Dan E. Arvizu, director and chief executive at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., will retire at the end of September.
During Arvizu's 10-year tenure, NREL's research portfolio has nearly doubled, despite increasingly tight federal budgets. High-performance computing, electricity grid integration, and fundamental research in materials and biological science have emerged to complement major technology research and development programs in renewable generation, renewable fuels and building energy efficiency. The stature and value of the laboratory's leading energy analysis capabilities have expanded as NREL has examined increasingly complex issues.
During his time, NREL has markedly increased commercial and public partnerships through which the knowledge of the laboratory had direct impact in the marketplace.
Similarly, Arvizu will also step down as president of the Alliance for Sustainable Energy at the end of September. Alliance manages NREL on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. He has held the role of laboratory director at NREL since January 2005.
Before joining NREL, Arvizu was a chief technology officer with CH2M HILL Cos. Before that, he was an executive with Albuquerque, N.M.-based Sandia National Laboratories.
