Elena Baca is a research engineer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Marine Energy (ME) Research and Development group. As the principal investigator for the ME techno-economic analysis research portfolio, her work focuses on power performance and economic modeling of ME systems to investigate potential pathways to reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of ME technologies. In addition, she leads the development of the ME module of the System Advisor Model, which is a standardized modeling tool used to estimate annual energy production and LCOE for wave and tidal energy systems. Elena holds a Master of Science degree in Advanced Energy Systems Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University in Energy Systems Engineering. Prior to working at NREL, Elena has experience with mechanical design and implementing energy efficiency upgrades for mechanical systems in the commercial and industrial sectors.