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Former name
| Solar Energy Research Institute |
|---|---|
| Motto | Transforming energy |
| Established | 1974 |
| Research type | Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy |
| Budget | $271 million (FY 14) |
| Director | Martin Keller |
| Staff | 1620 full-time and 678 visiting researchers, interns, and contractors (July 2014) |
| Location | Golden, Colorado |
Operating agency
| MRIGlobal and Battelle Memorial Institute |
| Website | www.nrel.gov |
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located in Golden, Colorado, specializes in renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility, and is funded through the United States Department of Energy. This arrangement allows a private entity to operate the lab on behalf of the federal government. 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.
NREL's areas of research and development are renewable electricity, energy productivity, energy storage, systems integration, and sustainable transportation.
History
Established in 1974, NREL began operating in 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute. Under the Jimmy Carter administration,
its activities went beyond research and development in solar energy as
it tried to popularize knowledge about already existing technologies,
like passive solar. During the Ronald Reagan administration
the institute's budget was cut by nearly 90%; many employees were
"reduced in force" and the laboratory's activities were reduced to research and development.
In later years, renewed interest in the energy problem improved
the institute's position, but funding has fluctuated. In 2011,
anticipated congressional budget shortfalls led to a voluntary buyout
program for 100 to 150 staff reductions. The budget for fiscal 2016 was $427.4 million, down from a peak of $536.5 million five years earlier. Changes in the budget have sometimes forced NREL to cut staffing.
Since its inception in 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute, it has been operated under contract by MRIGlobal. In September 1991, the NREL was designated a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy
by President George H.W. Bush and its name was changed to NREL.
Currently, NREL is managed for the DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable
Energy, LLC. The Alliance was formed in 2008 as a joint venture between MRIGlobal and Battelle. Dr. Martin Keller became NREL's ninth director in November 2015, and currently serves as both the director of the lab and the president of the Alliance. He succeeded Dan Arvizu, who retired in September 2015 after 10 years in those roles.
Funding in 2016
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory projects that the levelized cost of wind power will decline about 25% from 2012 to 2030.
The FY 2016 Congressional Appropriations for renewable energy items were:
- Solar Energy $55.5 million
- Wind Energy $17.7 million
- Biomass and Biorefinery Systems R&D $56.3 million
- Hydrogen Technology $17.8 million
- Geothermal Technology $3.8 million
- Water Power $4.1 million
Commercialization and technology transfer
NREL
works closely with a number of private partners to transfer
technological developments in renewable energy and energy efficiency
technologies to the marketplace and social arena.
NREL's technologies have been recognized with 61 R&D 100
Awards. The engineering and science behind these technology transfer
successes and awards demonstrates NREL's commitment to a sustainable
energy future.
The idea of technology transfer was added to the mission of NREL as a
means of enhancing commercial impact and societal benefit, ultimately
justifying the use of tax dollars to in part fund the projects in the
lab.
As many of these technologies are young and often just emerging,
NREL aims to reduce the risk of private sector investment and adoption
of their developments.
Three key pieces of federal legislation laid the policy framework to
enact technology transfer: The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation
Act of 1980, The Bayh-Dole Act or The University and Small Business
Patent Procedures Act of 1980, and The Federal Technology Transfer Act
of 1986.
Ultimately, many of the deployed technologies help mitigate the oil dependence of the United States, reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel
use, and maintain U.S. industry competitiveness. Deployment of
technologies is accomplished by developing technology partnerships with
private industry. NREL serves as a reduced-risk platform for research,
and through partnerships those advances can effectively be translated
into serving the interest of both the private sector and the public
sector. The energy goals set by the DOE are at the forefront of the
research done in the laboratory, and the research reflects the energy
goals, which are designed with the interest of "U.S. industry
competitiveness" in mind. The challenge to achieving these goals is investment security.
Part of the technology transfer process is to form partnerships
that not only focus on financial security, but also to consider partners
who have demonstrated core values that reflect the integrity to manage
the introduction and assimilation of the technological developments.
NREL focuses on the core values of the partnering entity, the
willingness to set and meet timely goals, dedication to transparency,
and a reciprocating intent to further development.
Under these partnership agreements, NREL does not fund projects
conducted by their private partners. NREL does provide funding
opportunities through their competitively placed contracts. In order to
form a Technology Partnership Agreement with NREL, there are essentially
seven steps:
- Discuss the project proposal with the appropriate NREL technical contact
- Determine if the project meets qualifications
- Develop statement of work
- Review and/or negotiate
- Sign agreement
- Send funds and start work
- Manage commitment
The process is estimated to require 45 business days, subject to
negotiations. Technology Partnership Agreements provide only the
technical services of NREL.
NREL also has a user access program that allows outside
researchers to use the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) and
rely on its staff of scientists and engineers to develop and evaluate
energy technologies.
Several other ways exist for universities and industry to work
with NREL, including a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
(CRADA), a Funds-In Agreement (FIA), and a Technical Services Agreement
(TSA).
