The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located in Golden, Colorado, is the United States' primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility; it is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This arrangement allows a private entity to operate the lab on behalf of the federal government under a prime contract. NREL receives funding from Congress to be applied toward research and development projects. NREL also performs research on photovoltaics (PV) under the National Center for Photovoltaics. NREL has a number of PV research capabilities including research and development, testing, and deployment. NREL's campus houses several facilities dedicated to PV research. Established in 1974, NREL began operating in 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute. Under the Jimmy Carter administration, it was the recipient of a large budget and its activities went beyond research and development in solar energy as it tried to popularize knowledge about already existing technologies, like passive solar, amongst the population.
Energy & Green Tech
More and more Americans are gaining access to clean energy through community solar. On Oct. 26 at 12 p.m., the authors of a new market report, Sharing the Sun: Community Solar Deployment, Subscription Savings, and Energy ...
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Energy & Green Tech
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Colorado School of Mines are applying a new technique to identify defects in silicon solar cells that cause a drop in efficiency. ...
Oct 19, 2021
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Automotive
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Rural Electrification Act wired farms to the grid, turning on lights across the American countryside. Parallel efforts added phone service in these sprawling, sparsely populated areas. At long ...
Oct 14, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
As electric vehicles (EVs) grow in popularity, innovative technologies must meet the rising energy demand by significantly increasing system efficiency. Although light-duty EVs have been the focus for many electrification ...
Sep 29, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
For commercial medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, the adoption of a new technology relies heavily on its cost relative to alternatives. A new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) seeks to pinpoint ...
Sep 22, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
A self-described surf junkie, Muglia catches waves on his surfboard off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Further into those waters—15 nautical miles to be exact—sits another surfer. Aptly named Waverider, ...
Sep 20, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
By 2050, there could be 80 million metric tons globally of solar photovoltaics (PV) reaching the end of their lifetime, with 10 million metric tons in the United States alone—or the weight of 30 Empire State Buildings.
Sep 16, 2021
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Business
Agriculture accounts for about 90% of total water consumption in the western United States and around 80% in the rest of the country.
Sep 10, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
Imagine an electric grid powered by clean, renewable energy. Now imagine that this grid provides all the comfort and convenience consumers have come to expect as well as grid reliability and resiliency services that are similar ...
Sep 02, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Reducing those emissions requires a significant shift away from gasoline- and diesel-fueled internal combustion engines to electric motors ...
Aug 31, 2021
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