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Energy lab eyes growth

'Campus of the Future' in Golden would have 2,500 employees and more than 12 new research buildings to study solar, wind power and biofuels - if it's funded

By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 15, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Darren Rahn checks a wind blade during a fatigue test at the National Wind Technology Center near Broomfield on Thursday. The center is part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is planning a $500 million makeover.

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Darren Rahn checks a wind blade during a fatigue test at the National Wind Technology Center near Broomfield on Thursday. The center is part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is planning a $500 million makeover.

Stakes mark where the Resource Support Facility could be constructed at the energy lab. New managers took over the lab Oct. 1 and have pitched growth plans to DOE officials.

Photo by Linda McConnell / Special To The Rocky

Stakes mark where the Resource Support Facility could be constructed at the energy lab. New managers took over the lab Oct. 1 and have pitched growth plans to DOE officials.

Portable solar panels, which stand ready for use in disaster areas, are some of the products at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Photo by Linda McConnell / Special To The Rocky

Portable solar panels, which stand ready for use in disaster areas, are some of the products at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

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Dan Arvizu mingled with Gov. Bill Ritter, scientists and venture capitalists in a Stapleton hotel ballroom on Oct. 28.

But his thoughts were far away in Washington, D.C. The director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden was praying for his new managers, who had traveled to the nation's capital.

The managers were making a pitch for "Campus of the Future" to bigwigs at the Department of Energy who control the agency's purse strings.

Campus of the Future is a $500 million makeover plan. When completed, it will have more than a dozen new research buildings and employ 2,500, almost double NREL's current size.

But some wonder if the falling price of oil will make wind power, solar energy and biofuels less attractive to investors, pulling the rug out from under NREL - as happened in the 1970s.

"This is the first big rollout by the new management team to go forward with a campus and an infrastructure that enables us to fulfill our mission and demonstrate it's a national priority," Arvizu said.

"The concept of Campus of the Future is beyond bricks and mortar. It's a place for energy research exchange, where the lab can partner with universities, utilities and the state of Colorado to champion renewable energy technologies and promote economic development."

The new managers, who took over Oct. 1, belong to a consortium that includes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado, Colorado State University, energy company Battelle and not-for-profit Midwest Research Institute. The consortium was selected by the Department of Energy from among several bids, and the new managers sit on NREL's board of governors.

Their proposal is for an NREL that doesn't emit carbon dioxide, a gas blamed for heating up the atmosphere and damaging ecosystems. They envision net-zero-energy buildings to house scientists, buildings that use only as much energy as is produced by renewable resources in the campus.

Most important, they want a cutting-edge lab that would attract the brightest minds to research solar, wind, biofuels and other renewable energy sources to help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and also mitigate global warming pollutants.

It would allow university professors and students to work with lab scientists and attract a wider group of venture capitalists to invest in renewable energy startups - akin to Silicon Valley and its software startups bolstered by the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University.

"We want to be our own role model," said Drew Detamore, NREL's infrastructure and campus development office director.

The lab is authorized to spend $155 million on four new buildings and related infrastructure.

NREL officials hope the Democratic-controlled Congress and President-elect Barack Obama's administration will release $345 million by fiscal 2010 to build the remaining nine facilities, roads, parking lots and other infrastructure.

Obama has promised to spend $150 billion in zero-carbon technologies.

If the funds are approved, it would herald the dawn of a prosperous era for the lab, whose past has long been tied to the whims of whatever political party is in power.

Founded 31 years ago by President Jimmy Carter, NREL almost died under President Ronald Reagan when it had to lay off 400 employees, or more than half the lab's total work force.

The past years under President George W. Bush have been unpredictable.

Two days before he visited in February 2006, the Department of Energy hastily gave the lab $5 million to restore the 32 employees who'd been laid off earlier that month because of a $28 million budget cut. Eight of those employees chose not to come back.

A New York Times article last year noted the lab "does not have a cafeteria."

"NREL has never been handled in the Department of Energy budget as a full-fledged federal laboratory," said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. "It occupied an odd space relegated to it through the vicissitudes of political preferences and parties over the years."

"The successful bid by Battelle to head up the new management along with other labs and schools really elevates NREL de facto into full lab status, which means its long-term budget would be much more predictable and more secure," Clark added. "With the Obama administration, more money will be put into it. That's good news for all of us."

