The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, which recently was seeking to cut research and support staff via buyouts, quietly went through a round of layoffs last week.

NREL laid off 10 employees, said spokeswoman Heather Lammers. The lab also approved 25 buyout applications from mission-support employees this month, she said.

She added that “at this time, we don’t anticipate additional voluntary or involuntary separations.”

NREL’s Colorado workforce totals more than 1,500 people. It’s a national lab of the U.S. Department of Energy, is operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, which is managed by Battelle and MRIGlobal.

In early October, NREL officials laid off 15 researchers in its solar energy department and notified the remaining workforce that the lab was seeking to cut another 50 to 60 jobs in research and mission-support functions via buyouts.

The recent involuntary cuts hit departments such as the research library, said Alex Hernandez, who served as a technical librarian prior to being notified last week that he was out of a job.

Hernandez, 41, had worked at NREL for 15 years and said the cuts came as a complete surprise. He said he was told that even if NREL didn’t get the full number of buyouts that it wouldn’t revisit the issue until early next year.

Upon returning from a retirement party for a co-worker that took the buyout, Hernandez and two of his co-workers were pulled individually into a conference room and notified their positions were cut.

“It feels like a huge betrayal,” he said. “It wasn’t just a job, it felt like a calling.”

Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or @aliciawallace