The most critical resource needed in the ongoing transition to electric vehicles isn’t lithium, silicon, or nickel — it’s an adequate workforce. Training people for the green industrial workforce needed for the 21st century industrial revolution is critical, needed in high volume, and hard to get and keep at the … [continued]
Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory broke new ground by surveying the national state of smart charge management strategies. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL
Smart charge management—intelligently managing the flow of electricity that charges electric vehicles (EVs)—can have incredible benefits for drivers, utility companies, governments, and fleets. Yet smart charge management strategies have not been widely deployed nationwide. In response, two national laboratories, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory … [continued]
NREL researchers authored a new report that makes actionable recommendations to address gaps in the domestic hydropower supply chain. Photo from Connie Castle via the 2023 Make a Splash Photo Contest, Water Power Technologies, DOE
Supply Chain Report Tackles Hydropower’s Missing Links Solar panels and wind turbines get a lot of attention in the current conversation about renewable energy. Meanwhile, hydropower is quietly, consistently producing large amounts of clean energy—and has been for more than a century. In fact, nearly 27% of all current renewable energy … [continued]
The Framing the Future contest will bring the action out from behind the scenes and show manufacturing advancements up close and personal, including the people working to transform the industrial sector for a zero-carbon future. Illustration by Jennifer Breen Martinez, NREL
The industrial sector is integral to our daily lives, yet we do not often see the people and technologies that power it in action. That is why the U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office launched the Framing the Future: Industrial Technologies Photo Contest, aiming to use photography … [continued]
Heliostats and a solar tower at the Ivanpah Solar Project, owned by NRG Energy, Bright Source Energy, Bechtel, and Google. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL.
Successful Projects Will Help Lower Cost of Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power and Support the Next Generation of Highly Trained Workers Heliostats are large mirrors that track the sun to reflect and direct its rays—and they are critical for efficient, cost-effective concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) plants. When hundreds or thousands of heliostats … [continued]
ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image of a hybrid concrete and mass timber building under construction.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Research Group Manager Dan Schell says he gets to do the fun part. “I get to use a big piece of equipment and turn wood into very small particles with continuous explosions,” Schell said. Schell’s team conducts experiments like these to help DTE Materials, which … [continued]
This schematic shows the evolution from solvated individual Tc-DA molecules to dimers to larger clusters through concentration-induced aggregation. Image from Journal of the American Chemical Society.
No molecule stands alone—they need others, at least when it comes to being able to display useful photophysical, electronic, and chemical properties. When individual molecules combine into an aggregate, or a complex of two or more molecules, they become much more than the sum of their individual parts. Photoactive molecular … [continued]
The Three New Wind Energy Reports Highlight Industry Development, Expansion, and the Policies and Incentives Driving Wind Energy Forward WASHINGTON, D.C. — Over the past year, the U.S. wind energy sector showcased its resilience and potential, as detailed in the 2024 editions of the annual market reports released today by the … [continued]
Spring 2024 Solar Industry Quarterly Update Highlights Significant Progress in 2023 The year 2023, according to National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analyst David Feldman, was a year of historic proportions in the solar power industry. Four times a year, Feldman and a team of analysts and data experts from NREL … [continued]
July 7, 2023 — Aerial view of the hydrogen infrastructure and grid integration research pads at National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Flatirons Campus. These capabilities are part of the ARIES research platform. (Photo by Josh Bauer / Bryan Bechtold / NREL)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) announced over $3 million in federal funding, with an industry match of $1.9 million, for impactful projects across 3 National Laboratories to propel clean energy solutions. The funding is made available through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Office of Technology … [continued]
