NREL’s Computing Capabilities Could Help Prevent Wildfires Caused by Fallen Power Lines Annually, tens of thousands of wildfires ravage the United States, posing significant threats to people, wildlife, and infrastructure. A percentage of those wildfires are caused by degraded or downed electrical equipment. But what if artificial intelligence (AI) could … [continued]
NREL Brings Together Specialists From Across the Country To Discuss Cement and Concrete for Its Third Annual Critical Technologies Meeting Cement and concrete are essential to United States infrastructure, from our roadways to the buildings we occupy. Accounting for 50% of all materials produced globally, domestic production of this critical material is … [continued]
Application Period Opens for Annual Marine Energy and Hydropower Competitions, Which Challenge College Students To Find Real-World Solutions and Explore Career Pathways Calling all student innovators looking to make waves in the water power sector! The application windows for the Hydropower Collegiate Competition (HCC) and Marine Energy Collegiate Competition are now open. Submissions will … [continued]
More Than 50 Experts Gathered at NREL To Consider How Incorporating Artificial Intelligence Into Materials Synthesis, Characterization, and Modeling Could Unlock New Insights and Speed New Technologies to Market Artificial intelligence (AI) could accelerate scientific discovery by helping researchers to more quickly gather data, search that data for patterns, and—eventually—generate … [continued]
New Tool Lets Researchers and Partners Cut Prototyping Costs, Wait Times, and Design Barriers for Ocean Energy Technologies and More By Caitlin McDermott-Murphy When it comes to marine energy, metal is metal. “Compared to plastic, metal components can withstand five to 10 times as much force,” said Paul Murdy, a mechanical … [continued]
Welcome to the Materials, Chemical, and Computational Science (MCCS) Early-Career Spotlight, a monthly feature showcasing NREL’s early-career researchers’ interests, motivations, and achievements. This month features Hilary Egan, who has been a data scientist at NREL since 2020. For Hilary Egan, a data scientist at NREL, a career in science was … [continued]
NREL Provides Expertise to Local Governments and Tribes Through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program From capital cities in the East to Alaskan villages in the West, NREL is advancing community-driven energy solutions from coast to coast through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Conservation … [continued]
Transportation researchers from NREL received awards at the 2025 Annual Merit Review meeting for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO). Each year, VTO presents awards to individuals from partner institutions for contributions to overall program efforts and to recognize research, development, demonstration, and deployment achievements in specific areas. … [continued]
From technologies for extracting rare earth elements from plants to advanced membranes for water filtration, and from vertical-axis wind turbines to next-generation, long-lived flywheel energy storage, innovators bring exciting ideas to the fourth cohort of West Gate—NREL’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program. “We are supporting the vast landscape of energy technologies that … [continued]
Experts Explore Potential of Google AI Tools To Mitigate Potential Energy Limits for Quick Growth of US Data Centers By Kerrin Jeromin NREL and Google teamed up to host a hackathon, bringing together leading researchers from nine U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories to explore and leverage Google’s generative … [continued]
