The economic impact of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) topped $1.9 billion nationwide in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, according to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder’s (CU Boulder’s) Leeds School of Business. Every state in the nation felt an impact from direct or … [continued]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Resin Made From Biomass Enables Chemical Recycling at End of Useful Lifespan Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) see a realistic path forward to the manufacture of bio-derivable wind blades that can be chemically recycled and the components reused, ending the practice of old … [continued]
NREL Wind Researchers Undertake Sweeping Validation Study of a Downwind Turbine Most wind turbines face the wind—and there is a good reason for that. Since the 1980s, wind turbine developers have been using what is called the “Danish concept” for their designs—three blades, positioned upwind (i.e., facing the wind), that … [continued]
New Testbed Could Advance Novel Grid Technologies To Build a Resilient Renewable Energy-Based Power System The grid needs to change. To electrify everything from vehicles to heating systems to stovetops, the U.S. grid must expand by about 57% and get more flexible, too. Solar and wind energy are the renewables most likely … [continued]
NREL’s Wind Expertise Highlighted at Biannual TORQUE Conference In May 2024, amidst ancient marble statues and sweeping centuries-old frescoes, a group of researchers came together to talk about something decidedly more modern: wind energy technologies. The biannual TORQUE Conference, organized by the European Academy of Wind Energy and held this year … [continued]
Researchers working at the forefront of an emerging photovoltaic (PV) technology are thinking ahead about how to scale, deploy, and design future solar panels to be easily recyclable. Solar panels made of perovskites may eventually play an important role amid global decarbonization efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As the … [continued]
