Tag Archives: nrel
The Value of CSP at High Solar Penetration
With the cost of solar photovoltaic projects declining steadily and cost reductions in concentrating solar power projects falling at a slower pace, some are calling 2011 the year that PV killed CSP. In the last year and a half, roughly 3,000 MW of CSP projects in the U.S. have been converted to PV. In the [...]
114% Solar Cell Efficiency?
None of the solar cells produced to date shows external photocurrent quantum efficiencies greater than 100 percent from any portion of the solar spectral irradiance band. In fact, for math dummies like me, the possibility seems inconceivable, yet researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, located in Boulder, Colorado, have reported external quantum efficiencies [...]
Using Light to Make More Efficient Solar Cells at NREL
Once photovoltaics are put into operation they can provide decades of power, but there’s a lot of energy that goes into making them, too. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and AOS Solar have developed the Optical Cavity Furnace. It’s a new type of furnace that uses light and optics rather than other sources to [...]
In Focus: The Sunshot Initiative
Only a few decades ago, solar power was held up as an example of the problems inherent in government subsidies. Politicians would look at attempts to adopt early versions of the technology, which inevitably proved economically unfeasible once government supports were removed, and assumed solar power was nothing more than wishful thinking. The explosion in [...]
In Focus: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Located in Golden, Colorado, NREL is the United States primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. Currently NREL is funded through the Department of Energy and receives the majority of funding from the DOEs Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). NREL’s mission and strategy are focused on advancing the [...]
Will Glitter Sized Solar Cells Revolutionize the Industry?
The big news out of Sandia National Laboratories today is micro solar cells — or “glitter-sized” as Sandia is calling them — that could halve the cost of solar panels while nearly doubling their efficiency. Engineers have been working on Microsystems-Enabled Photovoltaics (MEPV) for some time, but the technology may have reached a tipping point, [...]
NREL: Bringing Innovation and Products to the Marketplace
A lot of the newest energy-saving or energy delivery products might not be available to businesses and consumers today if not for entities like the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL. The NREL, one of ten laboratories operating under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the only one fully vested in [...]
The Effects of Clouds on Solar (via NREL)
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, recently published extensive data on the effect of cloud cover on solar power installations. NREL is one of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science, and is the only federal laboratory fully vested in the research, development, commercialization [...]
Top 10 Ways NREL is Staying Green
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) located in Golden, Colorado and is America’s primary laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development. NREL’s main mission is to advance the energy goals provided by the United States Department of Energy. The research and development capabilities of the NREL are focused to advance the nation’s [...]