The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has selected Maureen McCann, an internationally renowned plant biologist, to its highest technical position for a scientist: Senior Research Fellow. Of the more than 4,000 people who work at NREL, only 16 are current senior research fellows. Fellows are nominated by the leaders of NREL’s five research directorates, and recommendations from peer scientists play a large role in the selection process. In this prestigious role, McCann will advise NREL’s executive leadership on the strategic direction of laboratory research as it works toward advanced energy solutions. “The role of senior research fellow carries great responsibility at NREL,” Laboratory Director Martin Keller said. “They are in the trenches every day, conducting and overseeing research while also keeping an eye on the bigger picture and evaluating our long-term approaches. Elevation to this position is a recognition of Maureen’s talent, experience, and leadership and our belief that she can help take the laboratory to new heights. Congratulations to a fellow biologist.” McCann joined NREL in 2020 to direct the laboratory’s Biosciences Center. The center’s team of researchers aims to understand, predict, and control pathways and processes in living organisms to benefit the bioindustrial and agricultural sectors of the bioeconomy. Before NREL, she was a professor of biological sciences and director of the NEPTUNE Center for Power and Energy at Purdue University. While there, she also led an Energy Frontier Research Center, the Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels, in which NREL was a senior partner. In 2023, McCann took on a leadership role as associate director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a partnership between NREL and the University of Colorado Boulder. Speaking on her new role, McCann said she is excited for this next phase of her work at NREL. “I’m delighted and honored—it’s a little overwhelming—but can’t wait to step up to this new role and contribute my passion for how life sciences can be entrained for the bioeconomy and biomanufacturing,” McCann said. Her career of research uses biochemical, genetic, and molecular biology approaches to understand how the plant cell wall influences the final form and stature of plants. Using basic science to study the proteins and structural properties of the cell wall, McCann can engineer plants to be more productive and resilient for their use as sources of biofuels, chemicals, and materials. She is widely cited for her 1990 Journal of Cell Science article, “Direct Visualization of Cross-Links in the Primary Plant Cell Wall,” a field-defining study where measurements were obtained, for the first time, by directly visualizing the primary cell wall of an onion using novel electron microscopy techniques. McCann’s work has also made advancements in the molecular basis of biomass recalcitrance, or the cell wall’s natural resistance to being broken down by microbes and enzymes. Converting plant biomass into usable sugars and aromatics, such as capturing glucose and xylose from cell wall polysaccharides, is an avenue to create economic value from heterogeneous waste streams. McCann’s discoveries on recalcitrance could help companies decrease energy inputs needed to prepare biomass for multiple conversion processes, therefore lowering the costs and making biofuel and biochemical production more efficient. McCann has authored or co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed journal articles and has a lifetime h-index of 65, with nearly 22,000 citations. She is a graduate of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, where she obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in natural sciences before gaining a Ph.D. in botany from the University of East Anglia. Learn more about NREL’s science of biological energy conversion research that McCann will help lead.

Andrea Watson has been selected to serve as the next associate laboratory director (ALD) for the Innovation, Partnering, and Outreach (IPO) directorate at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) after directing NREL’s Strategic Partnerships Office (SPO) for the past two years. Watson joined NREL in 2009 as a junior researcher, and in the 15 years since, she has established a reputation for fostering collaboration, teamwork, and strategic approaches to expanding NREL’s impact in renewable energy futures. NREL Director Martin Keller commended Watson’s selection, stating, “We are fortunate to have someone as qualified as Andrea to further the success of the IPO directorate. Andrea has demonstrated skill in securing partnerships to advance NREL technologies and programs, and the Leadership Team congratulates her on this deserved position.” As the inaugural director of the newly created SPO in 2022, Watson focused on broadening NREL’s network of partners and strengthening relationships across the globe, which resulted in a record $143 million in partnerships during Fiscal Year 2023. She also played a key role in launching Impact26, NREL’s strategic approach to increasing non-DOE funding. Following its rollout in December 2023, NREL successfully closed $170 million in new partnership agreements and modifications in FY 2024, exceeding its target of $153 million. Prior to her leadership of the SPO, Watson served as NREL’s laboratory program manager for strategy, where she developed the organization’s first strategic agenda, in addition to her roles as a group manager and researcher. In her new position, Watson will remain dedicated to advancing Impact26 while strengthening partnerships and expanding NREL’s outreach efforts. “I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to serve on the NREL leadership team as the IPO ALD,” Watson said. “I am so excited about the impact IPO can have through partnerships, enabling startups, and tech transfer and licensing.” Watson is replacing Bill Farris as associate laboratory director as he transitions to his new role as chief external development officer at NREL. “Andrea was a natural choice for this role,” Farris said. “Her close familiarity with lab strategy, research agendas, and NREL’s partnership portfolio, in addition to her track record of leading high-performing teams, have made her a strong asset to IPO and the lab.”

