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In September 2013, a team of National Renewable Energy

renewable energy

Renewable energy comes from unlimited, naturally replenished resources, such as the sun, tides, and wind. Renewable energy can be used for electricity generation, space and water heating and cooling, and transportation.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

Laboratory (NREL) researchers, led by Vahan Gevorgian and Robb Wallen, faced a looming deadline. Not only did the brand-new 5-megawatt (MW) dynamometer need to be up and running, connected to a 2.75-MW wind turbine nacelle as a trial technology component, but the power generated by the nacelle also had to be sent through the never-before-tried Controllable Grid Interface (CGI) and back to the grid.

As industrial computing needs grow, the size and energy consumption of the hardware needed to keep up with those needs grows as well. A possible solution to this dilemma could be found in superconducting materials, which can reduce that energy consumption exponentially. Imagine cooling a giant data center full of constantly running servers down to nearly absolute zero, enabling large-scale computation with incredible energy efficiency.

At the 5th Battery and Energy Storage Conference, Argonne convened a diverse mix of energy storage leaders in sessions spanning transportation electrification, grid storage, manufacturing, recycling and the nation’s strategy for a carbon-free future.

The scientists, headed by a team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), found the proliferation of springtime pollen that coated the solar panels reduced performance of the technology at every site. Rainfall was able to wash away some of the pollen but not enough to return photovoltaic

photovoltaic

More commonly known as solar panels – generate power using devices that absorb energy from sunlight and convert it into electrical energy through semiconducting materials.

Source: Department of Energy Source

(PV) performance levels to what they were before.

When Akshata and Anagha Tiwari, two sisters studying at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, attended a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) research symposium at the university in 2022, they already had firsthand experience with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Every year, airplanes crisscrossing U.S. skies burn 23 billion gallons of fuel, leaving contrails and 8% of the nation’s transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in their wake. A recent study by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Sandia National Laboratories reveals which crop-based feedstocks offer the greatest potential for a plentiful, cost-competitive, renewable alternative to petroleum-based jet fuel, while also maximizing atmospheric carbon removal.

The Arctic is remote, with often harsh conditions, and its climate is changing rapidly — warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth. This makes studying the Arctic climate both challenging and vital for understanding global climate change.

climate change

A change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time.

Source: NASA Climate Kids Source

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are using an existing fiber optic cable off Oliktok Point on the North Slope of Alaska to study the conditions of the Arctic seafloor up to 20 miles from shore.

St. Olaf College Associate Professor of Physics Prabal Adhikari has been awarded a Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) grant by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to establish a quantum computing research program aimed at solving open problems in theoretical nuclear physics while simultaneously diversifying the physics student pipeline.

With Two Awards and Some Stellar Students, Researcher Polishes New, Highly Flexible Technology. In 2020, Boren earned funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), through its Seedlings and Saplings program for national laboratory researchers, to hone a new and unusual kind of technological domain.

Data centers power our virtual environment. These facilities house high-performance computers, storage systems, and computing infrastructure but account for approximately 2% of all electricity consumption in the United States. The energy usage required for just one data center is comparable to powering 80,000 households—roughly the number of total households in Montgomery, Alabama. Cooling accounts for up to 40% of energy usage in data centers, making efficient cooling strategies vital.

Waves carry enough energy to meet about 34% of the United States’ electricity needs. We cannot capture all that power, but this largely untapped resource could still pair up with other renewable energy sources to power offshore activities—like seafood farming, carbon capture, or ocean research—and help the country decarbonize

decarbonize

Decarbonization involves the reduction or eradication of carbon dioxide emissions from specific systems, such as industries, economies, or societies.

Source: Source

its power grid.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Verne, a San Francisco-based startup, have demonstrated a cryo-compressed hydrogen storage system of suitable scale for heavy-duty vehicles. This is the first time cryo-compressed hydrogen storage has been demonstrated at a scale large enough to be useful for semi trucks, a milestone in high-density hydrogen storage.