A Clean Locomotive Revolution, Renewable Deployment Setback Ordinances, and Using Water to Cool Supercomputers

Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast

Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss three recent stories from NREL:

• All Aboard! NREL Releases First Comprehensive, Open-Source Software for Freight Rail Decarbonization: The rail industry has an opportunity to revolutionize transportation. In the coming years, railroads could lay the tracks for industry-wide net-zero-emissions operations—thanks, in part, to a new software tool from NREL. ALTRIOS, the Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System, is the world's first fully integrated, open-source software designed for exploring deep decarbonization of the rail industry.
• NREL Analysis Quantifies Impacts of Setback Ordinances on Land Available for Renewable Energy Deployment: The number of local zoning ordinances governing renewable energy deployment is growing in the United States, according to new research by the U.S. Department of Energy’s NREL. The results indicate that local land use and community considerations play a significant role in U.S. decarbonization and should therefore be accurately reflected in modeling and analysis.
• A Decade of Greener Computing Blooms Inside NREL's Data Center: NREL installed its first water-based cooling system inside the Energy Systems Integration Facility­ (ESIF) data center in 2012. That risk paid off, and not just in the $4.05 million operational-cost savings to date. By not relying on air conditioning, the data center has avoided expelling 22,829 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the past 10 years. That is the equivalent of sequestering carbon dioxide emissions from over 25.2 million pounds of coal.

This episode was hosted by Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle, written and produced by Allison Montroy and Kaitlyn Stottler, and edited by James Wilcox, Joe DelNero, and Brittany Falch. Graphics are by Brittnee Gayet. Our title music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast is created by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. We express our gratitude and acknowledge that the land we are on is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute peoples. Email us at [e-mail]. Follow NREL on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Facebook.