President Gerald Ford openly recognized the issue at the 1974 World Energy Conference in Detroit.

[8] Next year, the Jimmy Carter administration passed the Solar Photovoltaic Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1978.

Renewed interest in energy problems improved the laboratory's position, but funding has fluctuated over the years.

A primary mission of the NCPV is to support ongoing efforts of the DOE's SunShot Initiative, which wants to increase the availability of solar power at a cost competitive with other energy sources.

NREL brings in dozens of students annually through the Solar University-National lab Ultra-effective Program (SUN UP), which was created to facilitate existing and new interactions between universities and the laboratory.

[24] Through this research, NREL hopes to surpass current technologies in efficiency and cost-competitiveness and reach the overall goal of generating electricity at $0.06/kWh for grid-tied PV systems.

The research areas of the Thin Film Partnership Program include amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper indium diselenide (CuInSe2 or CIGS) and, cadmium telluride (CdTe), and module reliability.

NREL is able to provide testing on long-term performance, reliability, and component failure for PV systems.

NREL also has accelerated testing capabilities from both PV cells and system components to identify areas of potential long-term degradation and failure.

NREL allows industry members to test and evaluate potential products, with the hope that it will lead to more cost effective and reliable technology.

NREL provides a number of technical and non-technical publications intended to help raise consumer awareness and understanding of solar PV.

[31] NREL's Golden, Colorado campus houses several facilities dedicated to PV and biomass research.

At the Outdoor Test Facility NREL researchers calibrate primary reference cells for use in a range of applications.

Additionally, R&D in PV materials and devices, measurement and characterization, reliability testing are also conducted at the SERF.

The National Bioenergy Center is currently divided into certain technology and research areas:[34] Some of the current projects are in the following areas: The Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility (IBRF) houses multiple pilot-scale process trains for converting biomass to various liquid fuels at a rate of 450–900 kg (0.5–1 ton) per day of dry biomass.

Unit operations include feedstock washing and milling, pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, distillation, and solid-liquid separation.

[36] The NWTC is located on NREL's Flatirons Campus, which is at the base of the foothills just south of Boulder, Colorado.

NREL's integrated modeling and analysis tools help overcome technical barriers and accelerate the development of advanced transportation technologies and systems that maximize energy savings and on-road performance.