sandia national laboratories

Image courtesy of Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

Perspective Pivot: Mapping a Landscape of Voices in Oahu Changes Energy Planning

At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), researchers often serve as guides who help communities navigate the world of renewable energy solutions. But in community-based technical assistance projects, the guiding role goes both ways: Researchers need local perspectives to fill contextual knowledge gaps and create more meaningful energy solutions. “Energy … [continued]

Casella Family Brands’ new solar facility in Yenda, NSW powered by Trina Solar modules + tracker. Image Credit: Casella Family Brands, photography by Vince Bucello.

New Battery Center in South Carolina, Athens Wants Electric Taxis, Solar Cleans Up Wine Country…

The green revolution is accelerating in Athens! By 2026, the city hopes to have ten times as many electric taxis on the road as there currently are. There are currently 13,661 taxis in Athens, and only 100 of them are electric. In solar news, a ramp-up of solar module production … [continued]

Doctoral student Mason Bichanich reviews and troubleshoots tidal turbine data at the University of New Hampshire’s Turbine Deployment Platform. Photo from Nicole Marone, UNH.

How Two Rookie Engineers Expertly Designed a Tidal Energy Turbine

The Turbine Will Collect and Share Data To Deepen Our Understanding of Tidal Energy To innovate in marine energy requires some extracurriculars: turning wrenches at the barge, conducting trial runs in the wave pool, and talking through ideas with a supportive team. All this appeals to University of New Hampshire … [continued]

DuraMAT researchers conduct outdoor photoluminescence testing of installed PV modules, testing a high-throughput method of checking module health without needing to disconnect the PV system. Image courtesy of NREL.

DuraMAT Forecasts How New Photovoltaic Module Technologies Might Perform Over 20, 30, Or 50 Years

As the Solar Industry Grows Rapidly, Materials, Designs, and Solar Panels Are Changing Quickly For the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry, rapid growth can produce rapid—and sometimes unpredictable—changes. As the industry continued to see a major period of growth in 2023, the Durable Module Materials (DuraMAT) Consortium seized the opportunity to … [continued]

Image courtesy of Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

Local Priorities Drive Energy Transitions in Remote, Coastal, & Island Communities

Applications Open for Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project, Which Connects Decision Makers With Energy Insights Remote, coastal, and island communities across the country face similar energy resilience challenges—from high energy costs and aging infrastructure to outages from extreme weather events and climate change impacts—but each community’s values and priorities create … [continued]

Jonathan Stratman of DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory examined the ArcticShark UAS as part of the testing at the Pendleton UAS range in Oregon. Image courtesy of Jason Tomlinson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, DOE ARM user facility.

Unmanned Aerial Systems Propel Atmospheric Science Forward

High in the sky over an Alaskan tundra, a small aircraft ran the same pattern over and over again. It swooped through clouds and flew down close to the ground. But there were no people experiencing the flight from inside the plane — it was an unmanned aerial system (UAS). … [continued]

DALL.E creation by Carolyn Fortuna | CleanTechnica

Creating the Self-Healing Grid of the Future

Sandia leads development of algorithms for resilient microgrids ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Self-healing electrical grids: It may sound like a concept from science fiction, with tiny robots or some sentient tech crawling around fixing power lines, but in a reality not far from fiction a team of researchers is bringing this … [continued]

Heliostats and a solar tower at the Ivanpah Solar Project, owned by NRG Energy, Bright Source Energy, Bechtel, and Google. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL.

Heliostat Consortium Publishes Annual Report Highlighting Impactful Technical Projects, Partnerships With Industry

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon), co-led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and joined by partners at Sandia National Laboratories and the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI), announced publication of the HelioCon Annual Report: 2023, which provides detailed information on progress the HelioCon team has made since … [continued]