HelioCon Graduate Year-Round Intern – Techno-Economic Analysis

HelioCon Graduate Year-Round Intern – Techno-Economic Analysis

Location

CO – Golden

Position Type

Intern (Fixed Term)

Hours Per Week

20Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Protocols

Employment at NREL is contingent upon your compliance with all NREL and DOE safety protocols and mitigation efforts directed at the COVID-19 pandemic. At present, NREL requires all employees to be immunized against COVID-19. Upon hire, new employees must be prepared to provide proof of vaccination on your first day of employment. All employees must have completed vaccinations by November 1, 2021.

Working at NRELThe National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado is the nation’s primary laboratory for research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

From day one at NREL, you’ll connect with coworkers driven by the same mission to save the planet. By joining an organization that values a supportive, inclusive, and flexible work environment, you’ll have the opportunity to engage through our eight employee resource groups, numerous employee-driven clubs, and learning and professional development classes.

NREL supports inclusive, diverse, and unbiased hiring practices that promote creativity and innovation. By collaborating with organizations that focus on diverse talent pools, reaching out to underrepresented demographics, and providing an inclusive application and interview process, our Talent Acquisition team aims to hear all voices equally. We strive to attract a highly diverse workforce and create a culture where every employee feels welcomed and respected and they can be their authentic selves.

Job Description

The Thermal Energy Science & Technologies group is looking for multiple graduate interns to assist with the forthcoming heliostat consortium (HelioCon) and other existing projects. NREL, partnering with Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) and the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI), will develop and manage a national laboratory-led U.S. consortium to support research, development, validation, commercialization, and deployment of low-cost heliostats for concentrating solar power (CSP) and solar thermal (CST) applications. This heliostat consortium (HelioCon) will work closely with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and a board of advisors composed of CSP developers, component suppliers, utilities, and international experts to achieve DOE SunShot objectives for U.S.-manufactured heliostat cost, performance, and reliability. To further advance U.S. heliostat technologies, HelioCon will engage subject-matter experts and general stakeholders for direct, project-level collaboration, external consulting, and mission-specific panels or workshops. Under this consortium, graduate interns will be exposed to various research topics and opportunities to work with experts and external consortium stakeholders.

In particular, we anticipate hiring multiple graduate interns from this recruitment, to contribute to the following project tasks:

• 1) Heliostat optical error measurement tool development
• 2) Heliostat techno-economic analysis
• 3) Heliostat RD resource compilation/documentation
• 4) Linear Fresnel techno-economics analysis
• 5) Solar receiver coating testing apparatus design/development

This specific intern position will focus on the techno-economic analysis aspects of the project.

Basic Qualifications Must be enrolled as a full-time student in a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD degree program, or graduated in the past 12 months from an accredited institution. Internship period cannot exceed 12 months past graduation. Minimum of a 3.0 cumulative grade point average.

Please Note

• You will need to upload official or unofficial school transcripts as part of the application process.
• If selected for position, a letter of recommendation will be required as part of the hiring process.Additional Required Qualifications

General Requirements Include

• Experience programming with MATLAB and/or Python
• Strong math and data analysis skills.
• Ability to effectively communicate results to team members

Task 5 from above requires prior experiences on practical projects involving hands-on design and experiments.

Preferred Qualifications

Annual Salary Range (based on full-time 40 hours per week)Annual Salary Range: $39,600 – $63,500Offers will typically be made in the bottom half of the listed range. NREL takes into consideration a candidate’s education, training, and experience, as well as the position’s work location, expected quality and quantity of work, required travel (if any), external market and internal value, including seniority and merit systems, and internal pay alignment when determining the salary level for potential new employees. In compliance with the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, a potential new employee’s salary history will not be used in compensation decisions.Benefits SummaryBenefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; 403(b) Employee Savings Plan with employer match*; and sick leave (where required by law). NREL employees may be eligible for, but are not guaranteed, performance-, merit-, and achievement- based awards that include a monetary component. Some positions may be eligible for relocation expense reimbursement. Internships projected to be less than 20 hours per week are not eligible for medical, dental, or vision benefits.

• Based on eligibility rules

Submission Guidelines

Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at NREL you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified. Applications are not kept on file for future positions. Please include a cover letter and resume with each position application.

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