The storage capacity of concentrating solar power (CSP) can add significant value to a utility company’s optimal mix of energy sources, a new report by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) suggests. The report found that CSP with a six-hour storage capacity can lower peak net loads when the sun isn’t […]
Clean Energy Top Priority, U.N. Chief Tells NREL
Providing clean, renewable energy to the 1.4 billion people who are living without electricity is the No. 1 priority of the United Nations, the secretary general of the U.N. said during a visit Aug. 24 to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL, through its numerous partnerships with the U.N., is playing […]
Low Emission Cars Under NREL’s Microscope
Cars that plug into solar panels for electricity or run on hydrogen may sound like something found only on the pages of science fiction novels, but engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are driving these futuristic vehicles today. Recently, NREL engineers were able to spend six weeks kicking […]
NREL Mentors Keep It Real For Summer Interns
NREL Intern Wants to Make a Difference through Chemistry Annie Greenaway is applying her chemistry skills to a thorny problem associated with hydrogen fuels this summer — and the NREL intern thanks her parents for nudging her toward the right career path. Full story. This summer, workers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National […]
A Better Way to Connect Solar, Wind to the Grid
Enlarge image NREL engineers Sudipta Chakraborty and Bill Kramer examine the design of the power block at a laboratory at NREL. The large cylinders are the DC bus capacitors. The digital controller is on the green board. Credit: Dennis Schroeder The sun makes sidewalks hot enough to fry eggs, the wind blows hard enough to […]
Turning Warehouses into Solar Powerhouses
Enlarge image 2007 Energy Execs graduate and Prologis Vice President for Renewable Energy Drew Torbin’s Project Amp recently received a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from DOE to install solar on warehouses. Credit: Dennis Schroeder When the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) launched the Executive Energy Leadership Program (Energy Execs) in […]
At NREL, Even the Ones and Zeros Are Green
Enlarge image NREL’s data center is arranged with hot aisle containment. As the server equipment is cooled, it pulls air from the room through the front of the cabinet and blows warmed air out the back of the equipment air into the containment aisle. Credit: Dennis Schroeder Data is something computer users often take for […]
NREL Invention Speeds Solar Cell Quality Tests
Enlarge image NREL scientists Pauls Stradins, Brian Egaas, and David Young take a look inside their instrument, the Real-Time QE, which quickly measures how each solar cell responds to different wavelengths of light. Credit: Dennis Schroeder To come up with a way to do something 1,000 times faster than it had been done in the […]
Prestigious Cherry Award Goes to NREL Scientist
Enlarge image National Renewable Energy Laboratory post-doc, John Simon, left, and NREL Principal Scientist, Jerry Olson, right, view test materials in a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) reactor in their lab at the Solar Energy Research Facility at NREL in Golden, Colo. Credit: Dennis Schroeder A physicist from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy […]
New Magazine Highlights Clean Energy Innovations
Enlarge image The Energy Systems Integration Facility will simulate, in real-time, the ebb and flow of various electricity generating systems and the fluctuating demands of electricity customers. Illustration courtesy of SmithGroup. Groundbreaking and potentially game-changing technologies at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are now featured in a new online quarterly […]