Renewable energy has seen tremendous growth in the United States and globally, offering solutions to pressing issues like climate change and energy security. However, continued innovation is required to reach cost parity and fully displace fossil fuels.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been at the forefront of renewable energy research and development for over four decades, driving advances in key technologies like solar, wind, biofuels, and more.
Based in Golden, Colorado, and managed by the Department of Energy, NREL employs a staff of 3,675 individuals, including scientists, engineers, postdoctoral researchers, interns, visiting professionals, and subcontractors focused on the challenges surrounding renewable energy.
The lab was founded in 1977 and has made foundational contributions enabling the expansion of renewables across the country and around the world. NREL’s campus includes specialized facilities to conduct rigorous testing, demonstrate technologies at scale, and enable companies to commercialize innovations coming out of the lab.
With expertise spanning the full range of renewable energy sources, NREL provides leadership in both early-stage research to prove technical feasibility as well as later-stage development to ready solutions for market deployment. The lab’s work influencing solar photovoltaic efficiency, wind turbine design, advanced biofuels, hydrogen production, and grid integration has catalyzed the growth of renewables like never before.
NREL continues breaking new ground, ensuring renewable energy technologies are ready to meet growing demand in a reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective manner.
NREL Advances Solar, Wind, and Bioenergy
NREL has a goal of pioneering research to drive advancements across major renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and biofuels. They endeavor to help advance the technologies to achieve improved performance, lower costs, and reach scale for widespread deployment.
- For solar photovoltaics, NREL focuses on boosting solar cell efficiency and reducing $/Watt costs. In 2020, NREL scientists set a world record by achieving 47.1% solar cell efficiency in the lab. Ongoing research looks to surpass 50% efficiency.
- In wind energy, NREL analyzes U.S. offshore wind potential and designs advanced wind turbines. Their assessment found over 2,000 GW of offshore wind capacity could be developed in the U.S. The lab also works on distributed wind solutions.
- To develop viable biofuels, NREL engineers enzymes to break down cellulosic material from plants and algae into sugars that can then be converted into fuels. These advanced biofuels provide a renewable alternative to petroleum.
Through foundational innovations in these core renewable technologies, NREL enables solar, wind, and bioenergy to become more cost-competitive with conventional power sources. The lab translates early-stage science into commercially deployable solutions ready to meet U.S. energy needs.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Drive to Expand Renewables Possibilities
In addition to core renewable sources, NREL conducts pioneering research in other key areas that will facilitate the energy transition.
- The lab leads in hydrogen research on production methods, storage materials, infrastructure buildout, and usage applications. NREL explores green hydrogen from electrolysis and advances hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
- For wider renewable adoption, NREL operates facilities to test integration hardware/software that will allow much higher renewable penetration on the grid.
- Energy storage evaluation is another priority, with NREL analyzing battery chemistries, fuel cells, thermal storage, and more for grid-scale applications.
- The lab also studies renewable potential for new uses like green hydrogen for steel production, sustainable aviation fuels, and ammonia manufacturing.
By proactively addressing challenges surrounding these important technologies now, NREL prepares the solutions required to continue reducing renewable costs and displacing fossil fuel use economy-wide.
Cutting-Edge Facilities and Expertise
NREL employs top scientific talent and operates specialized facilities to enable impactful renewable energy research, prototyping, and technology demonstrations. The lab’s campuses in Colorado and Alaska total over 350 acres, and feature major facilities including the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), extensive solar testing labs, utility-scale wind turbines, and integrated biorefineries.
With an expansive team of highly skilled scientists and engineers, NREL possesses deep expertise across the full spectrum of renewable technologies and integration challenges. The lab’s testing capabilities allow for rigorous evaluation of components and integrated systems under real-world operating conditions and at scale. Companies routinely leverage NREL’s state-of-the-art facilities, comprehensive databases, and unparalleled knowledge to accelerate the commercialization of renewable energy innovations coming out of the lab.
In addition, NREL maintains field sites at strategic locations across the country to provide access to different geographies, climates, and resources for technology validation under diverse real-world conditions. This powerful combination of talent, equipment, data, and collaborative spirit enables NREL to rapidly advance renewable energy technologies from initial concept through field deployment.
Real-World Impact and Influence
Beyond its R&D contributions, NREL provides data and analysis that directly informs renewable energy policy and deployment at local, state, and national levels.
- Renewable energy’s dramatic growth and cost declines have been catalyzed by innovations developed at NREL over decades. The lab’s work has played a crucial role in enabling this progress.
- NREL conducts assessments that quantify renewable resources potential across the U.S. Their data helps identify high-yield locations for site projects.
- The lab analyzes policy impacts and regularly advises decision-makers on renewable energy matters, given their technical expertise.
- According to NREL, the lab’s R&D efforts have yielded an estimated $1.4 billion in economic impact in 2019 across the country, with support from collaborators, partners, and the Department of Energy.
By enabling more deployments today and advancing tomorrow’s technologies, NREL fulfills its mission to provide impactful science and solutions for the transition to a sustainable energy future. The lab continues breaking new ground to build on decades of renewable energy leadership.
The Path Forward for Renewable Energy
As NREL’s decades of leadership have demonstrated, renewable energy holds promise and potential to reshape our energy system. Yet realizing this full potential will require continued research, innovation, policy support, and public-private collaboration.
While foundational progress has been made, the road ahead still presents challenges to achieve the widespread adoption and integration of renewables. However, the economic and environmental imperatives have never been stronger. As Bruce Usher compellingly illustrates in his book Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century, renewable sources are gaining cost-competitiveness and momentum in the market, while climate risks grow increasingly severe.
Usher provides a concise yet comprehensive look at the forces propelling the energy transition, explaining the extraordinary growth in wind and solar and analyzing the trajectory to a future beyond fossil fuels. He makes a data-driven business and finance case for renewables while underscoring the urgent need for climate action.
As entities like NREL remain hard at work on technological breakthroughs, Usher’s primer helps laypeople understand the global implications of the energy transition underway. There is no time to lose in scaling renewables, and this book equips readers with the knowledge to navigate the changes ahead.
Check out Bruce Usher’s Book on Amazon
NREL’s Continued Leadership in Advancing Renewable Energy
NREL conducts pioneering work across solar, wind, bioenergy, hydrogen, storage, grid integration, and more. The lab’s contributions have already catalyzed dramatic growth in renewables adoption. Yet their advancements will remain crucial going forward to improve performance, lower costs further, and enable renewable penetration at an even greater scale.
With their accumulated expertise, specialized facilities, collaborative mindset, and drive to deliver real-world impact, NREL continues breaking new ground in renewable energy. The lab’s foundational work provides the technologies and data needed to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
As renewable energy scales up to meet ever-increasing clean electricity, transportation, heating, and manufacturing needs, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will remain instrumental in pushing boundaries and turning ambitious energy goals into reality. Their leadership ensures the promise of renewable energy will be fully achieved.
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