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November 23 2019
Tour of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO
We currently live near Golden Colorado, home to the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) [0]. They have some other
facilities, the National Wind Technology Center near Boulder Colorado
for example, but their main campus is in Golden on the south slope
of South Table Rock. It's quite large, easily seen from the various
local peaks and mesas I regularly hike, so when I learned that they
offered monthly tours I made a note to sign up and see what they
might be up to.
NREL dates back to 1977 under the Carter administration, invariably
a response to the oil crisis, in turn a result of the peaking of
conventional US domestic oil production around 1971 which required
steadily increasing imports of foreign oil, much of it from the
middle east. I won't go into the history further other than to
note that Reagan not only yanked the solar water heaters off the
whitehouse but nearly defunded NREL out of existence, cutting their
budget by 90%. More recent politicians have come around to the
wisdom of continuing to research energy, particularly the renewable
kind. These days NREL is essentially a Department of Energy facility
administered by a pair of defense-related NGOs, Battlelle and
MRIGlobal, ensuring steadier funding. The US military operates
around 400 foreign bases and is always getting into dust-ups and
so is quite keen on finding better more affordable means of fueling
their miss-adventures.
So, the tour. NREL is a federal facility which these days means
they are likely doing a background check on anyone wanting to visit.
That said, if you're a US citizen you'll only need to show them
your drivers license on the day of your visit.
There were about 20 people on the tour which lasted about 1.5 hours
and was largely a continuous sales pitch of their facilities and
licensable tech. Lots of branding and trendy tech industry style
amenities on display. They seem to be offering R&D services for
hire, contracting with both public and private entities around the
world. I'm sure any foreign arrangements are reviewed by the
DoE/DoD; don't want to inadvertently give an adversary an edge.
The tour guide did highlight some of the building technology which
was pretty cool. Many buildings on the NREL campus make extensive
use of Colorado's abundant sunshine. We saw several trombe walls
[1] which passively collect solar thermal energy which is then
circulated through the structures. It's an old idea dating from
the 1880s but fully developed by a french engineer whom it's now
named after. Many NREL building also make extensive use of natural
light and strategically placed louvers to control how light enters
interiors. NREL has also developed an electrochromic glass [2]
which uses an electrically sensitive membrane that tints when a
small current is passed through it; basically it can work in
conjunction with a thermostat to control interior temperatures in
a passive solar structure.
Some current areas of research: smart grids/dynamic load balancing,
battery storage, AI, hydrogen / fuel cells, biologicals, and of
course photovoltaics. The guide highlighted some of the more recent
PV R&D, thin film processes, high performance cells getting over
20% conversion rates.
Some projects were kind of a head scratcher, for example a scheme
to manufacture "renewable methane" for Southern California Gas by
replicating certain deep sea environments via pressure vessels.
Does the world really need anymore methane? NREL apparently has
a fairly new facility dedicated to investigating biomass and will
be offering a tour soon according to the guide.
The tour was quite fast paced and not really conducive to asking
questions but a followup email offered to answer any we might have.
I submitted two, one regarding to what degree does NREL consider
embodied energy [3] in their systems analysis, the other to what
degree is recycling and it's energy inputs considered for technologies
reliant on non-renewables such as rare earths, copper, nickel, etc.
Because NREL clearly sees it's current role as supporter and
facilitator of the current growth-oriented economic system it's
not clear whether they are actually holding projects they're involved
with to a true renewable or self-sustaining benchmark.
It's been several days since I sent in the inquiry; if I actually
get a response I'll post an update.
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[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NREL
http://www.nrel.gov/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombe_wall
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrochromism
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_energy