NREL's Top Stories of 2024

To kick off the first episode of the new year, our hosts are celebrating a few of their favorite renewable energy innovations of 2024! 

From advancements in sustainable aviation to innovative solutions for reducing plastic pollution, this episode highlights 10 of the lab's top stories of 2024, showcasing the future of renewable energy and sustainable technologies. 

Learn more about how NREL is celebrating the incredible strides made over the past year in renewable energy research and innovation! 

This episode was hosted by Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle, written and produced by Allison Montroy and Kaitlyn Stottler, and edited by James Wilcox, Joe DelNero, and Brittany Falch. Graphics are by Brittnee Gayet. Our title music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast is created by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, 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. Email us at podcast@nrel.gov. Follow NREL on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Facebook.

Transcript

[Transforming Energy theme music]  

Kerrin: 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 energy research and innovations happening at the lab. It’s Wednesday, January 8th, 2025. I’m Kerrin Jeromin.  

Taylor: And I’m Taylor Mankle. Kerrin, January 8th,  2025—can you believe we’re here?  

Kerrin: No, I can’t! 

Taylor: No kidding, and it’s been a minute since we’ve talked NREL news! But first, happy new year to you and all of our listeners out there!  

Kerrin: Thank you! Happy new year to you, too! And 2024 was quite the year, so I’m ready to move forward. I don’t know about you, but let’s do this.  

Taylor: No kidding. We covered so much last year, so I think we should dedicate this first episode of 2025 revisiting some of the lab’s most impactful moments from 2024.  

Kerrin: I love that. If we try to cover absolutely everything, of course, we’ll be here for hours and hours on end—maybe even weeks! But nobody’s got that time for that. So, what do you think about sharing 10 of our favorite stories, in no particular order, from NREL’s list of the top 20 stories of the year? And of course, listeners, you can read that full list on NREL.gov.   

Taylor: Alright, lets each take a turn until we reach 10. I can kick us off!   

Kerrin: Awesome Here we go.  

[heroic music]  

Taylor: Well of course, I have to kick it off with Bat-Man—the affectionate name for a recent battery manufacturing project developed by the superhero scientists at NREL. It’s a novel laser patterning process to alter the microstructure of battery electrode materials—a revolutionary manufacturing process that could unlock significant improvements to electrified transportation. Much like Gotham City’s Dark Knight, NREL’s BatMan’s cutting edge capabilities could lead the charge to a brighter, more sustainable future. 

Kerrin: OK, second up is recyclable wind turbine blades. Researchers at NREL developed resin from bio-derivable resources, called PECAN, that performs on par with current blades made from thermoset resin, outperforms certain recyclable thermoplastic resins, and is able to be chemically recycled and reused. This is huge, because it could essentially end the practice of old blades winding up in landfills. Currently, wind blades last about 20 years. PECAN would allow turbine blades to be remade again and again using the same components. And of course, PECAN is an acronym, standing for PolyEster Covalently Adaptable Network. Yes, that’s a mouthful. Whether you prefer to pronounce it pee-can or pe-cahn, that is up to you.  

 [low humming of airplane interior, beeping to signify the seatbelt sign]  

Taylor: Next up, we have to include sustainable aviation fuel-powered flight—or, in NREL’s case, a supercomputer-powered virtual jet engine that uses ultra-detailed combustion simulation to predict how sustainable aviation fuel—or SAF--performs during flight and give insights on what adjustments can be made to maximize its safety and performance. The project’s research team is gathering this meticulous fuel chemistry data to equip the industry with the tools it needs to advance the future of aviation.  

[air hostess giving directions in the background, upbeat music]  

Kerrin: And coming in at number four, we’re traveling to the South Pole—maybe using some of that sustainable aviation fuel you just mentioned—where researchers from NREL and Argonne National Laboratory looked at how a combination of solar modules, wind turbines, and battery storage could provide a cost-effective way to expand research capabilities at the South Pole, all while significantly reducing costs. The idea to shift away from diesel fuel specially formulated to withstand the extreme cold comes as scientists look toward future experiments. Using the NREL-developed Renewable Energy Integration and Optimization—also known as the REopt tool—which calculates the economic viability of a renewable project, researchers determined the lowest-cost scenario to supply a consistent 170 kW of power for new research equipment at the South Pole through a hybrid system involving six wind turbines, 100 kilowatts of solar, and 3.4 megawatt-hours of battery energy storage. 

