Government lab makes renewable energy sources more attractive

Telephones have been ringing off the hook at a sprawling government lab at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Some callers may be seeking advice on installing solar panels on their homes. Others may be company representatives who wonder if a wind turbine could help generate electricity to run their business.
If there is anything good to come out of the nation's worst energy crisis since the 1970s, it may be an increased interest in the US Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "If the public and companies start to sense, 'Hey, this isn't going away,' then it really does create a more conducive market for renewables," said Bobi Garrett, associate NREL director.
Kim Calomino, director of Built Green Colorado, said the lab's work has made renewable energy sources more attractive to and more widely accepted by prospective homebuilders. "A lot of folks still think of solar power as weird things that stand up on legs at an angle up on the roof, and they don't want that," said Calomino, who runs the voluntary program that encourages the use of environmentally friendly products that conserve resources. "Certainly the kind of research they've done makes the technology easier to utilize, less expensive and not so odd-looking."
With Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham warning that the crisis may threaten the country's national security, NREL scientists hope renewable energy will become more important. About 8 % of the nation's power comes from such resources as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy. An additional 22 % comes from natural gas, 39 % from petroleum and 25 % from coal. Nuclear power makes up the remaining 6 %.

The Energy Information Administration, a DOE division, predicts renewable energies will linger at 8 % by 2020, with dependence on natural gas growing and the use of other sources of energy dropping slightly. Even as Abraham calls renewable energy a failed effort, NREL spokesman Gary Schmitz believes the current crisis could make solar, wind, geothermal and biomass power viable options.
"There's no pollution and no depletion of resources like burning fossil fuels," Schmitz said. "And the sun and wind don't run out." NREL, the nation's leading research facility for renewable energy and energy efficiency, was launched by Congress in 1974 during the last energy crisis. It was designed to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil.
Called the Solar Energy Research Institute, the lab was promoted by then-President Jimmy Carter, a solar energy proponent who even installed a solar water heater atop the White House. During the Reagan administration, alternative energy was viewed with scepticism and the lab's budget was slashed. In 1987, then-Director Harold Hubbard said part of the lab's problem was the complacency that set in nationwide once the oil crisis eased.
"The public was galvanized around that issue. It was huge and everybody was angry," Garrett said. "That was probably the first time in history anybody in the American public thought about energy. "I think in general there's a lack of awareness of energy in this country and it only comes to the forefront when prices increase like they have."

Today, with a budget of nearly $ 200 mm and 800 employees, NREL works to make alternative energy technology more efficient so it can compete with fossil fuels. But under President Bush's proposed budget, energy conservation programs will be cut, meaning NREL will lose one-third to one-half of its staff.
Oil drilling and other energy development will receive more money under the Bush plan. Some of the energy lab's greatest achievements have occurred in solar and wind power.
At the lab's 280-acre National Wind Technology Centre, scientists test improved designs in wind power by embedding in turbine blades sensors that measure vibrations. Blades are coated to change colour under stress and sophisticated computer models analyse the results.
The lab has test pads with turbines ranging in power from 1 kW to 1 MW. Wind power is the fastest-growing alternative energy source, Garrett said. It generates no pollution and has little environmental impact except for noise and the deaths of birds who unwittingly fly into the blades. The United States produces enough wind power to satisfy the needs of about 1 mm people per year.

Its cost has decreased 85 % in the last 20 years, ranging from 4 cents to 6 cents a kW hour today, largely because of the lab's research, Garrett said. The drawback is the lack of a cost-effective system to channel it from areas where it's plentiful, like the Dakotas, to highly populated areas that need it the most, Schmitz said.
NREL also has improved the performance and reliability of solar, or photovoltaic, cells, Garrett said. Photovoltaic production has nearly tripled over the last decade. Systems can be manufactured for about $ 2.20 per Watt, down from $ 4.50 per Watt in 1980.
The lab's solar facility runs on solar power, making it the federal government's most efficient building. The back of the building sits snugly against a mesa to take advantage of natural insulation. Researchers work in offices illuminated by natural light filtering through specially glazed windows, which are strategically placed to take advantage of the sun.
Glare and heat are managed by motorized window shades that automatically raise and lower based on the sun's intensity. Solar energy is being put to use in businesses, in homes and rural areas far from power lines, as well as mountaintop communication towers, highway signs and offshore oil rigs. Photovoltaics work best in areas with a lot of sunlight, but even then a backup system is needed to provide electricity during a stretch of cloudy weather.

Biomass energy, which has great potential but costs more to produce than fossil fuels, is one of the lab's most heavily funded research areas. NREL says it could "dramatically improve our environment, economy and energy security." Biomass is electricity generated from agricultural crops, trash, trees and aquatic plants. Agricultural products store energy from the sun through photosynthesis, and methane can be captured from landfills, water treatment and manure lagoons from cattle and hog farms.
It accounts for about 45 % of the renewable energy used in the United States, enough to power several mm households. But it holds the potential to generate more than half of the nation's energy supply, according to NREL. Like wind, a system must be developed to efficiently channel biomass energy, and dedicated crops such as fast-growing trees and grasses must be developed for use, lab officials said.