Cheap oil adds question

"Our employees ask me, 'Bill, is this real?' " said Bill Glover, the lab's deputy director last week. "My answer is: Absolutely."

Since May 2007, the lab has hired 350 employees and plans to hire a couple hundred more this year. But given its history of ups and downs, this recent hiring spree has employees nervous. More so now, since Campus of the Future - if it becomes a reality - will have an astonishing 2,500 employees.

It's a far cry from January 2006, when during the first week that Glover joined the lab, he was asked to lay off nearly three dozen employees.

"I asked myself, 'Did I do the right thing in coming here?' " he recalled.

In fiscal 2007, the lab gained strength after Congress voted to pump $100 million into NREL, increasing its budget by 50 percent to more than $300 million.

Its budget remained at the same level in fiscal 2008.

But fiscal 2009 could be a happier story. NREL's budget could jump dramatically if Congress approves the entire makeover plan.

With Obama saying global warming is a serious threat and that his administration would take steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Glover believes the future of NREL is secure - at least in the coming years. That's notwithstanding the falling price of oil.

Thirty years ago, cheap oil prices dimmed investor interest in the renewable energy industry and the lab.

"In the 1970s, Americans became complacent with cheap oil and lost interest in renewable energy and energy efficiency," said Gregory Collette, the Department of Energy's acting director of laboratory operations. "Hopefully, people learned something from that."

Today, with gasoline below $2 a gallon and crude oil touching $60 a barrel, some wonder if this will be 1970s redux. After all, at those prices, they believe it will be harder for solar, wind or biofuels to compete with fossil fuels - unless fossil fuels are slapped with a carbon tax. Stocks in many solar and renewable energy companies are plunging - but that's also partially due to the looming recession.

"When I look at renewable energy, I look at two things: What kind of government subsidy and support are the projects going to get as they get off the ground, and whether they will be sustainable in the marketplace," said Stan Dempsey, president of the Colorado Petroleum Association.

"I think to make them sustainable over the long term will be a big challenge. The credit market is nearly frozen. And the price of oil may have an impact on some of these things."

Congress has yet to fund the entire Campus of the Future.

But that's not stopping the lab and its new management team from going ahead full bore. Planning began two years ago, with the lab identifying its core research and the facilities needed to boost it.

Today, the Campus of the Future is a finished project - albeit on the drawing board. The renditions show it will have a dozen buildings.

Four buildings are in progress or completed. They are:

* A $63 million, 218,000- square-foot Research Support Facility scheduled to break ground in December. It will house administrative staff who now work out of leased buildings.

* The Energy Systems Integration Facility, which has secured partial funding of $54.5 million and needs another $38.9 million. The lab will test how intermittent resources such as wind, which doesn't blow all the time, or the sun, which doesn't always shine, and even plug-in hybrid vehicles affect the electrical grid.

* A $3.3 million biomass boiler using beetle-kill and other woody biomass, called the Renewable Fuels Heating Plant, is scheduled to go into service next week. It will replace three-quarters of the lab's natural gas use for heating.

* The $20 million Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility to research biofuels such as butanol or cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, poplar, corn stover and other biomass.

The buildings awaiting funding include two Translational Science Research Facilities, two Research Support Facilities, another Energy Systems Integration Facility, a Next Generation Biorefinery Facility, a conference center, a central power plant and a Renewable Fuels and Vehicle Systems Facility.

But plans for a cafeteria are up in the air.

Comments

  • November 15, 2008

    3:35 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    warrengfunk7 writes:

    Who cares about a cafeteria, get the campus built and private retailers will seek out locations close by to serve them. Possibly include retail space in the ground floor of some of these campus buildings. The lease rates would help cover costs of campus operations.

  • November 16, 2008

    6:36 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    windbourne writes:

    Since oil is way down in price and our consumption is starting to rise again because of that, Obama is likely to add a gas tax. I believe that it will be a time graduated item , such that every 6 months to a year, it will increase .25/gal. That would tell the consumer that prices are going up, but give them time to adjust. No doubt he will use part of that money for research. 1/2 bill campus though? Hmmmmmmm. That MIGHT be the time when other politicians make a grab for NREL. So, careful what you wish for.