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
A
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is a partnership
between NREL and an outside company. This type of agreement protects
the intellectual property of both NREL and the outside company, and
allows the investing company to negotiate for an exclusive field-of-use
license for any inventions that come out of the CRADA.
A CRADA between NREL and DuPont helped the chemical company
develop two key technologies for processing cellulosic ethanol and lead
to the opening of a 30 million gallon refinery in Iowa in 2015.
Strategic Partnership Projects Agreements
NREL
offers technical services to partners who require resources that are
not available to them through the form of a Strategic Partnership
Projects agreement, which formerly was known as a Work-for-Others
agreement. This agreement differs from a CRADA in that they are not for
the purpose of performing joint research. The partner covers the entire
cost of the project. There are three types of Strategic Partnership Projects agreements:
- Interagency Agreement-Government: A partnership formed between the DOE and a second U.S. federal agency. The outside agency funds the project directly.
- Funds-In Agreement (FIA): A non-federal entity funds the project and research conducted by NREL. In some occasions, the partner can obtain title to inventions.
- Technical Services Agreement (TSA): A non-federal entity pays NREL for services related to an analytical problem. NREL provides consultation and basic technical assistance.
Technology licensing
NREL
offers licensing for many of its technologies related to energy
efficiency and renewable energy development. Licensing of NREL's
intellectual property is available to businesses of any size, from
start-up to Fortune 500.
The available technologies fall under the categories of: renewable
electricity conversion and delivery systems, renewable fuels formulation
and delivery, efficient and integrated energy systems, and strategic
energy analysis. "NREL-developed technologies include vehicles and
fuels, basic sciences, biomass, concentrating solar power, electric
infrastructure systems, geothermal, hydrogen and fuel cells,
photovoltaics, and wind energy."
NREL has a list of 150 market summaries available for licensing,
and the list includes information about the descriptions of the
technologies, their benefits, potential applications, and their current
stage in development.
National Center for Photovoltaics
The goals of the photovoltaics (PV) research done at NREL are to decrease the "nation's reliance on fossil-fuel generated electricity by lowering the cost of delivered electricity and improving the efficiency of PV modules and systems."
Photovoltaic research at NREL is performed under the National
Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV). A primary mission of the NCPV is to
support ongoing efforts of the DOE's SunShot Initiative, which wants to
increase the availability of solar power at a cost competitive with
other energy sources. The NCPV coordinates its research and goals with
researchers from across the country, including the Quantum Energy and
Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST) Center and the Bay Area PV
Consortium. The NCPV also partners with many universities and other
industry partners. NREL brings in dozens of students annually through
the Solar University-National lab Ultra-effective Program (SUN UP),
which was created to facilitate existing and new interactions between
universities and the laboratory.
The lab maintains a number of research partnerships for PV research.
Research and development
Some
of the areas of PV research and development include the physical properties of PV
panels, performance and reliability of PV, junction formation, and
research into photo-electrochemical materials.
Through this research, NREL hopes to surpass current technologies
in efficiency and cost-competitiveness and reach the overall goal of
generating electricity at $0.06/kWh for grid-tied PV systems.
NREL identifies the following as cornerstones to its PV research
program: the Thin-Film Partnership and the PV Manufacturing R&D
Project.
The Thin Film Partnership Program at NREL coordinates national
research teams of manufacturers, academics, and NREL scientists on a
variety of subjects relating to thin-film PV. The research areas of the
Thin Film Partnership Program include amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper
indium diselenide (CuInSe2 or CIGS) and, cadmium telluride (CdTe), and module reliability.
NREL's PV Manufacturing Research and Development Project is an
ongoing partnership between NREL and private sector solar manufacturing
companies. It started in 1991 as the Photovoltaic Manufacturing
Technology (PVMaT) project and was extended and renamed in 2001 due to
its success as a project. The overall goal of research done under the PV
Manufacturing R&D Project is to help maintain a strong market
position for US solar companies by researching ways to reduce costs to
manufacturers and customers and improving the manufacturing process. It
is estimated that the project has helped to reduce manufacturing cost
for PV panels by more than 50%.
Examples of achievements under the PV Manufacturing Research and
Development Project include the development of a manufacturing process
that increase the production of silicon solar modules by 8% without
increasing costs and the development of a new boron coating process that
reduces solar costs over traditional processes.
Testing
NREL is
capable of providing testing and evaluation to the PV industry with
indoor, outdoor, and field testing facilities. NREL is able to provide
testing on long-term performance, reliability, and component failure for
PV systems. NREL also has accelerated testing capabilities from both PV
cells and system components to identify areas of potential long-term
degradation and failure. The Photovoltaic Device Performance group at NREL is able to measure
the performance of PV cells and modules with regard to a standard or
customized reference set. This allows NREL to serve as independent
facility for verifying device performance. NREL allows industry members
to test and evaluate potential products, with the hope that it will lead
to more cost effective and reliable technology. The overall goal is to
help improve the reliability in the PV industry.
