Events

The Visitors Center will be closed on Fiday, July 3, 2009.  We wish you a safe an happy Independance Day weekend.

MLS presents a unique opportunity for engineers to gain a thorough understanding of turbine control, including its role, critical background control knowledge, controller design, performance assessment and the consequences for overall wind design. Starting with an introduction to Wind Energy, engineers will gain an appreciation of the technology and its historical development within the context of the industry. This will serve as a lead-in to an overview of all areas relevant to wind turbine control, the design of the controllers themselves and an analysis and evaluation of controller performance.

Does a Renewable Energy System Make Economic Sense?

In this presentation, we'll examine four highly useful economic techniques that homeowners can use to analyze the economics of a wind or solar system using real life examples. We'll explore financial incentives like the Federal Tax Credit, utility rebates, and USDA REAP grants that help lower the initial cost of systems.

Dan Chiras is a green building consultant and an internationally acclaimed author of 25 books on residential green building, residential renewable energy, and sustainability, including The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy, Power from the Wind, and The Solar House. Dan is founder and director of The Evergreen Institute where he teaches courses on green building, solar energy, and wind energy, and more.

The Fourth Annual New Energy Symposium (2009) is focused on advancements in cleantech by bringing together the renewable energy players in the United States; and to discuss the strategies and approaches for the commercialization of clean energy technologies. The event also offers attendees 25+ presentations, networking opportunities, and exposure to latest revolutionary clean energy technologies.

The Symposium features "Clean Energy Investment Presentations," where cleantech start-ups pitch their business plan to venture capitalists and financial experts for real-world advice.

You are invited to a fun educational day of guided tours, our “Science on a Sphere” presentation, activities and crafts for kids.  Enjoy a demonstration of a Solar Oven and make chocolate-marshmallow s’mores!

The NREL Visitors Center offers fascinating interactive exhibits of cutting- edge renewable energy technologies and user-friendly information helping  you, your family, friends and neighbors protect the earth’s environment by practicing energy efficiency in your home, school or office.

This event will bring together top market analysts, utilities, PV equipment suppliers, experts in project finance, PV integrators and developers to describe the new reality in the U.S. PV Market and make clear where the important new opportunities exist. Leveraging extensive market research into solar supply, demand, and electricity generation business models, Greentech Media and the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development continue their tradition of high-caliber seminars that provide actionable market intelligence in this fast changing market.

Providing a unique opportunity for communication and collaboration between academia, industry and planners in the areas of Solar Energy, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Advanced Energy Technologies.

Bring the sunshine in!  Solar power, bio-diesel fuel and a wood-burning heating plant powering a lean, green data-processing machine? Almost by definition, large office buildings are environmentally UN-friendly – overrefrigerated and underutilized energy hogs.  What is NREL’s response?   The solutions are cutting edge, the problems are not.  What does it take to make an energy-guzzling data center an eco-friendly one?  How does that translate into your office environment?

Join us on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at NREL’s Visitors’ Center to learn more.

This presentation is part of NREL’s “Visitors Center Power Lunch Lecture Series.”  Participants are welcome to bring a lunch and enjoy.

IPRW II includes technical presentations covering materials testing, certification, international codes and standards, grid integration, and safety. Anticipated speakers include PV experts from China, India, Japan, and the United States. Tours of Arizona Public Service’s STAR Facility, TUV’s PV test laboratory at Arizona State University, and Atlas Corporation’s facility will be offered.

Hear the latest advancements in sustainable technologies from solar cells to concentrators to PV systems. Topics include: solar hydrogen, thin films, OPVs, and PV cell technologies.

This course is intended to provide the necessary background for engineers and researchers on the interconnection and integration of wind generation power plants into electric utility systems. It is also geared towards experts already working in this area, as there will be an opportunity to exchange knowledge and discuss experiences from around the globe. Experts from the United States and Europe will provide state-of-the-art knowledge and expertise on the application of power system engineering methods to address the incorporation of wind power plants into electric power systems.

This event is one of the world's three big PV conferences (together with the PVSEC in Asia and the IEEE PVSEC in the U.S.), but traditionally has the most visitors and the largest industry exhibiiton.

Does a Small Wind System Make Sense for You?

Wind energy can be a reliable supplement to solar electricity and, in some locations, can supply 100% of your needs. In this talk, we'll explore small wind systems, what your options are, what type of wind turbines are available for homeowners, how to assess a site for suitability, and costs.

Dan Chiras is a certified wind site assessor and author of numerous books on renewable energy, including Power from the Wind: A practical Guide to Small-Scale Energy Production.

