Water Research News
Stay up to date on the latest water energy research and development news at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Dec. 28, 2021
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and technology commercialization in 2021. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Nov. 9, 2021
Phase 2 finalists of the Water Resource Recovery Prize receive honorable mention for proposing innovative solutions to lower the cost of water treatment by extracting valuable resources.
Nov. 1, 2021
A new NREL and Argonne National Laboratory tool named the Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework provides hydropower operators complete and customized assessments of their cybersecurity risks and demonstrates how different investments will help improve overall resilience.
Oct. 29, 2021
NREL's Cybersecurity Program Director Jon White shares his own path into the field and the laboratory's strategy for deploying technologies that stay one step ahead of adversaries.
Oct. 29, 2021
A national laboratories report, titled "An Examination of the Hydropower Licensing and Federal Authorization Process," identifies what factors can add time, cost, or risk when earning a hydropower license so decisionmakers can streamline the process and create carbon-free energy.
Oct. 26, 2021
NREL is leading a multi-laboratory team to deploy three underwater moorings to collect data in Cook Inlet, a highly energetic corner of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Alaska.
Oct. 21, 2021
R&D World magazine today presented NREL with two of its annual R&D 100 Awards for research innovations.
Oct. 1, 2021
The Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology Facility can help partners build better materials for wind and marine energy, transportation, and energy-efficient buildings.
Sept. 30, 2021
To help achieve ambitious goals to address climate change, the DOE has launched a new $2.5 million Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize to fund organizations working with disadvantaged communities in clean energy as well as foster connections between DOE and innovators the agency has yet to reach to pave the way to an inclusive, equitable, and just energy future.
Sept. 17, 2021
NREL is partnering with ocean experts in North Carolina and Puerto Rico to collect detailed data on surface waves in the Atlantic Ocean.
Sept. 9, 2021
This month, DOE and NREL officially announced the five teams that earned a spot in the fifth and final Waves to Water Prize competition stage, DRINK. Now, these five have 180 days to prepare their devices for an open-ocean trial at the Coastal Studies Institute in North Carolina in April 2022.
Sept. 1, 2021
NREL is collaborating with Idaho National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories to develop FlexPower, a colocated, variable generation hybrid power plant enhanced with energy storage, stationed at the Flatirons Campus.
Aug. 24, 2021
With support from the U.S. DOE Water Power Technologies Office, NREL researchers are developing the Framework for Linked Analysis of Streamflow and Hydropower (FLASH), a systems-engineering-based approach that will improve hydropower's representation in grid operations modeling.
Aug. 20, 2021
C-Power is collaborating with NREL and the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office to prep their autonomous, wave-powered, renewable energy device—called the SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system—for its first open ocean trial.
Aug. 18, 2021
From academics to entrepreneurs, diverse participants are competing in the five-stage Waves to Water Prize, designing marine energy technology that turns salty ocean water into fresh drinking water.
Aug. 13, 2021
Seasoned Waves to Water Prize competitors are developing novel, wave-powered desalination devices that can provide clean drinking water to coastal and island communities as well as in disaster recovery scenarios.
Aug. 12, 2021
NREL is measuring the performance of its potentially industry-changing thermoplastic blades on Verdant Power's tidal power turbine in New York City's East River.
Aug. 4, 2021
Launched in 2015, the Hydropower RAPID Toolkit collects and organizes the latest regulations that protect air and water quality, preserve wildlife habitats, prevent soil erosion, and shield valuable cultural and recreational resources.
July 29, 2021
Waves to Water Prize competitors are using their industry expertise to help advance marine energy technologies that could harness the power of ocean waves to produce clean drinking water.
July 29, 2021
This year, NREL joined the Department of Energy's Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) in celebrating just a few of the women making significant contributions within energy storage programs.
July 15, 2021
In the Waves to Water Prize, competitors from academia are part of the diverse set of pioneers dipping their feet in the water by introducing, expanding, and evolving what is possible for marine energy.
June 24, 2021
Multiyear analysis shows that increasing electricity trade between countries and expanding interregional transmission can support a reliable future power system.
June 17, 2021
With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office, NREL researchers are exploring ways to significantly advance wave energy converter design and development.
May 20, 2021
Seventeen teams were selected to participate in the 2022 MECC to offer a new wave of innovation in the third year of the competition.
May 13, 2021
Marine Energy Atlas features expanded data sets and offers a streamlined user experience.
April 30, 2021
Three winners of the 2021 MECC were announced by DOE’s Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Office during a virtual ceremony this week.
April 22, 2021
NREL is working with Natel Energy to investigate the revenue and downstream flow trade-offs for a hypothetical series of small, cascading hydropower installations.
April 21, 2021
NREL will bring cross-cutting technical assistance to remote and island communities seeking resilient energy solutions as part of the DOE-funded, multi-lab, multi-partner Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP).
April 19, 2021
NREL is proud to announce the seven winners of the DESIGN Contest, the first of three contests in the Ocean Observing Prize’s DEVELOP Competition, which aims to help protect coastal communities from dangerous storms by conceiving the development of autonomous, wave-powered hurricane monitoring systems.
April 19, 2021
NREL's Advanced Manufacturing team is applying what they have learned from 3D-printing of wind blade molds to create additively manufactured tidal turbine prototypes.
April 8, 2021
Two winning teams claimed top honors in the Groundbreaking Hydro Prize with their creative concepts to help support hydropower's continued trajectory of growth.
April 5, 2021
Ready to dive in? The 2022 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition is now open for applications!
March 22, 2021
NREL researchers work to transform seawater into drinking water as we commemorate World Water Day 2021.
March 17, 2021
Don’t be blue: the launch of the 2022 MECC is just around the corner. Learn more.
March 16, 2021
A new NREL report provides a snapshot of U.S. marine energy potential at the national, state, and regional levels.
Feb. 9, 2021
NREL revealed 10 winners of the third stage of the Waves to Water Prize. These teams will walk away with a cash prize and an invitation to advance to the next stage of the prize, CREATE, where they will bring these ideas to life with proofs of concepts and prototyping of their novel wave-energy-powered desalination systems.
Feb. 1, 2021
Techno-economic analysis just got a bit easier for the marine renewable energy industry. Learn more about the updates to the wave and tidal SAM tool.
Jan. 25, 2021
In collaboration with PNNL and Sandia, NREL has released a high spatial resolution, publicly-accessible ocean surface wave hindcast dataset.
Jan. 25, 2021
In the upcoming Waves to Water Prize CREATE Stage, competitors will transform their wave-powered desalination system ideas from concept to reality, vying for a shared prize pool of $500,000 and the chance to move on to the final stage of the prize: DRINK.
Jan. 14, 2021
Take a bird's-eye view of WPTO's 2019–2020 hydropower and marine energy accomplishments, and learn about the NREL projects highlighted within this comprehensive publication.
Jan. 13, 2021
Could the secret to unlocking wave energy's potential be found in shape-shifting control? NREL researcher Nathan Tom and his team think so.
Jan. 12, 2021
Learn about the I AM Hydro Prize and the advanced-manufacturing partners supporting it.
