NREL collects detailed data on the interactions among habitat, pollinators, soil, and solar photovoltaic (PV) energy production. The growth in utility-scale solar development is leading to questions about how best to use the land underneath solar panels and what impacts solar installations have on soil and habitat. An increasingly common practice is to establish habitat … Continue reading Large-scale photovoltaic plants can foster abundant biodiversity
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Lighting the way for photovoltaic (PV): How NREL helps communities harness the benefits of agrivoltaic solar power, agriculture, and ecosystems
NREL research helps farmers, local communities, and global partners navigate the complexities of bringing agrivoltaic solar power to remote areas. With their reflective, smooth glass sheen, stiff metal posts, and electric wiring, you might be surprised to learn that solar fields can be sites of thriving biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and community bonding. Three years ago, … Continue reading Lighting the way for photovoltaic (PV): How NREL helps communities harness the benefits of agrivoltaic solar power, agriculture, and ecosystems
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NREL-Backed Research Effort Twists Halide Perovskites From a Distance
Research led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE), an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), discovered a new process to induce chirality in halide perovskite semiconductors, which could open the door to cutting-edge electronic applications. The development is … Continue reading NREL-Backed Research Effort Twists Halide Perovskites From a Distance
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Behind the Blades: How Jeremy Stefek Delivers Wind Energy Workforce Solutions To Meet Growing Industry Needs
Forget “brat summer.” Jeremy Stefek is ready for “demure fall.” “Maybe I’ll take a trip to the San Juan mountains, do some work during the day, take some evening hikes, and watch the leaves turn,” Stefek explained. “Fall, compared to summer, feels like less pressure to be doing something all the time. It’s a chance … Continue reading Behind the Blades: How Jeremy Stefek Delivers Wind Energy Workforce Solutions To Meet Growing Industry Needs
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NREL’s Research in Battery Energy Storage Is Helping Advance the Clean Energy Transition
To bring new clean energy sources online across the United States and around the world, several questions need to be answered. Where are the best places to build out new generation like solar and wind farms? How can we get all that clean energy from its source to where it needs to be? What is … Continue reading NREL’s Research in Battery Energy Storage Is Helping Advance the Clean Energy Transition
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NREL Advances Method for Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades
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 blades winding up in landfills at the end of their useful life. The findings are published in … Continue reading NREL Advances Method for Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades
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NREL researchers highlight opportunities for manufacturing perovskite photovoltaic panels
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 technology emerges from the testing … Continue reading NREL researchers highlight opportunities for manufacturing perovskite photovoltaic panels
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DuraMAT Forecasts How New Photovoltaic Module Technologies Might Perform Over 20, 30, or 50 Years
As the Solar Industry Grows Rapidly, Materials, Designs, and Solar Panels Are Changing Quickly. For the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry, rapid growth can produce rapid—and sometimes unpredictable—changes. As the industry continued to see a major period of growth in 2023, the Durable Module Materials (DuraMAT) Consortium seized the opportunity to support the industry’s booming domestic … Continue reading DuraMAT Forecasts How New Photovoltaic Module Technologies Might Perform Over 20, 30, or 50 Years
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Popular NREL Cell Efficiency Chart Now Better Presents Tandem Photovoltaics
The Best Research-Cell Efficiency Chart is one of the most-visited pages on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) website. It makes frequent appearances in presentations at photovoltaic (PV) research conferences, tracking the rise and maturation of new PV technologies. Just like the technologies it tracks, the chart continues to evolve. Recently, NREL developed an interactive version of … Continue reading Popular NREL Cell Efficiency Chart Now Better Presents Tandem Photovoltaics
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How Extreme Weather and System Aging Affect the US Photovoltaic Fleet
Massive Data Set of Photovoltaic System Performance Quantifies the Small but Significant Impacts of Extreme Weather and Long-Term Degradation, With Important Lessons for the PV Industry. For photovoltaic (PV) systems—designed to operate over lifetimes of 20, 30, or even 50 years—small losses in energy production can add up to measurable differences over time. These differences … Continue reading How Extreme Weather and System Aging Affect the US Photovoltaic Fleet
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NREL Analysis Identifies Drivers of Offshore Wind Power Development