Left to right: Stargate Charter School's coach poses with teammates Melinda, Shirley, Jacob, Leo, and Tristan after they won first place in the Colorado High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL The match kicked off with a question from the moderator that had the audience on the edge of its seats. “If a periodic wave on a string has its frequency doubled, the power carried in the wave is multiplied by what factor?” For many, this might have led to a fumble. But for 17-year-old Jacob from Stargate Charter School, it was a perfect pass. Without missing a beat, the team captain buzzed in with confidence: "Four." With each correct response, Stargate continued to move the ball down the field, racking up points. Teammates Leo, Shirley, Tristan, and Melinda worked together like a well-oiled offense, securing their school’s regional championship title. The stakes were high on Feb. 8, 2025, with 24 teams from 19 Colorado schools vying for the chance to represent Colorado in the National Science Bowl Finals in Washington D.C. This was not just any scrimmage—this was a battle of the best and brightest. Since its creation in 1991, the tournament has become one of the United States’ largest and most prestigious science competitions, aiming to inspire young people to excel in mathematics and science and to consider careers in these fields. The tournament is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), with its top sponsors including DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Metropolitan State University (MSU) of Denver. Students were asked five rounds of 18 questions during the preliminary rounds, with the top 16 teams advancing to the double elimination rounds, where the competition grew more intense. After over seven hours of fast-paced, high-stakes matches, Stargate found themselves face to face with the reigning champions, Fossil Ridge High School. Just one year earlier, Fossil Ridge had narrowly defeated them, snatching victory away in the final moments. Now, Stargate had a shot at redemption, and the pressure was on. “Up to this point in the tournament, we hadn’t actually faced them. I didn’t know what to expect,” admitted Tristan, a Stargate team member. But any nerves quickly evaporated as Stargate dominated the round. With an explosive performance, they crushed Fossil Ridge’s four-year winning streak with a final score of 106 to 22. The win left many in the crowd astonished, as Stargate almost did not compete at all. Due to a registration error, they were initially left off the roster. It was not until two days before the event that they got the call—another team had to drop out due to illness, and Stargate was being subbed in. The problem? They had not been training for the Science Bowl at all. Until that point, they had been preparing for the Knowledge Bowl, a competition that covers a much broader range of topics, including geography and literature. Switching gears at the last minute, the team had to rely on their quick adaptability and deep passion for STEM. “In between every round, if we had like a 30-minute break, we would kind of just study,” Tristan said. Students from Stargate Charter School celebrate a correct answer during the double elimination rounds of the Colorado High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL The dedication to learning was evident not only in Stargate's performance but also in every team that participated. Across the competition, students poured their time and energy into sharpening their skills. Alani, a sophomore from Centennial High School in Pueblo, shared that one of the most exciting aspects of the competition was seeing how much her knowledge and understanding of such complex concepts had grown since the previous year. To train for the tournament, her team met multiple times a week after school, letting their curiosity guide them as they studied. “When we didn’t know a subject, we would look at articles and research about it. Then we identified a few areas we were weak in, and we all kind of researched them on our own,” Alani said. This year, the following Colorado schools were on the Science Bowl roster: Derek Passarelli, DOE Acting Under Secretary for Science and Innovation, has helped organize the Science Bowl for 25 years. He remains inspired by the brilliance and dedication of the students who participate. “Every year I get to see the most amazing students in Colorado doing the most amazing kind of work,” he said. Students from Fossil Ridge High School share a laugh as they introduce themselves before the double elimination rounds of the Colorado High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. The team won second place. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL To encourage the students’ thirst for knowledge, MSU Denver had booths set up for the competitors to visit between rounds. Among the booths were representatives from MSU Denver’s Classroom to Career Hub, which helps students explore different career options as they study, connecting them with internships, scholarships, and other opportunities. Lori Marie Huertas, the assistant director of MSU Denver’s industry partnerships, spoke with students about an upcoming opportunity to network with and learn from industry professionals and nonprofits about the opportunities they have both now and after they graduate. One of the partners is Equipando Padres, a nonprofit dedicated to helping parents know how to support their children as they transition out of high school. “[We’re] just encouraging them to understand that MSU Denver is a resource for them now, while they’re a high school student, and even in the future,” Huertas said. “We have events where they can come, and so [we’re] encouraging them to do that and maybe even concurrent education.” For many of the competitors, the Science Bowl was more than just a chance to win prizes—it was a celebration of their curiosity, dedication, and hard work. Events like the Science Bowl encourage young minds to think critically, collaborate under pressure, and deepen their understanding of complex subjects. With innovation and hard work being essential to progress, these students are a beacon of hope. Their love of learning and willingness to tackle tough challenges signal a bright future not only for themselves but also for the scientific community and the world at large. Students from Fossil Ridge High School and Stargate Charter School compete in the final round of the High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL “Embrace this experience and just the fact that you all have a love of knowledge and curiosity. It’s an incredible thing,” Passarelli said. “And then maybe one day you will bring that knowledge and curiosity to the Department of Energy or one of the national labs!” With their championship win, Stargate is now preparing for the National Science Bowl Finals in Washington, D.C. The road to victory is not over yet—but if their performance at regionals was any indication, they are ready to take on the best in the nation.

