[theme music fades in]
[fades out]
Taylor: Welcome to Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast, brought to you by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. We’re highlighting the latest in clean energy research and innovations happening at the lab. It’s Wednesday, September 20. I’m Taylor Mankle.
Kerrin: And I’m Kerrin Jeromin. Today, we’re going to talk about some amazing partnerships and events but Taylor up top, we have some news I’m so excited to share with our listeners.
Taylor: The expansion—it’s finally here!
Kerrin: That’s right listeners. We are adding in a new segment to the NREL podcast, bringing in our expanded team of special correspondents join us to share even more news from around the lab.
Taylor: That’s right. And today, we have communications representative Nataleah Small with us. Nataleah provides communications support for NREL’s employee resource groups, and she is here to tell us about how NREL is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month! Hi Nataleah!
Nataleah: Hey Kerrin and Taylor, thanks so much for having me on the show. I’m excited to talk about Hispanic Heritage Month!
Kerrin: Great! And we’re happy to have you here. Our family is expanding; I love it. Before you get started, can you explain to our listeners a bit more about NREL’s employee resource groups?
Nataleah: Of course! Employee Resource Groups, known as ERGs, are volunteer, employee created, and employee-led groups that serve NREL’s diverse workforce. NREL has 10 ERGs that each address specific needs such as mentorship, professional development, and personal support. Throughout the year, the ERGs host events to celebrate certain holidays and nationally recognized observances. And right now, the Hispanic and Latinx Alliance, sometimes referred to as HLA, is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Hispanic Heritage Month is a national observance celebrated annually from September 15 through October 15. It’s a time to recognize and honor the histories and cultures of those whose families or ancestors came from Mexico, the Caribbean, Spain, and Central and South America. I chatted with Steve Granda, who is a cybersecurity researcher and a co-chair for the Hispanic and Latinx Alliance ERG. For him, Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate NREL’s diversity.
Steve Granda: I enjoy it because it’s really great to show folks that at the laboratory this is what our researchers can bring to you professionally, having those diverse backgrounds, and various opinions. It makes the laboratory, I would say the research, a little more holistic.
Nataleah: The theme of this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month is “Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Power, and Progress in America.” Granda explained what “driving prosperity, power, and progress” means to him personally and how it connects with the ERG’s work.
Steve Granda: It helps pay tribute to the immense economic and political strides that Latinos and Latinas have made in the U.S. To me personally, it makes a lot of strong sense. Essentially, my parents are both immigrants, from Mexico and Ecuador, respectively. They came from their small towns. And seeing where they came from and where I’m at now, doing research at the laboratory, it’s definitely something that this year’s theme highlights a bit. So, that the progress that Latinos and Latinas have made in the country, prosperity, the future generations seeing your families as they prosper in the United States and especially with the laboratory and NREL’s mission.
Nataleah: Granda also shared the importance of honoring the heritage month theme within the community and the laboratory.
Steve Granda: The theme also connects with the HLA’s work because at the HLA we tend to do a lot of outreach. We try to continue focusing on that pipeline, be it through K though 12, colleges, and within the laboratory itself in trying to do professional development. We want to continue to do this in making sure that our culture, our people, they progress in the United States, and we open the pathways for future researchers here are the laboratory moving forward.
Nataleah: To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, members of the Hispanic and Latinx Alliance created a series of videos for social media that highlight their work at NREL and explain what “driving prosperity, power, and progress” means to them. In the first video, Paula Perez, a researcher at the National Wind Technology Center, discussed how her work addresses the major challenges facing the wind industry.
Paula Perez: I’m able to step into my role and bring together my engineering and my community engagement background to address challenges and also identify opportunities in spaces like supply chain and workforce development. One of the key aspects of my work is really keeping people at the center of it. Even when I am deep in the weeds of numbers and cost models, I try to consider multiple perspectives, engage with many different stakeholders, and keep equity at the heart of what I do so that underserved and underrepresented communities can also enjoy the benefits of wind energy and also not be negatively impacted by some of the other consequences.
Nataleah: Perez said her experience and heritage have made an impact on her work.
Paula Perez: As a Latina, it’s very important for me to drive forward progress and prosperity for all those around me. I come from a Colombian family, and I think my cultural values are very centered on helping out, helping my neighbor, on being generous, and so it’s very important that I can enjoy those benefits and privileges with my local community, my national community, and my international communities.
Nataleah: To hear more about Perez’s story and her work at NREL, check out the videos on NREL’s social media channels—we’ll post a new video each week during Hispanic Heritage Month. Kerrin and Taylor, thanks so much for the opportunity to talk about this heritage month, and the work of NREL’s Hispanic and Latinx Alliance. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month—thanks for having me!
Kerrin: Amazing. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month everyone! And thank you so much for being here and sharing a little bit about the people of NREL!
Taylor: Yeah, thanks so much Nataleah!
[music]
Taylor: So Nataleah shared a little bit about what’s going on at the lab this month, but I want to jump back to last month for a minute, when NREL hosted its 7th annual Partner Forum. Industry partners, researchers, and energy leaders all convened on the lab’s main campus.
