Energy systems integration facilities at the national renewable energy laboratory

TLDR

The global energy system relies heavily on conventional infrastructure, but increasing integration of variable renewables, storage, smart controls, and energy‑efficiency measures is driving a need for advanced testing to assess impacts on the complex grid. This paper showcases NREL’s advanced research facilities for energy‑systems integration, enabling national labs, academia, and industry to conduct cutting‑edge research on advanced energy components and systems. The facilities provide integrated testing and evaluation platforms for advanced energy components and systems, supporting research on their development and deployment.

Abstract

The world is highly dependent on an energy infrastructure that produces electricity and fuels; delivering these to customers for a wide variety of end-use applications. There is a renewed push to integrate larger quantities of variable renewable generation, advanced energy storage, and smart communications and controls to allow for increased use of sustainable generation technologies. There is also a push to increase the use of energy efficiency and diversify transportation fuels to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. As the integration of energy systems becomes more complex, testing and evaluation of these new technologies to understand their benefits to and impacts on the energy systems infrastructure will be critical to meeting our nation's energy challenges. This paper highlights the advanced research and development facilities located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that focus on energy systems integration designed to help national laboratories, academia, and industry conduct state-of-the-art research on the development and deployment of advanced energy components and systems.