In his early days at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Greg Martin worked in an unassumingoffice space. That was nearly 17 years ago, when he toiled without complaint in a converted garage without running water at NREL’s campus near Boulder, Colorado. “I loved it because I was at the wind site with all of these crazy electronics things and electrolyzers, power electronics, big switches, and I just got to plow into that and hook stuff up, build it, upgrade it, set up experiments, run things,” Martin said. “I just really loved it because of the hands-on stuff, so I thrived doing that.” Less hands-on these days, Martin now serves as group manager for the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) research engineering team, where he has considerably more room. At 182,500 square feet, ESIF serves as the starting point for NREL researchers interested in connecting renewable energy technologies onto the grid. “Now I do less engineering and a lot more strategy, tactics and processes, programs and people, which I like,” said Martin, 47, who holds degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Colorado-Boulder. “I really like the people in my group. They’re fantastic.” The same could be said of Martin himself, who this year became among the inaugural members of NREL’s Distinguished Member of Operations Staff. The honor went to a baker’s dozen of staff for their expertise and impact to the laboratory. Martin was singled out “for exemplary leadership, technical acumen, strategic vision, and unwavering passion for mission-oriented collaboration.” “To receive the award is just amazing,” Martin said. “It really helped reinforce the value of what we in operations do and strive to do toward the mission.” As valued as Martin has become at NREL, he initially had trouble getting his foot in the door. Over the course of about 18 months, Martin applied to work at NREL five times. “When I applied to NREL, I was just working on my master’s,” he said. “I didn’t even have a master’s.” Martin grew up in Wisconsin, the oldest of two children. His father, a computer programmer who believed in working with his hands, passed that trait along to his only son. “He’d have me out in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, changing the oil in the car,” Martin recalled. “You can’t even move your fingers, but we got it done.” Post college, Martin found his way to Washington state and a job at the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, which was then developing the 787 Dreamliner. A lighter weight plane because it was made of composite material, the task of analyzing the electrical load fell to Martin. He went around to the different departments working on the plane to find out how much power the flight controls, avionics, and other systems would need. The process took nearly a year, and Martin realized while more traditional planes allowed the wiring to be incorporated into their aluminum frame; with the composite material, the return current needed additional wiring. Adjustments had to be made. Martin spent three and a half years at Boeing before returning to college, this time for grad school. He picked Colorado, where he had friends and family, and found himself interested in working at NREL. He had already come to the realization that “we have to do better as a society for future generations. “I think working at Boeing was interesting and exciting,” he said, “but I think my core value drove me to want to try to participate in shifting that societal direction toward sustainable, renewable energy.” Martin’s first posting at NREL was at what is now known as the Flatirons Campus, located outside Boulder and distinguishable by massive wind turbines visible for miles. In his converted garage space, Martin kept busy doing systems integration work. Any renewable energy or related technologies need to be successfully integrated into the electrical grid, so Martin and his colleagues had to solve any problems. “The amount of work started increasing,” he said. “More and more projects started knocking at the door and getting funded.” By his fifth year at the facility, Martin started seeing an uptick in visitors interested in systems integration. His boss, Ben Kroposki, began pitching the idea that NREL needed a larger space for system integration work. That push eventually resulted in the decision to build ESIF at the South Table Mountain Campus outside Golden, Colorado. Martin served as a key player in the design and development of the facility, which opened in 2013. “It was exciting to start working on design requirements for a new facility,” Martin said. “We transitioned a pretty significant chunk of our workday into working on ESIF. We were still keeping the rest of the things going to the extent we could.” When ESIF opened, Martin relocated to the new building. “There were only a few of us. There were only five or six people in the ESIF labs doing stuff, so it was kind of bare bones,” Martin said. “It started off pretty slow, but a few researchers would bring projects and come down and work with us in the labs. That’s just accelerated to the state we are today, which is full and very busy. Then, as the organization grew and evolved, there was opportunity within ESIF operations.” Greg Martin and his wife Holly hike with their son and daughter near their Boulder home. Photo from Greg Martin, NREL Martin has served in his current role for seven years. The days in the garage when a researcher with some technical ability could conduct a systems integration test are long gone. “This stuff is way too big, complex, hazardous,” he said. “There's different controllers on everything, and safety procedures for interconnecting all these different things. It’s really the system integration research space that is closest to the application in the field. You have to have research engineering operations working with researchers in order to do it. Otherwise, it's not going to get done.” He spends less time with hands-on projects these days as he supervises a team of 13 research engineers. He’s more hands on at home, where Martin is serving as general contractor to a massive home remodeling project. His spare time over the past 11 months has been taken up by a larger two-story home in South Boulder that Martin, his wife Holly, and their 11-year-old twins will move into when the work is finally complete. “It's been a learning experience, for sure,” he said. When not working at NREL or on his remodel project, Martin picks up a guitar and plays with his family. His wife, an algebra teacher to eighth graders at a charter school, sings and plays guitar and fiddle. Their daughter fiddles, while their son has moved on from banjo to bass. Martin prefers bluegrass. “It's fun to listen to. It's accessible,” he said. “There's that tradition and that kind of folk thing where no matter who you're playing with, you can find some common song that you know, that really just helps get people together.” Parallels could be drawn between Martin working at ESIF and picking out tunes on his guitar (or banjo, or mandolin, both of which he also plays). The two facets of his life, after all, involve systems integration.

