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Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: December 2020 In this edition, NREL publishes a comprehensive guide to understanding inverter-dominated power systems, the Department of Energy awards NREL to pursue national solutions in solar integration, an article from NREL researchers in IEEE Spectrum looks at the autonomous power grid of the future, and more. Technical Roadmap Guides Research Direction for Grid-Forming Inverters Power electronics including the inverters that interface solar, wind, battery energy storage, and electric vehicles are a rapidly expanding presence on the electric grid. As a result, inverters will inherit new responsibilities and introduce new challenges. Recognizing a knowledge gap, a team of experts from NREL and several collaborating ....
SETO Awards NREL To Pursue National Solutions in Solar Integration Dec. 30, 2020 With funds awarded from the Department of Energy s Solar Energy Technologies Office, NREL will pursue projects designed to advance integration of solar energy. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been awarded a large share of funds from the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) 2020 funding program, receiving more than $9 million to study solar integration and reliability. Within the SETO-2020 program, and alongside a network of collaborators, NREL will lead three projects and support three others. “Solar power has grown substantially on the electrical grid, and we expect that growth ....
Determining how many years a solar panel will last can take, well, years. Intended to function for 25 years or more, solar panels must be made to withstand the elements. In some cases, panels continue working well after their planned operational lifetime. Nowhere is this more evident than on the sunny hillside in Golden, Colorado, where the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) operates the Outdoor Test Facility (OTF).
The OTF continues to run tests on photovoltaic (PV) panels made by companies still very much interested in the outcome. The OTF is equipped to perform accelerated testing on PV panels, which discovers problems in their design or in the materials used, said Dirk Jordan, a physicist who is a senior engineer at NREL. However, it is difficult to make long-term performance and degradation predictions for different environments with accelerated testing only. Multi-year outdoor testing is used to complement and validate accelerated testing. That is critica ....
First Solar’s Photovoltaic Technology Completes 25 Years of Testing at NREL Dec. 14, 2020 First Solar s 0.6 kilowatt cadmium telluride PV solar test array has been tested at NREL s Outdoor Test Facility for 25 years. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL Determining how many years a solar panel will last can take, well, years. Intended to function for 25 years or more, solar panels must be made to withstand the elements. In some cases, panels continue working well after their planned operational lifetime. Nowhere is this more evident than on the sunny hillside in Golden, Colorado, where the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) operates the Outdoor Test Facility (OTF). ....