Jeffco Leads the Charge in Renewables
Published Dec 22, 2009
The demand for new energy sources is generating an expansion at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.
Tackling global energy woes is a tall order, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden uses everything from subatomic particles invisible to the naked eye to huge machines with bolts the size of a human head to meet the challenge.
The nearby Colorado School of Mines is setting up the Renewable Energy Materials Research Science and Engineering Center with $9.3 million from the National Science Foundation. The public university already is home to the Colorado Fuel Cell Center and the Colorado Energy Research Institute.
CSM and the NREL help make the region a magnet for private investment in solar, wind, biomass, fuel cell and geothermal development and products.
Jefferson County boasts some 320 energy-related businesses and research operations, with players that include Abengoa Solar, Blue Sun Biodiesel, Community Power Corp. and Versa Power Systems.
NREL, which employs more than 1,000 people, and Colorado School of Mines – both part of the state’s Renewable Energy Collaboratory – are national pacemakers, says Todd Hartman, a spokesman for the Governor’s Energy Office.
“The growing number of startups and established new energy firms makes Jefferson County a focal point for a future that will see us fundamentally change the way we produce and consume energy,” he says.
CSM’s Fuel Cell Center is working to improve efficiency of fuel cells, and in 2009 received a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for using solid-oxide fuel cells to convert biomass fuels at high temperatures.
The Colorado Energy Research Institute has several projects, including a joint effort with Princeton University and the University of Hawaii on photosynthetic organisms. The team is investigating certain algae for its use in producing biodiesel and the ability of microalgae to help generate potential power with water and sunlight.
At NREL, much of the $110 million in federal stimulus money announced in April 2009 will accelerate capital projects already in the works, including the second phase of a 210,000-square-foot research support facility that will set new standards for green construction and operation.
On the research front, wind-power technology and biomass refining projects got $10 million and $13.5 million infusions, respectively. The Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility will expand to accommodate more work with industry partners and allow three parallel processing trains for testing of biomass pretreatments.
“We are working to use less pretreatment, with more ability to do it quickly and closer to material’s natural state,” says Greg Walters, NREL spokesman. “It is all about economics, using the least effort for the most yield.”
The National Wind Technology Center, also based at NREL, will double its capacity to test large wind turbine drive trains. The monster dynamometer can simulate wind conditions equivalent to 30 years in the field in a few months.
Other NREL scientists want to inverse-engineer advanced materials to bring down the cost of components for solar power. Using quantum physics, researchers start with what properties such a material needs and then manipulate matter at the sub-atomic level to get there.
“What those guys do is really in the realm of the unseeable,” Walters says.
Story by Pamela Coyle
Photo by Staff
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