Episode Details

Disclaimer: This episode was produced when the laboratory operated as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The laboratory is now the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR).

Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss recent stories from NREL:  

• The rapid adoption of zero-emission electric vehicles, alongside a transition to a clean electric grid and measures to manage travel demand growth, could lead to an 80% or more drop in transportation greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by 2050, according to researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s NREL. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications, involved over 2,000 simulations and identified the dynamic variable in reducing emissions as measures supporting the transition to zero-emission vehicles, emphasizing the importance of a multifaceted approach involving technology advancements, policy changes, and behavioral shifts. 
• Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s NREL achieved a record-breaking efficiency of 27% for a gallium arsenide (GaAs) heterojunction solar cell, using dynamic hydride vapor phase epitaxy (D-HVPE). By optimizing the doping and bandgap of the emitter layer, the study provides a roadmap for enhancing the performance of solar cells, with potential applications beyond III-V materials, such as silicon, cadmium telluride, or perovskites. 
• NREL researchers are utilizing artificial intelligence, specifically invertible neural network (INN) tools, to accelerate airfoil design for wind turbine blades, demonstrating a hundredfold speedup over current methods and achieving performance characteristics satisfaction, offering a potential breakthrough in optimizing airfoil shapes and streamlining the design process. The INN, by learning an invertible relationship between airfoil shapes and their properties, enables rapid exploration of design spaces, providing higher-fidelity insights into aerodynamics and structural properties without compromising tight design timelines. 

This podcast is hosted by Jackson Fletcher, Kerrin Jeromin, Taylor Mankle, and Nataleah Small and written and produced by Hannah Halusker, Allison Montroy, and Kaitlyn Stottler. Editors are Joe DelNero, Brittany Falch, and Taylor Mankle. Graphics by Brittnee Gayet. Music by Ted Vaca and Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. Peaks to Power is created by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies in Golden, Colorado. Email us at podcast@nlr.gov. Follow NLR on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Facebook.