Interested applicants can join an informational webinar on Jan. 23, 2025. Register now. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has issued a $6.25 million request for proposals (RFP) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office to fill a knowledge gap in fundamental aerodynamics for large wind turbine performance and reliability. The response submission deadline is March 17, 2025. As modern wind turbines grow larger and larger—beyond 10 megawatts (MW) of capacity—researchers are becoming aware of a need to learn more about these turbines’ aerodynamic behaviors in unique conditions (high Reynolds numbers) and when not in operational use (such as during installation, maintenance, or storms). High Reynolds numbers are a measure that helps engineers predict how air flows around wind turbine blades. This RFP seeks to generate, collect, and disseminate benchmark aerodynamic validation datasets that will then be used to validate, develop, and improve modeling and simulation tools for the wind energy industry. These, along with physical insights, can advance design and analyses capabilities for next-generation wind turbine airfoils, blades, and rotors. NREL will award up to $6.25 million to U.S.-based research teams that can help meet these goals. Funding will be distributed over two topic areas: Applicants will design and carry out experiments to gather and disseminate high-quality data about how airfoils perform at a specific range of conditions that match those experienced by large wind turbines. One winning project will receive up to $4.75 million from the award and further support for testing costs at the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex, a national testing facility. Applicants will conduct experiments to characterize how wind turbine blades behave aerodynamically and produce publicly available validation-quality datasets that improve or develop computer models for predicting how blades behave when idling or parked and/or in extreme weather. One to two winning projects will be awarded from a pool of up to $1.5 million. Join an informational webinar on Jan. 23, 2025, and view the RFP’s webpage to learn more. The data generated from this initiative will be shared with the broader wind energy community to improve the reliability and aerodynamic performance of large wind turbines. Additionally, these data will support the development of turbine designs that can cost-effectively and reliably mitigate or endure excessive loads and vibrations, reducing the levelized cost of wind energy. These datasets will help mitigate the financial risks of technology innovation and knowledge gaps surrounding modern wind turbines—the largest rotating machines ever built by humankind—and increase the country’s wind energy capacity and energy security. Learn more about NREL's wind energy research, and subscribe to NREL's wind energy newsletter for more news like this.

A new study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) provides practical options for developing more interregional transmission infrastructure to move toward a transformed power system. Planning and Development Pathways for Building Interregional Transmission is a companion report to the National Transmission Planning Study (NTP Study), which was released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Grid Deployment Office (GDO) in partnership with NREL and PNNL. The NTP Study found that interregional transmission can help keep the lights on during all periods of the year, including periods when the grid is most stressed. This resource-sharing ability could save hundreds of billions of dollars in system costs. However, interregional transmission is especially challenging to develop because it spans multiple jurisdictions and is more expensive to build than shorter, local transmission lines. Because of these challenges, very few interregional lines exist in the United States. Together, GDO, NREL, and PNNL are tackling the challenges presented by interregional transmission development. “The NTP Study showed us what’s possible,” report coauthor and NREL researcher Christina Simeone said. “Now, this study provides ideas for the state and federal decision makers, transmission planners, and other industry players who want to take a more collaborative approach to planning for a more interconnected grid.” To understand the full institutional and regulatory challenges and opportunities for developing interregional transmission in the United States, NREL and PNNL interviewed transmission system experts, planners, and developers, reviewed literature, and reviewed comments from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proceedings. Based on the assessment, NREL and PNNL identified several key planning, operational, development, and merchant project challenges. For example, multijurisdictional interregional transmission projects often face more complex and challenging siting and permitting requirements than projects contained within a single planning territory. This can lead to many years of proceedings, sometimes resulting in a patchwork of time-bound permits along an interregional transmission line’s route. NREL and PNNL identified potential opportunities within state governments, federal agencies, regional transmission organizations or independent system operators, utilities, and industry to overcome the barriers to interregional transmission development. For example, state officials can coordinate with counterparts in other states, both within their region and beyond, to standardize siting and permitting requirements, share better information with planners and developers, and expedite the process. At the federal level, regulators could strengthen current requirements to coordinate between regions by requiring interregional planning to identify potentially beneficial projects. DOE can also maintain its Coordinated Interagency Transmission Authorizations and Permits Program, which establishes DOE as the lead agency to help accelerate federal environmental reviews and permitting processes for qualifying electric transmission facilities. Previously, transmission developers had to navigate several unique and independent permitting processes set by multiple agencies. Now, DOE will serve as the lead point of contact, coordinating between developers and federal agencies to provide logistical and capacity support throughout the permitting and authorization processes. “The transformation of our nation’s aging transmission infrastructure involves significant changes to the way the system is planned, developed, and operated,” said Faith Martinez Smith, report coauthor and NREL researcher. “These larger changes can be supported by a series of well-planned, smaller steps. We hope this report serves as a starting point to identify some of those smaller steps, as well as transformational options.” Read Planning and Development Pathways for Building Interregional Transmission for the full list of challenges and potential opportunities to plan and develop more interregional transmission. The National Transmission Planning Study and its key findings were released in October 2024, along with several other companion reports. Visit the NREL NTP Study page to learn about more companion reports. Learn more about the National Transmission Planning Study in a new Lab Notes episode of Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast

