologies up and running, the faster they could help us power the blue economy, energize isolated communities, and move us to a renewable energy grid.”

Casey Nichols
NREL Researcher