Taylor: —Bringing us to number five: thermal energy storage, which uses molten salt or even superheated rocks as a low-cost alternative to existing energy storage technologies. And NREL researchers honed in on one specific solid particle for thermal energy storage: sand. It turns out sand is the cheapest option for energy storage compared to several rival technologies and has a storage duration of hundreds of hours. But we can’t use just any old sand—this is an ultra-pure form of alpha quartz readily found in the Midwest.  

Kerrin: Next up: The National Transmission Planning Study.  The U.S. power grid has been called one of the greatest and largest engineering marvels of the 20th century. Made up of more than half a million miles of transmission lines, it delivers power to 160 million customers every day. But now, the nation's electric grid will have to grow even larger to enable an affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy future. NREL was part of this first-of-its-kind study that modeled nearly 100 future scenarios through 2050 to identify transmission solutions that can help planners and developers revamp the US power grid for the next generation of transmission needs. Check out our recent lab notes episode all about this study to learn more!  

[melancholy piano music]  

Taylor: This next story was about a total eclipse of the heart. No, kidding. Bonnie Tyler doesn’t work at NREL. But NREL researchers did take advantage of April’s total solar eclipse to examine in real time how the power grid is impacted by the loss of solar generation. During the event, 32 million people experienced complete darkness in the middle of the day. The sun was blocked from view for about 4 minutes, the period known as "totality," but was partially covered for up to 3.5 hours, and even areas far outside the path of totality experienced some level of reduced solar output. System operators also expected an increase in electricity demand across many population centers due to a reduction in rooftop solar generation, and cities with a higher adoption of rooftop solar saw a more significant impact. 

[subtle, rhythmic music]  

Kerrin: OK, I think we’re at story number eight! The US Department of Energy tapped NREL to support a new $15 million research effort to improve the measurement, reporting, and verification of carbon dioxide removal technologies—a newly emerging and rapidly expanding industry that has the potential to address existing carbon emissions and remove them from the atmosphere. Of the four proposals being pursued in this effort, NREL is leading two of the projects and teaming up with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on a third. 

[playful music]  

Taylor: And for our second to last story, NREL released a report detailing the benefits and costs of air-source heat pumps across the United States. Researchers found that millions of U.S. households would benefit from heat pumps, but the cost of installing the technology needs to come down to make their use a more attractive proposition. The report also considered various climates, heating sources, and types of homes and revealed that the majority of Americans would see a drop in their energy bills by using a heat pump, especially if homes are weatherized with things like better insulation. 

Kerrin:  OK Taylor, it’s only fitting to end on one of my favorite stories of the year and one that included a Lab Notes episode: It’s all about plastics, and the research happening at NREL to solve our plastic pollution problem. This includes NREL’s WaterPact project to develop renewable-energy-powered technologies to detect, measure, and collect plastic from U.S. waterways as well as the BioOptimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment—or BOTTLE Consortium. Together, their work to address the plastic pollution problem will enable a better future for humanity and the environment.  

[upbeat music]  

Taylor: I love that we’re kicking off the new year by celebrating all that NREL accomplished in 2024. It makes me excited to see what comes, especially after just getting a taste of all the great things from 2024.  

Kerrin: So true, so true. It feels like the research happening here keeps growing and expanding, and we all can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2025. And listeners, you can bet we’ll be here every other Wednesday to share that latest research at the lab with you!   

Taylor: Happy new year, everybody! We’ll be back in two weeks with more news from NREL.   

[Transforming Energy theme music] 

Taylor: This episode was adapted from an NREL news article from December 2024 written by Benjamin Chambers and Allison Montroy. Our theme music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino, of Drift B-C. This podcast is produced by NREL’s Communications Office 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 of our past, present, and future, and are grateful to those who have been and continue to be stewards of this land.  

[music fades]