50th Anniversary of Earth Day Puts NREL Research in Focus

Five decades ago, an idea sprouted into an event that grew into a movement, which today, on its 50th anniversary, we recognize as Earth Day—a global day of awareness and a celebration of principle, responsibility, and sustainability.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), originally the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), has always enjoyed strong ties to Earth Day. NREL’s second laboratory director, Denis Hayes, played a key role in its creation, coordinating the first Earth Day in 1970, in collaboration with Earth Day founder and U.S. senator from Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson.

Hayes founded the Earth Day Network. The research NREL conducts every day aligns seamlessly with the network’s mission to build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive transformative change for people and planet. Hayes recognized this, observing “… a huge part of the answer was with the issues SERI was addressing then and NREL is addressing now—the transition to a super-efficient world that was run largely by renewable energy sources.” READ MORE>>>