# NREL

US National Renewable Energy Laboratory — lead agrivoltaics research lab; inVEST and field monitoring tools for agrivoltaic yield optimization and standardized APV assessment.

Source: https://en.bioecon.ru/companies/nrel/
Updated: 2026-06-19

- Country: United States
- Revenue: ~$600M
- Employees: ~3,200 emp

## Verifiable facts

| Fact | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Affiliation | National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), U.S. Department of Energy | https://docs.nlr.gov/docs/fy23osti/85280.pdf, https://docs.nlr.gov/docs/fy24osti/90300.pdf, https://event.fourwaves.com/agrivoltaics/schedule/ef66082d-405e-47c7-a029-87b6408c906b |
| Research focus | Agrivoltaics (solar-agriculture co-location), including food-energy-water nexus, economic and ecological tradeoffs, and microclimate dynamics | https://docs.nlr.gov/docs/fy23osti/85280.pdf, https://en.openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE/Team, https://nrel.sitefinity.cloud/solar/market-research-analysis/agrivoltaics, https://www.nlr.gov/solar/market-research-analysis/agrivoltaics |
| Facility | Bifacial Agrivoltaics Research at NLR (BARN) in Golden, Colorado | https://en.openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE/Team, https://event.fourwaves.com/agrivoltaics/schedule/ef66082d-405e-47c7-a029-87b6408c906b, https://nrel.sitefinity.cloud/solar/market-research-analysis/agrivoltaics |
| Grant | U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and EERE, including InSPIRE 2.0 (Award 34165) | https://docs.nlr.gov/docs/fy23osti/85280.pdf, https://docs.nlr.gov/docs/fy24osti/90300.pdf, https://doi.org/10.2172/2441257, https://www.nlr.gov/news/feature/2024/lighting-the-way-for-agrivoltaics |
| Publications | Over 8 publications and 300+ research articles hosted in the InSPIRE Data Portal | https://docs.nlr.gov/docs/fy23osti/85280.pdf, https://openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE/Publications |
| Principal staff | Jordan Macknick, James McCall, Dana-Marie Thomas, Silvana Ovaitt, Brian Mirletz, Kai Lepley, Brittany Staie, Chong Seok Choi, Hanna, Maya Friedman, Julia Chamberland | https://doi.org/10.2172/2441257, https://en.openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE/Team, https://www.nlr.gov/news/feature/2024/lighting-the-way-for-agrivoltaics |
| Headcount | 24 active field research projects (as of 2024) | https://doi.org/10.2172/2441257, https://en.openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE/Research, https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northeast/topic/agrivoltaics-coming-soon-farm-near-you |

Independent sources: climatehubs.usda.gov, docs.nlr.gov, doi.org, en.openei.org, event.fourwaves.com, nlr.gov, openei.org

## Technologies

- [Agrivoltaics with biological integration](https://en.bioecon.ru/technology/agrivoltaics-with-biointegration/)
- [Microplastic biodegradation on land](https://en.bioecon.ru/technology/microplastic-biodegradation-on-land/)