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April 2021
NREL Chemist Wins Award for Electron Bifurcation Research Article
Cara Lubner, a chemist at NREL, coauthored a research article on electron bifurcation that was awarded the Class I: Physical and Mathematical Sciences 2020 Cozzarelli Prize on April 25.
News Release: Scientists at NREL Report New Synapse-Like Phototransistor
Researchers at NREL developed a breakthrough in energy-efficient phototransistors. Such devices could eventually help computers process visual information more like the human brain and be used as sensors in things like self-driving vehicles.
Earth Anticipates a Circular Economy for Energy Materials
One of the three key pillars of NREL's vision for the next decade is developing a circular economy for energy materials. This critical objective focuses on reducing waste and preserving resources through the design and manufacture of materials and products with reuse, recycling, and upcycling in mind from the start.
December 2020
Top 20 NREL Stories of 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.
NREL's Bryan Pivovar Awarded for Excellence in Fuel Cell Research
The Electrochemical Society (ECS) headquarters has awarded the 2021 Energy Technology Division Research Award to Bryan Pivovar, a researcher in the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center at NREL.
October 2020
News Release: R&D 100 Awards Honor Six NREL Innovations
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.
Apex Flex: An All-Perovskite Tandem Technology Suitable for Solar-Powered Vehicles
NREL's new perovskite material, marketed as Apex Flex, broke through two design barriers to arrive at a solar cell that is flexible and stable enough for car-top application at a cost 200 times less than flexible PV technologies of similar specific power.
September 2020
Scientists Offer Companies a Novel Chemistry for Greener Polyurethane
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.
August 2020
ARIES and RAIL Promise To Advance Renewable Energy Innovation and Integration
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.
Two-for-One Energy from Photons, Now Better than Ever
NREL researchers have found a promising group of materials for tomorrow's super-efficient solar cells, demonstrating how a carefully designed molecule can efficiently split the energy imparted by one photon into two excited states and keep them separated for several microseconds.
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Last Updated May 5, 2025