The transition from concept to adoption can be a difficult hurdle for emerging technologies to overcome. Commercialization costs, access to testing facilities, and scalability are all challenges that can stall or impede a technology’s journey to market, resulting in a gap between concept and adoption. The Critical Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator™ (CECA™) has launched a new track to help technologies across the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) 17 national laboratories bridge this gap. Currently wrapping up its pilot phase, the track is focused on advancing the technology readiness levels (TRLs) of cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies within DOE’s portfolio that fill critical technical gaps within the current marketplace. “There are cutting-edge cybersecurity research and technologies being worked on across the national labs, but they aren’t always built in such a way that they can be easily used by industry,” said Nik Urlaub, principal investigator for CECA. “This new track aims to help these emerging cybersecurity technologies within the national lab complex have a greater impact.” The new premarket track is designed to complement CECA’s existing market-ready track, which evaluates commercial technologies that offer solutions to high-priority risks and challenges identified by utilities. Technologies in the new track receive iterative laboratory testing in realistic energy environments, commercialization support, and resources for industry engagement. They are also benchmarked, pre- and post-evaluation, against DOE’s Technology Readiness Assessment Guide and Adoption Readiness Assessment. “When we look at TRLs for national laboratory technologies, we see a lot of government funding for levels 1–3, which is the early-stage, proof-of-concept work,” Urlaub said. “Funding for these technologies often slows when they reach levels 4–6, when they experience market readiness gap.” In the pilot phase of the premarket track, CECA evaluated the Cybersecurity Situational Awareness Tool (CYSAT), an advanced threat detection tool for real-time awareness of cyber and physical assets. The CECA research team exposed the tool to new environments, new technologies, new data, and new attack scenarios using the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) Cyber Range, a research environment that provides precise and verifiable testing and allows users to replicate energy assets, connections, and communication networks at scale. Through testing, the CYSAT development and CECA research teams expanded the tool’s application, added functionality, improved its scalability, and increased its capabilities in support of achieving TRL 4. Commercialization support through the program is helping the CYSAT development team identify steps toward higher TRLs. “CYSAT leverages artificial intelligence methods and data-driven approaches to analyze data streams and detect anomalies, providing situational awareness to operators of power systems across all scales,” said Vivek Kumar Singh, principal investigator of CYSAT. “Many utilities and industry vendors have shown interest in conducting pilot tests and field demonstrations, and we are developing future plans with more case studies.” Technologies in both the premarket and market-ready tracks are evaluated for their performance against simulated attacks based on real-world threats in the ARIES Cyber Range. As the new premarket track expands from pilot to operation, future cycles will explore new technologies and test scenarios and increase environment fidelity to meet the needs of future energy systems. These could include scenarios testing technologies’ interactions with many grid-edge devices, highly distributed energy resources, and fleets of electric vehicles. CECA was established in 2021 by DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and has completed two cohorts in its market-ready track. Cohort 1 evaluated market-ready technologies from Blue Ridge Networks, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Xage Security, which offer authentication and authorization of devices on utility networks. Cohort 2 tested solutions from runZero and Asimily, which offer the ability to uncover hidden risks within utility industrial control systems. CECA’s market-ready and premarket tracks are designed to be mutually reinforcing—utility advisors from the market-ready track provide insights to technology partners about what development paths might be desirable and inform test environments. The premarket track can also introduce technologies to utilities, potential investors, and partners in the market-ready track that can be of value in their commercialization journey. As mentioned in the National Cybersecurity Strategy, CECA is supporting enhanced cybersecurity in the energy sector by ensuring that both current and emerging technologies are effectively evaluated and optimized for utility needs. Industry and government technology owners who are interested in being considered for future evaluations are invited to email CECA@nrel.gov. CECA is managed by NREL and sponsored by DOE CESER and utility partners in collaboration with DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Read more about CECA and program eligibility, and subscribe to CECA email updates.

The Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN) Round 3 brought together eight multistakeholder teams from various locations across the United States to develop new approaches to solar deployment, focusing on residential and commercial buildings in underserved communities. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, SEIN enables communities to develop innovative solutions to overcome barriers to adopting distributed solar energy. With SEIN Round 3 wrapping up, the teams' work is available to inform the efforts of all communities in the United States, helping them to bring the benefits of local solar electricity generation to their neighborhoods, small businesses, and residents. Resources published by the teams and NREL provide inspiration and project blueprints for solar adoption in other communities and are available for residential and commercial building applications. Communities, organizations, decision makers, colleges, and other interested groups can use these materials to support local solar energy deployment. They can also request funding for technical assistance to implement their plans with Innovation at SCALE (Solar Community Assistance for Local Equity), a SEIN initiative. Requests for assistance open periodically throughout the year, and the next request window starts March 3. "Most approaches to solar energy have been designed for early adopters—those with either the capital available up front to make a purchase or access to financing through loans or credit. Under many circumstances, it's a good deal for households or businesses to purchase electricity through local solar energy generation, but not for everyone—not yet," said Sara Farrar, who leads SEIN for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). "SEIN Round 3 brought together multistakeholder teams—composed of utilities, local decision makers, and community-based organizations—to investigate ways to support underserved communities in determining whether going solar was right for them." Hear from SEIN Round 3 participants in the following video as they talk about their goals and what they have accomplished so far through this program. Text version During electricity outages caused by severe weather events or other emergencies, distributed solar and battery storage systems can provide resilient power, which helps communities withstand and recover from disasters. Low- to moderate-income (LMI) communities may be particularly vulnerable to economic and infrastructural damage caused by severe-weather-induced utility grid outages and disruptions. One such LMI