As much as 20% of regional power needs along the Atlantic coast could be served by offshore wind farms by 2050, according to researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) who modeled deployment of this emerging U.S. energy sector in new depth and detail. The researchers who performed the analysis … Continue reading NREL Analysis Identifies Drivers of Offshore Wind Power Development
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Building Better Blades: Renewed Funding Supports Wind Turbine Blade Innovations at NREL
Wind turbines are getting bigger, and so are turbine blades, which need to be made of durable materials if they are going to keep functioning for 20 or more years. And at the end of their lifespan, it is essential that those durable materials be reused, not tossed in a landfill. Working out how to … Continue reading Building Better Blades: Renewed Funding Supports Wind Turbine Blade Innovations at NREL
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NREL Reimagines Next-Generation Drivetrain Technologies for Offshore Wind Turbines
Comparison Provides Insight Into Future Trends of Offshore Wind Energy. New studies leveraging conceptual designs of offshore wind turbines point to how their drivetrains could change in the near future to produce more power while lowering costs, according to a new journal article by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and … Continue reading NREL Reimagines Next-Generation Drivetrain Technologies for Offshore Wind Turbines
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NREL, GE Research Team Find Critical Adjustments To Improve Wind Turbine Design
Low-level jet streams, also known as low-level jets (LLJs), behave in powerful and complex ways that can impact numerous American lives and livelihoods. Winds that blow along the U.S. coastline hit the homes of over 128 million people; that same wind energy has the potential to bring ashore a tidal wave of clean, renewable electricity … Continue reading NREL, GE Research Team Find Critical Adjustments To Improve Wind Turbine Design
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Next Decade Decisive for Photovoltaic Growth on the Path to 2050
Global experts on solar power strongly urge a commitment to the continued growth of photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing and deployment to power the planet, arguing that lowballing projections for PV growth while waiting for a consensus on other energy pathways or the emergence of technological last-minute miracles “is no longer an option.” The consensus reached by … Continue reading Next Decade Decisive for Photovoltaic Growth on the Path to 2050
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New Marine Energy Prize Investigates Novel Materials To Capture and Convert Wave Energy
Imagine using the force of ocean waves to power the nation’s coastal cities. With wave energy being the most abundant and geographically diverse marine energy resource in the United States, it is possible. Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office launched the Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP) in partnership with the … Continue reading New Marine Energy Prize Investigates Novel Materials To Capture and Convert Wave Energy
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Concentrated Solar Power Projects Around the World
Working with member countries, SolarPACES—Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems—has compiled data on concentrating solar power (CSP) projects around the world that have plants that are either operational, under construction, or under development. CSP technologies include parabolic trough, linear Fresnel reflector, power tower, and dish/engine systems. For individual concentrating solar power projects, you will find profiles … Continue reading Concentrated Solar Power Projects Around the World
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Experts Forecast the Wind Plant of the Future To Be Taller and More Economical
In the most-likely scenario, the experts predicted that hub height for newly installed onshore wind turbines will reach 130 meters in 2035, rather than the 115-meter forecast offered in a 2015 survey. Anticipating key features of wind plants a decade or more ahead of their installation can inform today’s investment, research, and energy system planning … Continue reading Experts Forecast the Wind Plant of the Future To Be Taller and More Economical
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NREL finds up to six-cent per kilowatt-hour extra value with concentrated solar power
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) projects would add additional value of 5 or 6 cents per kilowatt hour to utility-scale solar energy in California where 33 percent renewables will be mandated in six years, a new report by the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has found. The report, «Estimating the Value of Utility-Scale Solar Technologies … Continue reading NREL finds up to six-cent per kilowatt-hour extra value with concentrated solar power
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NREL Pioneer Celebrates 35 Years of Advancing Concentrated Solar Power Research
When it comes to concentrating solar power (CSP) research, Mark Mehos has seen the industry growth and solar boom firsthand. Mark Mehos has pioneered thermal systems research at NREL and worldwide since 1986. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL CSP technologies—capturing sunlight to produce heat that drives thermoelectric generation systems—had their beginnings in the mid-1980s, at … Continue reading NREL Pioneer Celebrates 35 Years of Advancing Concentrated Solar Power Research
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