April 24 nd  2002

The Little DOE Lab That Thinks It Can

Source:E Daily

It is, as labs go, a virgin.

Founded in the energy crisis of 1974, NREL has an enviable niche. It is loved by politicians,environmentalists and those who believe that the sun, the wind and farm waste can solve the nation's long-term energy problem.

Yet compared with giants like Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, it is a modest undertaking. Whereas its sister labs' budgets run in the billion-dollar range, NREL's budget comes in at around $ 200 million- most of it provided by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Although there are those in the energy industry who think that too much attention is paid to
renewables and that they cannot of themselves make a substantial contribution to the U.S.
appetite for oil and electricity, NREL remains without enemies. Its areas of endeavor all have an enthusiastic constituency, and critics who mumble but do not shout. Even in the utility industry, where renewables are viewed somewhat skeptically, no executive will attack them as a false promise.
 

And one renewable, wind power, is finding favor even in the utility industry. Windmills, ever larger, ever higher, are producing power ever more cheaply, often competitively with other generating sources- when the wind blows, that is. Computers, electromagnetics and new materials have transformed the windmill from an idealist's Holy Grail into a very practical electricity maker.

Of course, there is that problem of when the wind blows and some associated problems,
such as the effect of wind farms on a utility grid, and managing the erratic delivery of power.

Yet utilities are coming round, learning more about wind power and looking to manage
distributed generation in the context of a traditional-central station generating plant.

Here, again, NREL has an advantage. It is more in the business of perfecting than inventing.And it works closely in cooperative agreements with commercial companies in all its areas of endeavor, including biomass, hybrid vehicles, geothermal energy and, of course, wind. 

In the renewable stakes, wind is several furlongs ahead and appears to be a certain winner.As the windmills have grown bigger, the need for better controls, materials, engineering and grid integration have increased exponentially. Step forward, NREL.

One of its accomplishments is in the destructive testing of blades for state-of-the-art
windmills- great monsters made of fiberglass and carbon fiber, which must take tremendous stresses and operate safely and quietly.

That has meant that upwind turbines are triumphing over downwind turbines. The downwind variety simply produces too much noise. Upwind turbines have the blades at the front of the device- like aircraft propellers- rather than at the rear, which creates a more efficient but noisier machine.

Ergo, NREL has one of the answers to the environmental complaints about windmills. The
other two- their visual impact and their propensity to mince birds- are unresolved.

Michael C. Robinson, division manager of applied research for the National Wind Technology Center here says that you simply have to locate windmills away from migratory bird patterns. Science has simply not yet found a way to divert the birds. As for the visual effects, Robinson says, the solution is to locate them in remote areas and live with them: an equally unscientific solution.

If there is magic at NREL, it is that it is building on what was learned at other laboratories
during the go-go days of energy research in the 1970s. In short, the lab is working on things that work- and can work better- rather than trying to cut new technologies out of whole cloth.

This can be seen in its vehicles program, which is devoted to hybrids with conventional
engines and electric drive systems and possible fuel-cell cars, which Terry Penney, one of
their boosters at the lab, reminds visitors will also be a hybrid. It is only through a hybrid that regenerative braking and other boosting of the electric system can work.

Again, the same pattern is apparent in the lab's work on geothermal energy: fixes,
improvements (particularly in heat exchangers), corrosion-resistance and systems design.
Nothing wildly ambitious.

It can be argued that renewable energy has suffered as much from its friends as its
detractors- people who have made elaborate claims for technologies that simply cannot
deliver. The lab does not say so, but it is implicit in its programs that it will not fall into the trap of promising a free lunch. Instead, it is pushing ahead with its commercial partners and
evolutionary improvements. Not a free lunch but an affordable one.

The director of NREL is a little anomalous, too. He is the former astronaut and NASA
administrator, Richard Truly. Now at the helm of NREL for nearly six years, Truly has
something of a passion for photovoltaics because, he says, solar cells were vital to his
survival in space. He talks with enthusiasm about work at the lab, but with passion and a
twinkle in his eye about space flight and aviation. His contribution at NREL, according to
associates, is pragmatism.

"He wants things that work, that can be validated by the market, and moved out of the lab
into the world," an associate says.

In a nutshell, the fears of the energy industry and part of the scientific community that a
dedicated renewable energy laboratory would be taken over by the extremes of
environmentalism, dreaming of reforming society, not of fulfilling its needs, have proved
groundless.

Truly, in a recent speech, said: "I believe our country is slowly committing to a new energy
destination that offers a sustainable energy future- and that this transition is already
underway. It may likely be a hydrogen-based economy, but it would be a future that will
continue to include fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewables, but in a much different mix
than today. ...This candle will last the night."