National Renwable Energy Lab

In Golden Colorado we were given the honor to tour the National Renewable Energy Lab with NOA's very own Sandy MacDonald, creator of Science on a Sphere. Jim Bosch (NREL) was our energetic tour guide, and started us in the visitor's center with the brand new Science on a Sphere exhibit that Sandy himself presented to us. He had the idea to project various aspects of the latest climate models on a sphere one day driving home from work. From The satelite images of lights at night, to wind and solar forcasts, to global photosynthesis, to carbon sources and sinks, to the world oil flow and more, the spherical rendition put all of these findings into a whole new and more understandable perspective.

From there we traveled up to the solar mesa overlooking the entire facility and city. This is where the solar radiation research is taking place from Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) with solar troughs, to a high Flux Solar Furnace the primary goal of the research up here is to displace conventional fuels in an industrial sense, using more renewable energy sources such as the sun. We ventured to the solar deck where a plethora of space age looking instruments worked to measure the solar forecast. Without some sort of a solar forecast, utilities are not interested in using solar for economic reasons. They are interested in watts/m2, and that is precisely what NREL is measuring. Other research taking place at NREL includes photo voltaic research on the atomic level, growing polycrystalline for solar energy use, wind technology, pressed biomass as building material, and more. All of the areas pursued keep the three E's in mind . . . Environment, Economy and Energy Security.