Advanced Manufacturing Research News
Explore our archive of advanced manufacturing news stories.
Dec. 22, 2020
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and technology commercialization in 2020, from breaking world records to launching new initiatives. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Dec. 4, 2020
While research continues to move perovskite solar technology toward commercialization, scientists at NREL are investigating how to manufacture them with human health in mind.
Dec. 2, 2020
The early days of the ongoing pandemic were marked by shortages of personal protective equipment and coronavirus testing materials. To help overcome those challenges, an NREL research team led by Samantha Reese and Alberta Carpenter identified pinch points in the manufacturing process due to simultaneous shortages and increased demand for face shields, N95 respirators, and materials used in coronavirus tests.
Nov. 24, 2020
Johney Green, an associate laboratory director at NREL, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Nov. 17, 2020
A new material for wind blades that can be recycled could transform the wind industry, rendering renewable energy more sustainable than ever before while lowering costs in the process.
The use of a thermoplastic resin has been validated at NREL.
Nov. 13, 2020
An NREL-led project is developing tomorrow's tough electronic devices capable of withstanding temps of 600°C and other harsh conditions.
Nov. 9, 2020
NREL has issued a call to action for U.S. manufacturers of small- and medium-sized wind turbines by issuing a notice of intent under the Competitiveness Improvement Project to allow companies to prepare project ideas and teams in advance of a request for proposals planned for release in early 2021.
Nov. 6, 2020
NREL and Argonne National Laboratory researchers have teamed with industry partners such as SKF, Winergy, General Electric, and Afton Chemical to understand the causes of axial cracking, create a design life equation that accounts for it, and develop and validate solutions to reduce this and other causes of gearbox failure.
Nov. 5, 2020
Moving from a linear to a circular economy for energy materials starts with research and development. JISEA Analyst Garvin Heath and a team of researchers are leading the charge.
Oct. 29, 2020
The DOE's researcher-entrepreneurship program forges ahead virtually under the leadership of Shelly Curtiss, former executive director of the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association.
Oct. 20, 2020
The consortium will focus on two critical problems that are both essential to tackle the plastics pollution problem. The first challenge is how to upcycle today's waste plastics in a way that incentivizes their reclamation. The second undertakes the challenge of wholly redesigning tomorrow's plastics to be recyclable-by-design.
Oct. 2, 2020
R&D World magazine today presented NREL with four of its annual R&D 100 Awards for research innovations. In addition to the R&D 100 winners, two additional NREL technologies were given Special Recognition Awards.
Oct. 1, 2020
A collaboration between NREL, the University of Portsmouth, and other partners has determined two synergistic enzymes—PETase and MHETase—work effectively in tandem to break down polyethylene terephthalate, a type of plastic used to make single-use beverage bottles, clothing, and carpeting.
Sept. 24, 2020
Through a novel chemistry using nontoxic resources like linseed oil, waste grease, or even algae, chemist Phil Pienkos and colleague Tao Dong, an expert in chemical engineering, have developed a groundbreaking method for producing renewable polyurethane without toxic precursors.
Sept. 15, 2020
Do you have the technological know-how to develop the desalination systems of tomorrow? Help strengthen the United States’ long-term energy and water security by joining forces with the largest federal investment in water treatment research in 50 years.
Sept. 9, 2020
Seven U.S. manufacturers selected to enter into negotiation to receive DOE Competitiveness Improvement Project awards, designed to accelerate deployment of small- and medium-sized wind turbines across the country and lower the cost of energy from distributed wind.
Aug. 26, 2020
In an effort to advance distributed wind energy innovation, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory invites manufacturers to express their interest in installing distributed-scale wind turbines as research hardware at NREL's Flatirons Campus, located south of Boulder, Colorado.
Aug. 17, 2020
A new literature review suggests climate change is anticipated to impact regional and global energy systems, with varying magnitudes of effects across regions and technologies.
Aug. 13, 2020
Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette introduced two new acronyms to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) lexicon on Aug. 12: RAIL and ARIES. RAIL stands for Research and Innovation Laboratory, while ARIES is short for Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems.
Aug. 3, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office and NREL announced the winners of the American-Made Challenges® Individuals Taking Energy Action in Manufacturing (ITEAM) Prize.
July 17, 2020
Solar energy technologies could meet process heating demands, reduce carbon emissions, and improve heating efficiency in the U.S. industrial sector—for up to 15-50% energy savings.
July 13, 2020
Due to rapid increase of PV installations over the past decade, there is expected to be an explosion of retired PV modules by 2050. NREL scientists propose research and development to advance processes for managing that waste and establishing a PV circular economy.
