Water Research News
Stay up to date on the latest water energy research and development news at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Dec. 22, 2020
Make informed decisions about renewable energy system design and project economics with the latest version of NREL's System Advisor Model.
Dec. 22, 2020
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and technology commercialization in 2020, from breaking world records to launching new initiatives. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Dec. 18, 2020
Eleven winning teams claimed top honors with their concepts to leverage the rapid innovations enabled by advanced manufacturing to solve hydropower's critical challenges.
Dec. 17, 2020
NREL researchers are working to fast-track the development of tomorrow's cost-effective marine energy technologies, thanks to an ARPA-E SHARKS funding award.
Nov. 18, 2020
NREL researcher Scott Jenne and his team are paving the way to the development of the wave energy generation devices of tomorrow.
Nov. 11, 2020
The STEM Hydropower and Marine Renewable Energy portals bring all things water power to educators and students. Learn more about the recently added resources.
Oct. 26, 2020
NREL named Jennifer Kurtz director of the newly formed Energy Conversion and Storage Systems Center. The new cross-cutting center is dedicated to systems engineering for energy conversion and storage technologies such as batteries, hydrogen, geothermal, thermal, and water power.
Oct. 19, 2020
NREL announces concurrent launch of DEVELOP Competition and 90-day DESIGN Contest.
Oct. 15, 2020
Get to know tomorrow’s blue economy trailblazers: the recently announced 2021 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition teams.
Sept. 29, 2020
Hybrid systems of floating solar panels and hydropower plants may hold the technical potential to produce a significant portion of the electricity generated annually across the globe, according to an analysis by researchers at NREL.
Sept. 25, 2020
Through the Fish Protection Prize, the U.S. DOE Water Power Technologies Office solicited sustainable solutions that allow hydropower and fish to thrive side by side. Additionally, the I AM Hydro Prize aims to strengthen hydropower by applying advanced manufacturing technologies.
Sept. 17, 2020
In a recently published journal article, NREL researchers investigated the soil impacts of solar PV array installations and considered how energy and agriculture can coexist.
Sept. 15, 2020
Do you have the technological know-how to develop the desalination systems of tomorrow? Help strengthen the United States’ long-term energy and water security by joining forces with the largest federal investment in water treatment research in 50 years.
Sept. 14, 2020
We are inspiring tomorrow's water power workforce. Visit the updated STEM Hydropower and Marine Renewable Energy Portals and learn how.
Sept. 9, 2020
Among the winners of the U.S. Department of Energy's Waves to Water Prize DESIGN Stage, five industry teams are now ready to take their desalination design to the next level.
Aug. 28, 2020
Nine teams vie for the Fish Protection grand prize to be announced at the American Fisheries Society Virtual Annual Meeting in September.
Aug. 24, 2020
NREL, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory launches the Groundbreaking Hydro Prize.
Aug. 21, 2020
NREL is supporting Obermeyer Hydro Inc. in their efforts to design a cost-effective, highly flexible pumped-storage hydropower system that reduces project costs, shortens deployment timelines, and is optimized for U.S. energy storage requirements.
Aug. 13, 2020
Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette introduced two new acronyms to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) lexicon on Aug. 12: RAIL and ARIES. RAIL stands for Research and Innovation Laboratory, while ARIES is short for Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems.
Aug. 13, 2020
Ocean Observing Prize competitors are integrating marine renewable energy systems with ocean-observing platforms to collect ocean and weather data that can be used to better forecast natural disasters.
Aug. 11, 2020
Four academic teams emerge victorious in the DESIGN Stage of the U.S. Department of Energy's Waves to Water Prize. Next up, they'll validate their designs in the ADAPT Stage.
Aug. 3, 2020
As part of an effort to recruit the best and brightest to the water power workforce, the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office and NREL launched STEM education portals for water power technologies.
July 23, 2020
During an NREL-led Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit Webinar, NREL legal and regulatory analysts presented updated features and showcased highlights from NREL's latest Hydropower RAPID Toolkit publication.
July 21, 2020
From his trademark black hat to his legendary one-liners and singing contributions to the Wind Weenie Wailers, Research Fellow Bob Thresher undoubtedly cuts a memorable, larger-than-life figure. When asked to describe him, Thresher's colleagues label him as everything from "pioneer" and "mentor" to "friend," "hero," and even "rock star." They are not all misty-eyed tributes, however.
July 9, 2020
Released each year, electricity-generation technology cost and performance data power forward-looking analyses at NREL and beyond.
July 9, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office and NREL have announced the winners of Phase 1 of the American-Made Challenges® Water Resource Recovery Prize.
July 6, 2020
Four winning teams of the Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time (FAST) Commissioning for Pumped-Storage Hydropower Prize are reducing the time, cost, and risk associated with commissioning pumped-storage hydropower projects.
June 30, 2020
Today, NREL launched the I AM Hydro Prize, a new competition designed to transform the hydropower industry using advanced manufacturing technologies. NREL also announced the winners of the CONCEPT Stage, the first phase of the Fish Protection Prize.
