2022 HENAAC Awards

Education: Master’s, Geographic Information Science, University of Denver; Bachelor’s, Geography, University of Northern Colorado. 

Anthony Lopez is among the world’s leading experts in the geospatial analysis of renewable energy. He is one of only a handful of researchers worldwide to have analyzed the potential impact of technology innovation and siting constraints on renewable energy potential.  His research is at the forefront of understanding and articulating the physical and geographic challenges to renewable energy deployment, and it’s had a tremendous impact on energy policy and the design of future systems that will power our world.

A geography major who taught himself how to code, Mr. Lopez joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a geospatial data scientist. He quickly developed a deep passion for understanding, deconstructing, and ultimately solving emerging challenges to renewable energy implementation.  One program of note developed by Mr. Lopez is the National Solar Radiation Database, which brings together a complex set of radiative transfer models, variables of meteorologic data, and high-fidelity cloud composition data from satellite imagery. He was responsible for bringing all these moving parts together in a computational framework using NREL’s high performance computing system.

A highly effective collaborator at NREL, Mr. Lopez’ leadership has been critical to building partnerships with important stakeholders, including the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the World Bank. He was also recently named the principal investigator for a multi-year research portfolio funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technology Office.

Mr. Lopez publishes regularly, and with impact. He’s co-authored and contributed to congressional reports that are illuminating pathways to deploy up to 40% of the country’s generation capacity from wind energy by 2035 – a target that will be required to achieve a decarbonized energy system and mitigate climate change.  His 2012 paper assessing technical resource potential for various renewable energy sources in the United States has been cited more than 350 times and remains a seminal work in the field.