Kerrin: If people could see what I just did there, like a little flash backwards movement. We’re flashing backwards. Yeah, I remember that. It got a little more crowded on campus that day I believe. The Partner Forum is a very cool event. It brings energy leaders to discuss our most pertinent energy challenges, explore energy innovation opportunities, connect stakeholders to solve grid integration challenges, and every importantly develop collaborations and partnerships.
Taylor: The event this year focused on navigating the complex challenges of future energy systems through technological integration and detailed planning. There was also a demonstration of NREL’s Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems platform—also known as ARIES.
Kerrin: We aren’t going to dive into ARIES this episode, but to provide some context and an overview, ARIES is a research platform that can match the complexity of the modern and future energy system and conduct integrated research to support the development of groundbreaking new energy technologies.
Taylor: It’s very cool. I recommend checking out a video explaining the platform on NREL.gov and NREL’s YouTube channel—the narrator’s voice might sound familiar….
Kerrin: It may or may not be one of us. Getting back to the Partner Forum. Attendees discussed the energy transition—meaning the change from fossil-based systems to renewable and cleaner sources—and many brought up similar challenges like increased electricity demand with resource reliability complications and large investments needed while dealing with uncertainties of policy, permitting, and technology.
Taylor: The group also discussed connecting to the customer as a space for innovation and education. We talked about grid-edge work in our last episode and that was also a big subject at the Partner Forum.
Kerrin: Right, so you can definitely listen to that last episode, or a quick refresher right now because that’s more convenient: The grid-edge is the point where we connect to the network, or where electricity reaches our homes and businesses.
Taylor: Exactly. Things like electric vehicles and rooftop solar are changing the grid edge because of two-way power flow. Customers are not just consuming energy, but they can also put energy back onto the grid. Meaning customers can now influence our grid. Many of the Partner Forum attendees agreed that it’s going to be a process of educating and encouraging customers about their participation in our future grid.
Kerrin: All these conversations are valuable as the energy transition takes shape and national labs, like NREL, are crucial places of connection, consensus-building research, and unbiased testing as we move toward a clean energy future.
Taylor: Absolutely. National laboratories are essential as these unbiased testing entities, and they’re used not just in technical science exploration, but also for everyday life things—like how you shop at Walmart, for instance. NREL has been working with Walmart for two decades to test clean energy technologies. Early on, NREL partnered with Walmart for technologies in a store in Aurora, Colorado in 2003, and the partnership has been growing ever since.
Kerrin: Yeah, the retail giant came to NREL for third-party testing of technologies to see what had the biggest impact on emissions while keeping costs low. From 2006 to 2008, NREL evaluated more than 20 technologies in that single Aurora store, including things like whether to use LED lights or skylights in stores. Some of the experiments worked and some just didn’t. That’s why you test things!
Taylor: That’s right, that’s science! But some of the technologies NREL has tested over the partnership are now standard in all Walmart stores.
Kerrin: Walmart says it operates more than 4,600 stores in the United States. That’s a lot of potential improvement in stores thanks to NREL evaluation!
[music]
Kerrin: For our next story, we need to do a little globetrotting.
Taylor: I could use a trip …
Kerrin: Couldn’t we all. Well, how do the French Alps sound?
Taylor: I’m intrigued!
Kerrin: I know, right? In a quiet town just outside of Grenoble, France, which based on my quick Google search, looks beautiful and is on my list of places to visit. This past summer, 65 researchers from 16 countries, including several from NREL, gathered together just outside of Grenoble for a summer school, where they participated in lectures and discussions about the latest developments and trends in renewable energy and sustainability research.
Taylor: The summer school was organized by the Research and Development 20 for Clean Energy Technologies initiative, which is made up of the leading research and development institutions from the Group of 20—or G20. G20, as in the G20 Summit, is a gathering of 19 countries and the European Union. The G20 members represent around 85% of the global gross domestic product, meaning the total monetary value of goods and services created in a country; over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. So, this is a big deal for NREL representatives to join with a group of international researchers like this.
Kerrin: Yeah, that’s huge. And just like the energy transition won’t be achieved with a single piece of technology, it also won’t be done by a single country. Building international connections and relationships is crucial as we look ahead.
Taylor: The school provided participants from different societal and economic backgrounds with a unique place to meet with and learn from their peers and established experts, enabling them to get immersed in new ideas that benefit their own work and, ultimately, the future of humankind.
Kerrin: What a way to end this episode. Just casually working on things that impact the whole world.
Taylor: No kidding—It was kind of the theme of the entire episode, really! Thanks so much for listening everyone. As always you can reach out to us at podcast@nrel.gov. We love hearing from you, and we’d really like to know what you’re interested in at the lab. Is there a research area or technology that you’d like to learn more about? Send us an email and we’ll see what we can do!
Kerrin: And be sure to give us a positive review on your favorite podcast app. Thanks again everyone for listening and we’ll be back in two weeks with more news from the lab. You’ve been listening to Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast.
[theme music]
Kerrin: This episode was adapted from NREL articles from August and September 2023 authored by Connor O’Neil, Jeffrey Wolf, and Susannah Shoemaker. Special thanks to correspondent Nataleah Small. Our theme music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. This podcast is produced by NREL’s Communications Office and recorded at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. We express our gratitude and acknowledge that the land we are on is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute peoples. We recognize and pay respect to the Indigenous peoples from our past, present, and future, and are grateful to those who have and continue to be stewards of this land.