With its theme of Geothermal 2009: Making Renewable Energy Hot, the Annual Meeting of the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) will take place October 4-7, 2009, in Reno, Nevada, at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino. The four-day event will offer technical, policy, and market conference sessions, educational seminars, a trade show exhibition, tours of local geothermal and renewable energy projects and numerous networking opportunities.

The call for abstracts for the event has been issued and information about abstract requirements and submission forms can be obtained by contacting the GRC at (530) 758-2360, at the GRC Web site, or going directly to the organization's Abstract Submission (MS Word 192 KB) or Abstract Selection Process (PDF 30 KB) files. Download Adobe Reader.

This event from the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) will highlight advances and technological developments.  The theme of the event is "Renewable Energy: Shaping our Future."

The first comprehensive multidisciplinary international forum for exchange of ideas, dissemination of knowledge, and professional education for all aspects of the biofuels and bioenergy system from genetics through production, distribution and use.

The largest Solar Power Conference in the United States about the U.S. solar industry and market opportunities.  The conference is sponsored by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). 

Topics

Wind Energy Principles and Power Engineering Basics

• Energy in the Wind
• Wind Site Assessment
• Electric Power Generation and Control Fundamentals
• Wind Turbine Basics
• Wind Turbine Components
• Wind Turbine Standards and Certification

Wind Generation Machinery

• Synchronous Generators: A Review
• Induction Generators
• Doubly-Fed Induction Generator
• Wind Turbine Control Systems

Beyond the Turbine

• The Collector System
• Monitoring, Control and Automation Solutions
• Reactive Compensation
• Interconnection of Wind Power Plants with Electric Grid

Sponsored by the NREL and the American Wind Energy Association, this meeting seeks to gain the assistance of committed wind turbine design and industry experts to develop national guidelines for large wind turbine design, permitting, development, electrical, structural, and offshore wind. These guidelines will capitalize on existing IEC Standards to avoid creating new standards and will ultimately be used to facilitate compliance verification activities by local inspectors and project developers attempting to permit land-based or offshore wind turbines. Although NREL and AWEA hope that a broad representation from all the invested stakeholders will attend this initial meeting, only technically qualified persons will be encouraged to assist in developing the large turbine permitting guidelines.

Registration form (PDF 72 KB)

International Trade Fair for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficient Building. For the 5th time, worldwide experts meet in order to exchange know-how, present experiences from the practice and offer advice gained through research and development and ensuring this knowledge is quickly transferred into action. The innovation conference takes place over two days parallel to the CEP trade fair.

Join NREL at its 22^nd Industry Growth Forum—America's largest venture event focused exclusively on companies developing clean energy products and services.

The Forum provides growth opportunities in the clean energy industry for early-seed to expansion capital companies. In attendance will be angel investors, venture capitalists, investors, company executives, and government officials.

This two-day workshop (PDF 717 KB) Download Adobe Reader, with an optional tour of the National Wind Technology Center on Friday, Jan. 23, will answer your questions about interconnecting wind turbines and other distributed generation applications to electric distribution systems.

Get an overview of wind energy, followed by an introduction to the Utility Wind Integration Group's Internet-based tools for assessing a distributed wind project's impact on the local distribution system. Training will cover the theory behind each tool and demonstrate their use with actual data.

Also, the Western Area Power Administration's Electric Power Training Center instructors will be there to offer a tour of the center. Participants will have the opportunity to observe a demonstration of the Electric Power Training Center's hands-on miniature power system, including a Wind Farm Simulator developed in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program.

The Engineering and Operations Technical Conference was founded to meet the unique needs of professionals charged with designing, developing, and maintaining the electric systems across the country. The conference benefits public power professionals working in the areas of transmission and distribution, environmental policy, generation, safety, SCADA, metering, security and system planning.

Join Europe's largest and most important H2+FC exhibition: The 16^th Group Exhibit Hydrogen + Fuel Cells at HANNOVER MESSE 2010! Around 150 international exhibitors will showcase the full spectrum of hydrogen and fuel cell-related products & services as part of the giant ENERGY sector in Hannover. Over 200 000 visitors and 6 000 exhibitors are expected at the HANNOVER MESSE 2010.

The World Geothermal Congress 2010 (WGC2010) -- Geothermal powering world’s today energy, will take place in Bali Indonesia at the Bali International Conference Center (BICC), Nusa Dua, Bali’s largest conference venue, named top in the category “World’s leading Conference & Convention Centre 2006”. Over 3000 participants from more than 80 countries are expected to attend and learn about the latest breakthroughs in the field. An Exhibition, held simultaneously with the Conference, will feature foremost companies and state-of-the-art products of the Geothermal industry.

This low-cost ($200), weekends-only class runs from Jan. 31 to April 19 and gives you the industry-requested skills for an entry-level wind technician position. Sign up online, click on Schedule and Registration, Alternative Energy-Sustainability.