Deployment
NREL
also seeks to raise public awareness of PV technologies through its
deployment services. NREL provides a number of technical and
non-technical publications intended to help raise consumer awareness and
understanding of solar PV. Scientists at NREL perform research into
energy markets and how to develop the solar energy market. They also
perform research and outreach in the area of building-integrated PV. NREL is also an active organizer and sponsor in the DOE's Solar Decathlon.
NREL provides information on solar energy, beyond the scientific
papers on research done at the lab. The lab provides publications on
solar resources and manuals on different applications of solar
technology, as well as a number of different solar resource models and
tools. The lab also makes available a number of different solar resource
data sets in its Renewable Resource Data Center.
Facilities
The Energy Systems Integration Facility in Golden, Colorado.
NREL's Golden, Colorado
campus houses several facilities dedicated to PV and biomass research.
In the recently opened Science and Technology Facility, research is
conducted on solar cells, thin films, and nanostructure research.
NREL's Outdoor Test Facility allows researchers to test and evaluate PV
technologies under a range of conditions, both indoor and outdoor.
Scientists at NREL work at the Outdoor Test Facility to develop
standards for testing PV technologies. At the Outdoor Test Facility
NREL researchers calibrate primary reference cells for use in a range of
applications. One of the main buildings for PV research at NREL is the
Solar Energy Research Facility (SERF). Examples of research conducted
at the SERF include semiconductor material research, prototype solar
cell production, and measurement and characterization of solar cell and
module performance. Additionally, the roof at the SERF is able to house
ten PV panels to evaluate and analyze the performance of commercial
building-integrated PV systems. Additionally, R&D in PV materials
and devices, measurement and characterization, reliability testing are
also conducted at the SERF. At the Solar Radiation Research Laboratory, NREL has been measuring solar radiation and meteorological data since 1984.
National Bioenergy Center
The
National Bioenergy Center (NBC) was established in October 2000. "The
National Bioenergy Center is composed of four technical groups and a
technical lead for partnership development with industry. Partnership
development includes work performed at NREL under Cooperative Research
and Development Agreements (CRADA), Technical Service Agreements (TSA),
Analytical Service Agreements (ASA), and Work for Others (WFO) contract
research for DOE's industry partners."
The main focus of the research is to convert biomass into
biofuels/biochemical intermediates via both biochemical and
thermochemical processes.
The National Bioenergy Center is currently divided into certain technology and research areas:
- Applied Science
- Catalysis and Thermochemical Sciences and Engineering research and development
- Biochemical Process research and development
- Biorefinery Analysis
Some of the current projects are in the following areas:
- Biomass characteristics
- Biochemical conversion
- Thermochemical conversion
- Chemical and catalyst science
- Integrated biorefinery processes
- Microalgal biofuels
- Biomass process and sustainability analysis
The Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility (IBRF) houses multiple
pilot-scale process trains for converting biomass to various liquid
fuels at a rate of 450–900 kg (0.5–1 ton) per day of dry biomass. Unit
operations include feedstock washing and milling, pretreatment,
enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, distillation, and solid-liquid
separation. The heart of the Thermochemical Users Facility (TCUF) is
the 0.5-metric-ton-per-day Thermochemical Process Development Unit
(TCPDU), which can be operated in either a pyrolysis or gasification
mode.
National Wind Technology Center
The main research wind turbines at NREL
NREL has produced many technologies that impact the wind industry at a
global level. The center is home of 20 patents and has created software
such as (FAST), simulation software that is used to model wind
turbines.
Located at the base of the foothills just south of Boulder,
Colorado, the NWTC's 305-acre site comprises field test sites, test
laboratories, industrial high-bay work areas, machine shops, electronics
and instrumentation laboratories, and office areas.
The NWTC is also home to NREL's Distributed Energy Resources Test
Facility (DERTF). The DERTF is a working laboratory for interconnection
and systems integration testing. This facility includes generation,
storage, and interconnection technologies as well as electric power
system equipment capable of simulating a real-world electric system.
The center is the first facility in the United States with a
controllable grid interface test system that has fault simulation
capabilities and allows manufacturers and system operators to conduct
the tests required for certification in a controlled laboratory
environment.
It is the only system in the world that is fully integrated with two
dynamometers and has the capacity to extend that integration to turbines
in the field and to a matrix of electronic and mechanical storage
devices, all of which are located within close proximity on the same
site.
Transportation and hydrogen systems research
As
the only national laboratory dedicated 100% to renewable energy and
energy efficiency, NREL collaborates with industry, government, and
research partners to create better:
- Electric, hybrid, fuel cell, and conventional vehicle technologies
- Biofuels, hydrogen, natural gas, propane, and petroleum-based fuels
- Charging and fueling infrastructure.
Transportation research areas
- Commercial Vehicle Technologies
- Electric Vehicle Grid Integration
- Energy Storage
- Fuels Performance
- Power Electronics and Electric Machines
- Sustainable Mobility Initiative
- Systems Analysis & Integration
- Vehicle Thermal Management