community is in Port Arthur, Texas. The SEIN project led by the Houston Advanced Research Center developed the Solar for Safety and Success: Resource Guide to give residents in Port Arthur greater access to the potential resilience benefits of solar energy and energy storage and further benefits like solar workforce development. To support the Port Arthur team's goals, NREL engineers analyzed various community buildings to find optimal locations for battery energy storage systems—where solar panels, battery storage, and generators can increase the probability of maintaining power through a grid outage. Their analysis, Evaluating Utility Costs Savings and Resilience: A Case Study in Port Arthur, Texas, which weighs the potential economic benefits of incorporating energy storage against the cost of power outages, can be applied to other communities. As the SEIN multistakeholder teams began their projects, they engaged with their target communities—from LMI residences to small business owners—to determine their energy needs and goals. This was a key factor in the teams' successes. The Minnesota Twin Cities team's Advancing Small Business Solar Equity: Final Technical Insights Report (on the Lake Street Council website) details their Solar Hub Network model for small businesses in historically underserved neighborhoods. Led by the Lake Street Council, the team used human-centered design to identify the barriers and gaps impeding widespread solar energy adoption among the members of three small business associations in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities team's approach can be implemented by other organizations looking to bring solar energy to small business communities. NREL staff also collaborated with the Twin Cities team to produce a forthcoming economic analysis of various building types and financial models that would yield financial benefits for business owners in the represented neighborhoods. Another team, led by the Salt Lake City Department of Sustainability, examined the value to small businesses of various utility-sponsored battery programs that would help these businesses increase energy resilience for themselves and the surrounding community. They also analyzed Utah's customer-owned battery program, Wattsmart—analysis which is available in a toolkit from the team (on the Utah Energy Hub website). NREL's companion fact sheets—Financing Solar + Storage for Small Businesses in Underserved Communities and Utility Programs Supporting Customer-Sited Battery Storage: Program Design To Ensure Mutual Benefits—offer more analysis to support LMI small business access to solar energy. As a SEIN partner, RMI developed a resource for small businesses and utilities—Collaborating With Utilities To Meet Underserved Community Needs: A Guide to Equitable Commercial Solar and Solar + Storage Deployment (on the RMI website). The report identifies challenges and successes of SEIN's Round 3 teams while providing guidance for other small businesses to unlock the benefits of utility programs that encourage and facilitate solar deployment. The team from Tallahassee, Florida, led by ReThink Energy Florida, explored the energy burdens of three of their city's LMI neighborhoods. The team implemented a community engagement framework that focused on informing, consulting with, and collaborating with the community to consider how residents could benefit from solar energy opportunities. The team conducted field research to study both the barriers to solar deployment and identify solar-ready homes in three LMI Tallahassee neighborhoods. The Austin, Texas-based team, led by Pecan Street and partners, similarly focused on increasing local solar knowledge. The team engaged with LMI neighborhoods in Austin's Eastern Crescent area to explore how rooftop solar energy could meet the community's energy resilience and affordability needs. The team identified community challenges, including lack of trust in solar companies and salespeople, confusing solar financing options, and unfair solar access and developed a guide for consumers to help them safely explore solar energy options. The SEIN team led by Energy Trust of Oregon in Portland, Oregon, created the Solar Ambassadors pilot program, which was developed collaboratively by eight nonprofit organizations with the goal of raising awareness of rooftop solar energy among communities of color in the Portland area. Their guidebook includes definitions for novices to understand solar energy and advice for how to talk to solar contractors, along with a full Spanish translation. Check the SEIN publications database soon for this resource. Low-income households often face a high energy burden—a higher percentage of income going to energy bills—which could be alleviated through energy production from distributed solar. However, a common barrier to rooftop solar adoption for low-income households is the up-front cost. The SEIN team led by the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute (TEPRI) explored pathways to alleviate the up-front cost with a combination of local weatherization-agency incentives and utility rebates. By leveraging existing programs, the project demonstrated a path for LMI households in Carrizo Springs and Austin, Texas, to achieve lower electricity bills with no up-front cost. Their findings—including examples of outreach materials and project checklists for community-based organizations leading solar adoption—are included in the team's final report: New Pathways for Equitable Solar Adoption in Texas (on the TEPRI website). These outputs serve as a pilot demonstration for what may be possible by combining solar system installation funding from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Weatherization Assistance Program. Houses of worship in LMI communities may also face financial barriers to the benefits of solar energy. The SEIN project team led by RE-volv focused on increasing solar adoption by houses of worship serving and led by people of color. RE-volv and multistakeholder partners identified federal tax incentives for houses of worship and other nonprofits as part of their work with SEIN (on the RE-volv website). The team also helped install a solar-plus-storage system at Watts-Willowbrook Church in Compton, California, which is now a place where the surrounding community can gather to cool off, charge phones, and store refrigerated medicines during electricity outages. To help SEIN project teams and others understand how to leverage federal tax incentives with private or local government funding, NREL researchers developed the Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and Deployment of Solar (STEADy Solar). This dataset combines publicly available information relevant to residential and commercial solar economics to support LMI communities in overcoming financial barriers to purchasing solar systems. SEIN's Solar Community Assistance for Local Equity (Innovation at SCALE) builds on the success of SEIN projects by bringing these insights to new contexts through assistance tailored to each community. Innovation at SCALE participants engage with subject matter experts and SEIN project leaders to identify and implement the insights and lessons from three rounds of SEIN projects that can be impactful in their communities. For more information on how you can apply insights from previous SEIN projects in your community, check out the Innovation at SCALE webpage. Applications open on March 3, 2025. Subscribe to the SEIN newsletter to receive updates about this program directly to your inbox. Contact Jibo Sanyal or Alex Kramer with questions about the Solar Energy Innovation Network.