July 9, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office and NREL have announced the winners of Phase 1 of the American-Made Challenges® Water Resource Recovery Prize.
July 7, 2020
Located in Jefferson County, Colorado, which is part of metropolitan Denver, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has seen its economic impact on the county climb by more than 218% during the seven-year span from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal 2019.
July 2, 2020
Spotting a solar panel on a rooftop or powering a small health center in a rural community was once rare. Fast forward a decade and the on-site, distributed solar energy boom is now powering everything from single-family homes to entire industries. Could that successful model be applied to wind energy?
June 26, 2020
This year, DOE funded 21 NREL submissions--worth more than a total $6.8 million--through its Technology Commercialization Fund, accounting for 25% of all funded projects, more than any other DOE national laboratory and improving upon NREL's 2018 total of 16.
June 25, 2020
As health care workers continue to fight on the front lines, NREL volunteers do what they can to help by manufacturing face shields for healthcare workers, paramedics, and firefighters in Colorado.
June 11, 2020
During National Oceans Month, we celebrate water power researchers who are discovering innovative ways to harness marine energy to generate electricity.
May 21, 2020
This spring, a new cohort of Power Connectors joined the American-Made Challenges team following a competitive application process. The group was chosen for their expertise in areas that would ensure the success of competing teams and the overall program.
May 14, 2020
The American-Made Challenges program is giving a boost to geothermal energy by bringing the additive manufacturing and geothermal industries together in its newest competition—the American-Made Geothermal Manufacturing Prize.
April 30, 2020
Based on user feedback, NREL recently upgraded the Materials Flows through Industry modeling tool for improved ease of use and enhanced accuracy in modeling the U.S. industrial sector supply chain.
April 29, 2020
Working with leading domestic solar companies, NREL and three universities have formed the U.S. Manufacturing of Advanced Perovskites Consortium (US-MAP), which will work to accelerate commercialization of perovskite technologies.
April 28, 2020
On April 27, with support from NREL, the U.S. Department of Energy kicked off the Solar Desalination Prize, a $9 million competition that's part of the American-Made Challenges series. The competition is designed to accelerate the development of systems that use solar-thermal energy to produce clean drinking water from salt water.
April 21, 2020
NREL's pioneering thermoplastics work is helping close the circle, ensuring today's blades become tomorrow's blades, too.
April 8, 2020
NREL has extended the U.S. Department of Energy's Competitiveness Improvement Project distributed wind request for proposals submission deadline to May 5 at 2 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
April 3, 2020
A collaboration between NREL and three other national laboratories has yielded new insight into the ability of bacteria to break down the hardy part of a plant known as lignin. The additional understanding of the process could open a path to industrial applications.
March 30, 2020
Researchers at NREL have developed a framework for quantitatively modeling resilience metrics to show communities and utilities the benefits of investing in resilience strategies for the grid.
March 25, 2020
Ten years since its founding, the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis continues to provide critical insights linking energy, society, and prosperity around the world.
March 17, 2020
Sreekant Narumanchi was recently selected as an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) fellow. This recognition honors his extensive involvement with ASME and his excellence in mechanical engineering research at NREL.
March 10, 2020
NREL researchers demonstrated a new advanced material used to manufacture wind turbine blades to manufacturing industry representatives during a Women in Manufacturing (WiM) event.
March 5, 2020
A change in chemical composition enabled scientists to boost the longevity and efficiency of a perovskite solar cell developed at NREL. The new formula enabled the solar cell to resist a stability problem that has so far thwarted the commercialization of perovskites.
Feb. 26, 2020
The REopt Lite web tool evaluates the economic viability of grid-connected photovoltaics, wind, and battery storage at a site. REopt Lite Open Source lets programmers, software developers, and researchers access the code behind the web tool.
Feb. 18, 2020
Across the country, teams of entrepreneurs are competing to build an innovative supply chain that addresses the collection, separating and sorting, safe storage and transportation, and reverse logistics of recycling lithium-ion batteries.
Jan. 29, 2020
DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office launched the Water Resource Recovery Prize, a $1 million two-phased competition designed to increase resource recovery from municipal wastewater treatment plants across the U.S.
Jan. 29, 2020
Today, with support from NREL, the U.S. Department of Energy launched the American-Made Geothermal Manufacturing Prize. The ninth prize in the NREL-administered American-Made Challenges series, the Geothermal Prize is a first-of-its-kind competition designed to spur innovation and address the manufacturing challenges of operating in geothermal environments.
Jan. 28, 2020
During fiscal year 2019, NREL filed a record 124 patent applications and counted a record 233 disclosures — a category that includes 161 records of invention and 72 software records. NREL-developed software is protectable by copyright, while records of invention can be protected with patent applications.
