GOLDEN, Colo.—After facing a multi-million-dollar budget cut and nearly 40 layoffs last year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory now is looking forward to a $130 million budget increase and 100 new employees.
The lab’s budget is increasing by 62 percent to $340 million. Lab officials said the new employees will increase the 1,000-member workforce by 10 percent.
The lab’s fortunes improved in March when Congress added an extra $300 million to the $1.1 billion budget request of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
NREL received $101 million of the money for new research facilities and equipment. The lab, which develops such energy sources as wind, solar, geothermal and hydrogen, is also competing for a portion of more than $100 million in additional research funds.
“This is an exciting time for NREL,” said Rita Wells, a deputy secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency.
NREL plans to build a $63 million research facility so employees working in leased office space can move onto the main campus. A $20-million expansion of the facility where ethanol is made is also in the works.
Last year, the lab’s budget and nearly 40 jobs were cut after members of Congress earmarked $28 million for various energy-related projects across the country.
The jobs were restored shortly before President Bush visited the lab in February 2006.
Last year, the Energy Department’s biofuels budget was $90 million, and NREL received $15 million of that, said Dale Gardner, the lab’s associate director for renewable fuels. The biofuels budget rose to $150 million this year and NREL’s share doubled to $30 million.
The Bush administration has asked for $179 million for biofuels next year. Gardner said a draft bill in the House increased the total to $250 million for next year.