Welcome to the ARIES: Solutions at Any Scale series. This Q&A series introduces NREL’s outstanding researchers working on Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) projects. Their work helps answer questions about future energy systems for communities, companies, and energy leaders—from single technologies, to the impact of large-scale deployments, to entire regional grid systems. Annabelle Pratt is a chief engineer in NREL’s Power Systems Engineering Center whose motivation for her work runs deep. “My motivation to work on power systems comes from my belief that electricity is such an essential utility for human life and flourishing,” Pratt said. “I contribute a small piece to the bigger picture of delivering electricity to people.” Pratt’s engineering interests were not sparked by hands-on things like electric motors or vehicles but by mathematics. “My two older brothers were engineers, and they encouraged me to become an engineer,” she said. “I always liked math, and to me, even to this day, linear control systems are the most mathematically beautiful expressions of control. I’ve never really reflected on why I like control systems, but I guess it boils down to the math.” In this interview, we learn how Pratt turned math into a career in energy and why ARIES offers a leap forward for her research. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. What was your path like to becoming a power systems engineer? Annabelle Pratt works on a motor drive in graduate school at Oregon State University. Photo from Annabelle Pratt I am an electrical engineer who specialized in power electronics. As an undergraduate student, I fell in love with control systems, but I thought that it would be beneficial to get some exposure to power systems, and in the process, I discovered the field of power electronics. It is a multidisciplinary field where you bring your knowledge of controls systems, signal processing, electronics, and electromagnetics together to build a motor drive or power supply. While pursuing my master’s degree, I worked on active power filters for power systems, which was my first exposure to power electronics applied to power systems. I grew up in South Africa, and that is where I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but then I had the opportunity to come to the United States for my Ph.D. It seemed like such an adventure to come to the United States, so I came and continued my studies in the field of power electronics. During my Ph.D., I was an intern at Westinghouse where I was exposed to what they could do at the megawatt scale. (For reference: Most research is done at the kilowatt scale, and 1 MW of generation can power roughly 1,000 homes). It got my imagination going on the application of power electronics to power systems at a large scale. I then worked at a power supply company on power supplies for semiconductor manufacturing and then moved to Intel Corporation, where I worked on power delivery at different scales. Toward the end of my tenure at Intel, I moved to work on energy management solutions including home energy management systems and microgrid controllers. How did you come to work at NREL? In 2014, I joined NREL and transitioned my power electronics and controls background into power hardware-in-the-loop experiments in this laboratory evaluation space. That is the niche I found at NREL. NREL was such a good fit for me within the national lab system because NREL wants to help change the power system and it gives support to industry to do that, which is what motivates me. Are there any projects that highlight the kind of work you do with ARIES? The SmartGrid Advanced Load Management & Optimized Neighborhood (SALMON) Project is one. Portland General Electric (PGE) is supporting upgrades to more than 500 buildings in two of North Portland’s historically underserved neighborhoods to reduce their energy burden with numerous energy efficiency measures and connected devices. To do this, PGE is interested in aggregating heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems, water heaters, battery energy storage, and electric vehicles (EVs) to supply flexibility to the grid. PGE has already chosen their control systems, but they want to evaluate those systems in a controlled setting before deploying them to see how they will affect the grid. To evaluate the controls PGE will use for these homes, I lead a team of researchers that modeled homes and developed a real-time simulation environment using ARIES. So, it isn’t just about abstract math, there is an application and impact with it? Yes, it is two actual neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, and the project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Connected Communities funding program. A Connected Community is a group of smart, energy-efficient buildings with diverse, flexible end-use equipment and other distributed energy resources (DERs). DERs are devices, such as rooftop solar panels, battery energy storage, distribution-connected wind turbines, and fuel cells. The Connected Community collectively works to maximize building, community, and grid performance while meeting occupants’ comfort and other needs. Connected Communities show the “art of the possible.” They have nine parallel projects that are all demonstrating, with U.S. Department of Energy support, how behind-the-meter DERs in buildings can support grid operations and help buildings be good citizens to the grid. The idea is that other utilities could look at these examples and learn and have more confidence in deploying theirs. How is ARIES involved in this project? While PGE is working with the community to deploy more DERs like EVs, heat pumps, smart water heaters, and residential storage, they looked to NREL to help make these new devices work well together and maximize flexibility in their system. ARIES is the perfect tool for this systems integration challenge because PGE can evaluate the commercial controls they selected and optimize the configuration in the safety of the laboratory before implementation on Portland’s grid. To complete this evaluation, we are using an ARIES capability called the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) Test Bed. The ADMS Test Bed is a vendor-neutral research platform whose development was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity to allow utility partners, vendors, and researchers to safely explore different approaches and software needed to control energy systems that are becoming more complex, data-driven, and interconnected. The ADMS Test Bed can run different scenarios using real-time software simulations and NREL’s power systems hardware for what we call hardware-in-the-loop experiments. Our collaborative team modeled PGE’s electric system and the residential buildings in the selected neighborhood. With this realistic picture of PGE’s system, we can use the ADMS Test Bed to run different scenarios using real-time software