June 30, 2020
Learn more about marine renewable energy, from powering remote coastal communities to the devices that predict hurricanes.
June 25, 2020
As health care workers continue to fight on the front lines, NREL volunteers do what they can to help by manufacturing face shields for healthcare workers, paramedics, and firefighters in Colorado.
June 23, 2020
Challenging the best and brightest to unlock the power of the ocean, in August, the MECC will begin accepting applications for the 2021 competition.
June 18, 2020
Eight of the 17 winning teams in the DESIGN stage of the Waves to Water Prize received awards for their entrepreneurial wave-powered desalination designs.
June 16, 2020
NASA is using WEC-Sim (Wave Energy Converter SIMulator), an open-source code developed by NREL and Sandia National Laboratories, to ensure NASA’s Orion Crew Model uprights and remains upright upon landing in the ocean.
June 11, 2020
During National Oceans Month, we celebrate water power researchers who are discovering innovative ways to harness marine energy to generate electricity.
June 10, 2020
NREL has launched MHKiT, an open-source software designed to support marine and hydrokinetic R&D through data processing and analysis.
June 9, 2020
This week, the U.S. DOE and NREL announced the winners for the DESIGN Stage and the location for the final DRINK Stage of the American-Made Challenges Waves to Water Prize: Jennette's Pier on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
May 22, 2020
Hydropower may be the missing puzzle piece that offers the flexibility and storage necessary to effectively bridge the gap between traditional and renewable resources on the grid.
May 5, 2020
In the first stage of the Powering the Blue Economy: Ocean Observing Prize, participants launched on a 90-day mission to DISCOVER new ways to help overcome energy constraints that stand in the way of effective and comprehensive ocean observation.
April 28, 2020
On April 27, with support from NREL, the U.S. Department of Energy kicked off the Solar Desalination Prize, a $9 million competition that's part of the American-Made Challenges series. The competition is designed to accelerate the development of systems that use solar-thermal energy to produce clean drinking water from salt water.
April 21, 2020
NREL's pioneering thermoplastics work is helping close the circle, ensuring today's blades become tomorrow's blades, too.
April 16, 2020
This Earth Day, we recognize five teams of entrepreneurs who are integrating marine energy and desalination to provide clean water.
April 13, 2020
Three winning teams of the Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time (FAST) Commissioning for Pumped-Storage Hydropower Prize are reducing the time, cost, and risk associated with commissioning pumped-storage hydropower projects.
April 2, 2020
NREL announced the 11 winners of the DISCOVER Competition, the first stage of the Powering the Blue Economy: Ocean Observing Prize. Of the selected winners, 10 received $10,000 each, and one grand prizewinner received $25,000 to help accelerate the development of the marine energy sector.
March 30, 2020
NREL celebrates Women's History Month by highlighting the innovation and leadership of three women in marine energy research.
March 24, 2020
NREL-led assessments are helping remote, off-grid communities such as Igiugig in Alaska identify self-sustaining microgrid options, while the team’s resource characterization work in Cook Inlet has the potential to deliver power to the grid for distribution across the state.
March 16, 2020
In November, DOE announced the 20 CONCEPT stage winning teams, each awarded $10,000 from a $200,000 cash prize pool. Wielding their book smarts, seven academic teams were among the 20 winners.
March 10, 2020
NREL researchers demonstrated a new advanced material used to manufacture wind turbine blades to manufacturing industry representatives during a Women in Manufacturing (WiM) event.
March 3, 2020
To unlock the power of the ocean and the burgeoning field of marine energy, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office launched the first-ever Marine Energy Collegiate Competition. Fifteen teams, comprising undergraduate and graduate students, answered the call to participate, putting their heads together to develop innovative marine energy solutions to power the Blue Economy.
Feb. 19, 2020
New Data Compilation Includes Information on Industrial Energy Prices and Economic Activity for 2016-2018.
Feb. 19, 2020
What does it take to fast-track pumped-storage hydropower projects? Four hard-working teams of innovators may hold the answer.
Feb. 18, 2020
The Waves to Water Prize competition invites participants to develop wave-powered desalination systems that can be deployed in disaster-relief scenarios and remote coastal locations to provide potable drinking water. DOE selected 20 teams as winners of the CONCEPT Stage of the prize.
Feb. 18, 2020
New edition also shows continued growth in U.S. installed wind and solar photovoltaic capacity, energy storage, and electric vehicle sales.
Jan. 29, 2020
DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office launched the Water Resource Recovery Prize, a $1 million two-phased competition designed to increase resource recovery from municipal wastewater treatment plants across the U.S.
Jan. 27, 2020
Today, NREL announced the opening of a new prize competition — the Fish Protection Prize — designed to generate innovative methods for keeping fish out of water diversions and dam intakes. The movement of fish into water infrastructure separates fish from their natural habitat and can impact native populations, threaten biodiversity, and impede recovery efforts for threatened and endangered species.
Jan. 2, 2020
An oft-repeated refrain—the sun doesn't always shine, is sometimes seen as an impediment to renewable energy. But it's also an impetus toward discovering the best ways to store that energy until it's needed.
