NREL Defense Partnerships Quarterly Newsletter

Welcome to the summer 2022 NREL Defense Partnerships Quarterly Newsletter.

Partnership Feature

NREL's Sixth Partner Forum Digs Deep on Sustainable Aviation Opportunities

From Aug. 9–10, 2022, NREL convened its sixth Partner Forum at its Golden, Colorado, campus, pulling together private and public sector leaders—including representatives from the Department of Defense (DOD)—to collaboratively explore solutions for sustainable aviation. Read more about NREL's sixth Partner Forum.

Research Activity

Federal Fleet Training: Driving Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles are an important part of our transition to a clean energy future, and they are fun to drive! In this video, you'll learn how driving an electric vehicle is different than a gasoline vehicle, and how to make the most of your ride.

Sustainable Communities Catalyzer Publishes Best-Practices Guide To Supporting Community Energy Planning

As clean energy investments ramp up, organizations like NREL are increasingly called upon to provide energy-planning assistance to communities.

To support practitioners at NREL and beyond who work in community clean energy planning, the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis' Sustainable Communities Catalyzer published a best-practices guide to working with communities.

Assessing Power System Reliability in a Changing Grid Environment

NREL's energy analysts use the "three Rs"—resource adequacy, operational reliability, and resilience—to provide a fuller picture of power system reliability with changing resource mixes and grid conditions. Read more about how NREL assesses power system reliability.

Defense and Disaster Deployable Turbine Project

The Defense and Disaster Deployable Turbine Project (D3T) is a research partnership designed to inform the development of rapidly deployable wind energy systems to power national defense and disaster recovery missions.

Fast access to energy on location is critical to ensuring a successful military or humanitarian response when conflicts and natural disasters occur. These missions depend on reliable access to liquid fuel that could be vulnerable to disruption or attack during transport. Read more about NREL's Defense and Disaster Deployable Turbine Project project.

Co-Optima Findings Pave the Way for a Net-Zero-Carbon Transportation Future

The U.S. Department of Energy's Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative recently wrapped up 6 years of fuel and engine research designed to more rapidly reduce dependence on international petroleum and cut emissions, while slowing global warming. NREL played a major role in the collaborative undertaking. Findings are now available in a recently released report. Read more about the Department of Energy's Co-Optima program.

Staff Highlights

Jerry Davis Named Laboratory Program Manager for ARIES Research Platform and Energy Systems Integration Facility

Jerry Davis has been selected as the new laboratory program manager for two of NREL's leading research capabilities: the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) research platform and the Energy Systems Integration Facility. Read more about Davis' new role.

Recommended Reading

A Roadmap Toward a Sustainable Aviation Ecosystem

This report outlines a holistic view of pathways to a sustainable aviation ecosystem, focusing on low-net-carbon aircraft energy carriers (fuels), airport ecosystems (airports and bases), and developments in sustainable aircraft components (aircraft). Taking this holistic ecosystem perspective, we identify critical components that contribute to sustainable energy solutions necessary to achieve deep decarbonization of the aviation industry, as well as the integrated energy system interfaces that must be comprehensively understood, planned for, and realized. Read the Roadmap Toward a Sustainable Aviation Ecosystem report.

More Recommended Reading

Check out the following NREL publications and presentations related to defense sector projects and research:

Check the Storage Stack: Comparing Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage State Policy Stacks in the United States, NREL Technical Report (2022)

Summer 2022 Solar Industry Update, NREL Presentation (2022)

Cyber-Resilient Design Methodology for Microgrids, NREL Presentation (2022)

Visits to NREL

Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Installation Energy Team

On Aug. 23, 2022, a diverse group of DOD and other leaders visited NREL to discuss how DOD would meet the ambitious federal climate goals of Executive Order 14057. Topics ranged from fleet electrification to carbon-free electricity procurement and advancements in infrastructure. The group met with senior researchers to explore how they could leverage NREL data sets, tools, and project development expertise to assist the department in setting priorities, optimizing investment, and evaluating progress.

The visiting group included Mike McGhee (executive director of the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives); Kim Spangler (director of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program); the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Environment & Energy Resilience) Installation Energy; and DOD's Susan Call, Andy Knox, Tim Tetreault, and Keith Welch.

Visiting NREL

We look forward to visits from our defense sector partners in the future. For more up-to-date information related to NREL operations and visits, contact Katy Christiansen.

Virtual Tours

Tours led by NREL staff are available at no charge and are typically held the second Friday of each month from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Mountain time. If you are interested in a virtual tour of the NREL campus, contact Katy Christiansen.