Spotlight: National Renewable Energy Laboratory Publications Database

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL),
"is the only national laboratory solely dedicated to advancing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies from concept to commercial application." Located in Golden, Colorado, the lab, which has been in existence for the last 35 years, has expertise in the following areas: Renewable Fuels, Renewable Electricity, Energy Science, Strategic Energy Analysis, Commercialization and Technology Transfer and Deployment.  The NREL is also the principal research laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). 

However, of interest to environmental researchers, the NREL, has a searchable online Publications Database available here.

          The database includes:

• Technical reports
• Journal articles
• Conference papers
• Patents
• Presentations
• Books
• Fact sheets
• Brochures.

In addition, the database also has an Advanced Search feature which allows users to search by title, author, source, publication year (plus others).  The database contains bibliographic information on "publications from 1977 to the present on subjects related to renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies."  Many publications are available in pdf while others can be obtained in print from other sources (click here for more information).

Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy Resources for the United States

This U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Technical Report (NREL/TP-500-45889) dated
June 2010, summarizes the offshore wind resource potential, based on map estimates, for the contiguous United States and Hawaii, as of May 2009. The development of this assessment has evolved over multiple stages as new regional meso-scale assessments became available, new validation data were obtained, and better modeling capabilities were implemented. It is expected that further updates to the current assessment will be made in future reports.