simulations. One additional advantage to the ADMS Test Bed is that it offers a realistic model of what your system looks like now, but it can also look into the future. Would you like to see your energy system in the future, perhaps with more EVs and battery energy storage? We can also validate more advanced versions of the controls while utilities deploy a more conservative version. We are “future-proofing” their technology and helping them to de-risk their investments now and in the future. We’ve mentioned ARIES, but it might not be well known. How do you describe ARIES to people? I view ARIES through the lens of the ADMS Test Bed capability that is focused on the substation level (up to 10,000 nodes), but we don’t go up to transmission scales; however, ARIES can answer questions about an individual technology, i.e., from “Here is a new fuel cell technology, and I want to know how well it works” all the way up to “What if I have hundreds or thousands of those fuel cells on the grid, and what is the impact of that on the grid?” ARIES can be used to evaluate that whole domain—from a single technology to hundreds or millions of devices. The range of experiments that can be conducted with ARIES goes well beyond the ADMS Test Bed, so working on ARIES projects can mean greater collaboration with my NREL colleagues. For example, if you are interested in cybersecurity for grid controls, we would work with the Cybersecurity Research Center to use the ARIES Cyber Range and ask them to add a communications layer and simulate cyber attacks. With ARIES, you can combine and layer different capabilities to answer whatever question the client might have. What advice would you give someone interested in this field? When I went into engineering, I had a cookie-cutter idea of what engineers do (i.e., civil engineers build bridges, electrical engineers work on motors), but as I have spent time in the industry, I’ve come to understand that engineering is not so rigid. It gives you a foundation of how to use tools to solve problems, so you can stay on the technical path, like me, if you want, but you can also use the training to springboard to different areas. You are not locked into one thing. There are so many paths you can take with this foundation of problem-solving. Check out NREL's Work With Us page to learn how you can collaborate with NREL experts to help answer your integrated energy questions and to see what it is like to work at NREL.

If you have ever struggled to find geothermal degree programs, conferences, trade associations, tax incentives, or other geothermal information, you are not alone. "The geothermal industry has been around for decades and is a well-established community with long-standing events and relationships, but its traditions can sometimes make information hard to access from those outside the industry," said Jon Weers, data scientist in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Strategic Energy Analysis Center. "Recent technological advancements have reinvigorated the geothermal industry, and interest in it is rapidly growing, so the need for easily accessible information is growing too." The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) and NREL partnered to tackle this issue and launched a new web portal—GeoBridge—to connect people to geothermal communities, information, and opportunities. "Many geothermal tools and resources are located behind paywalls, require memberships, or are otherwise difficult to find, especially for people looking to join the geothermal community," Weers said. "These barriers to access can prevent valuable geothermal information getting into the right hands and limit collaboration with communities new to geothermal. GeoBridge aims to remove this barrier by linking those communities to the tools and resources they need." GeoBridge provides easy access to information on a wide range of geothermal topics, covering everything from geothermal heat pump (GHP) installation to careers in geothermal, educational tools, and cost-saving opportunities for businesses. To create this new portal, NREL worked with DOE and an advisory board of geothermal experts to identify the information gaps that make it difficult for communities, homeowners, businesses, students, and others to learn about and get started in geothermal. GeoBridge serves as a launch point, directing interested parties to data and tools, events, educational resources, STEM programs, permitting and regulatory information, and other resources that can be used to understand, evaluate, and discover geothermal opportunities. "GeoBridge fills an important gap by providing a single, publicly accessible, searchable portal that facilitates easy access to geothermal knowledge and information," said Elisabet Metcalfe, GTO's external affairs lead. "It helps to expand and diversify the current pool of geothermal stakeholders, building a stronger geothermal community and providing opportunities for more Americans to learn about and benefit from geothermal energy." One example of the need for GeoBridge arose shortly before the site was launched. A historical preservation society reached out to NREL and GTO to learn more about the potential for a closed-loop GHP to be installed in an old movie theater. The historical society's email landed with the GeoBridge team, who had already organized relevant information as part of the content development for the site. The GeoBridge team was able to respond with detailed information on heat pump sizing and pricing, relevant incentive and assistance programs, organizations and communities, and other tools, databases, and services. "Before GeoBridge, questions like this would get sent to multiple people, each experts in their respective fields, but it could take days to compile relevant information. Now, the answers are in one place. More importantly, the information is now easily discoverable by both people and search engines, reducing the need to send an email in the first place," Weers said. The current platform is just the start. The team plans to add technical guidance on advanced geothermal topics for a variety of stakeholders, resources on permitting and regulation, and links to open-access tools developed by the national laboratories, DOE, and others in the geothermal market. GeoBridge is also looking to the future of geothermal and plans to provide information on emerging trends, technology and resource needs, hurdles, funding opportunities, and more. "We want GeoBridge to be useful to people across industries and are always looking for feedback on the platform through our feedback form," Weers said. "Whether you are looking for a conference, hoping to install geothermal heating and cooling in your neighborhood, or applying for a master's program in geothermal, we hope GeoBridge helps you achieve your goals." Learn more by visiting GeoBridge. Please leave feedback about how GeoBridge can be improved by filling out our brief questionnaire.