Through a variety of partnership types, such as Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) and Test & Evaluation partnerships, NREL has worked with hundreds of industry partners from across the U.S.

Building Technologies (building efficiency, building-integrated PV).

Electric Systems (smart grid technology and standards, transmission and distribution systems integration, energy storage).

Solar (PV, concentrating solar power and solar thermal).

Vehicle Technologies(advanced vehicles, fuel quality and testing).Spans fundamental science to technology solutions. The projected cost of ethanol made from biomass has plummeted from almost $6 per gallon to about $2.60 today, helping spur the construction of the first cellulosic ethanol plants in the United States.Д¬lick here to view the slides presented by Dan Arvizu (NREL's director) at an event in Singapore in November 2010 about the transition to a Clean Energy Future. The cost of electricity from photovoltaic (PV) panels, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, has dropped from several dollars per kilowatt-hour to 20-25 cents a kilowatt-hour. These lower costs have helped wind energy become the fastest growing source of new electricity in the nation. For example, the cost of wind energy has declined from 40 cents per kilowatt-hour when the lab was founded, to 6-9 cents today. NRELвЂ™s discoveries in renewable energy have shaped our transportation alternatives and provided options to power our homes and businesses. NREL became the only national laboratory with the single focus to create clean and renewable energy technologies. Bush, elevated SERI to a national laboratory and changed the name to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. President to visit the lab fast forward to 1991, and another U.S. In 1978, President Carter was the first U.S. SERI was a federal facility dedicated to harnessing power from the sun and quickly caught national attention.

NREL began operating July 5, 1977, as the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI).

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