DOE: Alliance to continue management of NREL

By: Steve Wednesday October 3, 2012 0 comments Tags: Battelle, Bobi Garrett, DOE, Dr. Dan Arvizu, Dr. Dana Christensen, Golden, Ken Powers, MRIGlobal, NREL

GOLDEN - The U.S. Department of Energy announced it will extend the management contract of its National Renewable Energy Laboratory by Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC.

In a letter to the Alliance, DOE said it was providing preliminary notice that the department will exercise the option to extend Alliance's contract to manage and operate NREL beyond the current five-year contract.

The DOE did not specify the extension period in its notice to Alliance.

Alliance is a limited liability company that is equally owned and governed by Battelle and MRIGlobal. It was awarded the contract to manage and operate NREL on July 29, 2008.

The original contract period was from Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2013. It was valued at $1.1 billion over the five-year period and could be extended for an additional five years.

"This announcement is a positive indication of the value Alliance brings to DOE in the management of NREL," said Dr. Dan Arvizu, Alliance president and NREL's director for the last seven years.

The Alliance team is comprised of Dr. Dana Christensen, deputy lab director for science and technology; Ken Powers, deputy lab director and COO; and Bobi Garrett, deputy lab director for strategic planning and partnerships.

Under Alliance, NREL has grown from about 1,000 employees to about 2,300 and has built a campus that is a model for architects and builders in energy-efficient laboratories and office parks.

The lab's newest buildings - the Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility and the Energy Systems Integration Facility - will continue NREL's tradition of offering one-of-a-kind capacities for industry partners.

NREL has won 12 R&D awards since 2008 for innovations from a utility-scale solar power generator to a revolutionary new kind of air conditioning.

NREL's annual submissions for inventions have increased 276 percent and patent application filings have risen 192 percent over the last five years. The lab currently holds 262 patents.

NREL is the U.S. DOE's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.

For more information, visit www.nrel.gov.