January 15, 2025 • Sandia National Laboratories made its biggest financial impact ever in 2024, contributing $5.2 billion to the economy.
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Sandia study supports superior bits
December 4, 2024 • A recent Sandia analysis of drilling records from the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy aims to provide guidance to the art of selecting the right drill bit for geothermal well drilling, based on location and depth, to reduce drilling costs.
Categories: Renewable energy, Science / Technology / Engineering
Topics: geothermal
New program aims to BRIDGE gap in solar
November 18, 2024 • Hands-on training. Native American women learn to install photovoltaic panels as part of a collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories.
Categories: Renewable energy, Science / Technology / Engineering
Great Minds in STEM recognizes Sandia microgrid engineer
October 1, 2024 • Darbali-Zamora, an electrical engineer specializing in microgrids with renewable energy resources at Sandia, has been honored with a Luminary Award by Great Minds in STEM.
Categories: Awards, Renewable energy
Topics: HENAAC awards
Old ways making way for new
September 24, 2024 • “They say water is life, and that couldn’t be truer,” said Anne Francis, who has spent her life on the Navajo Nation. A new technology is transforming that struggle into a sustainable solution.
DOE awards $7.4M for energy projects at Sandia National Laboratories
June 28, 2024 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions has awarded $7.4 million to develop seven projects at Sandia National Laboratories aimed at advancing clean energy technologies. Vanessa Chan, the Chief Commercialization Officer and director of DOE’s OTT office, announced the funding at an event in Albuquerque on...
Sandia and UNM collaborate to build more efficient rocket
January 25, 2024 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sal Rodriguez, a nuclear engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, is forging a rocket revolution with the help of the University of New Mexico and student Graham Monroe. Their cutting-edge research is propelling the future of aerospace by infusing rocket science with a touch of golf ball magic....
Two researchers elected associate fellows for aerospace contributions
November 15, 2023 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two Sandia National Laboratories employees will soon join the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics class of 2024 as associate fellows. “This distinguished group of professionals has made significant and lasting contributions to the aerospace profession,” said AIAA President and Sandia Deputy Laboratories Director Laura McGill. “They...
New tool models viability of closed-loop geothermal systems
November 14, 2023 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Geothermal power has a lot of promise as a renewable energy source that is not dependent on the sun shining or the wind blowing, but it has some challenges to wide adoption. One of these challenges is that there are a limited number of locations in the...
Topics: geothermal
Rocks may hold key to storing intermittent renewable energy, expanding its use
October 24, 2023, Media Advisory • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is collaborating with New Mexico-based CSolPower LLC to develop an affordable method of storing energy from renewable sources. The primary goal of the partnership is to transition to zero-carbon solar and wind energy for generating electricity. “You need to have energy storage and dispatchable...
Categories: Energy / Environment / Water, Renewable energy, Science / Technology / Engineering, Technology transfer / Economic Impact
Topics: energy storage, thermal energy
Sandia studies vulnerabilities of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
November 15, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — With electric vehicles becoming more common, the risks and hazards of a cyberattack on electric vehicle charging equipment and systems also increases. Jay Johnson, an electrical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, has been studying the varied vulnerabilities of electric vehicle charging infrastructure for the past four years....
Categories: Cybersecurity, Renewable energy
Propelling wind energy innovation
September 8, 2022 • [caption id="attachment_20521" align="alignright" width="250"] Sandia National Laboartories’ Twistact technology proves beneficial in lowering costs, improving sustainability and reducing maintenance for next-generation direct-drive wind turbines. (Photo by Zhang Fengsheng…
Back to the drawing board: Reinventing offshore wind turbines
August 16, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Brandon Ennis, Sandia National Laboratories’ offshore wind technical lead, had a radically new idea for offshore wind turbines: instead of a tall, unwieldy tower with blades at the top, he imagined a towerless turbine with blades pulled taut like a bow. This design would allow the massive...
“We’ve Got the Power”: Sandia technology test delivers electricity to the grid
August 9, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For the first time, Sandia National Laboratories researchers delivered electricity produced by a new power-generating system to the Sandia-Kirtland Air Force Base electrical grid. The system uses heated supercritical carbon dioxide instead of steam to generate electricity and is based on a closed-loop Brayton cycle. The Brayton...
Categories: Renewable energy
20th anniversary of Sandia tribal energy internship program
July 13, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — 2022 marks a major milestone for Sandia National Laboratories’ groundbreaking tribal energy internship program: two decades of meeting the growing renewable energy technical needs of Native American tribes and providing valuable, real-world experience for Native and Alaska Native STEM students. “My hope for the interns is for...
Categories: Community / Education, Renewable energy
Using the power of the sun to roast green chile
July 6, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Every August and September the unmistakable pungent aroma of roasting green chile permeates the air across New Mexico and neighboring states. This delectable staple of regional cuisine is green in color, but roasting the chile pepper to deepen the flavor and make the inedible skin easier to...
Categories: Energy / Environment / Water, Renewable energy
Exploring explosives for expanding geothermal energy
June 21, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Why are scientists setting off small-scale explosions inside 1-foot cubes of plexiglass? They’re watching how fractures form and grow in a rock-like substance to see if explosives or propellants, similar to jet fuel, can connect geothermal wells in a predictable manner. Geothermal energy has a lot of...
Powering the moon: Sandia researchers design microgrid for future lunar base
May 11, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is well-known for designing reliable and resilient microgrids for military bases and vital city services. Now, Sandia researchers are working with NASA to design one for the moon. This is not the first time Sandia has partnered with NASA to power equipment on the...
Sandia engineer elected fellow of two prestigious national societies
March 2, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Babu Chalamala, an engineer and manager of Sandia National Laboratories’ energy storage group, was recently elected fellow of two prestigious national societies. On Jan. 26, he became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On Dec. 7, he became a fellow of the...
Categories: Awards, Renewable energy
Sandia creates global archive of historical renewable energy documents
October 6, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories began studying the power of the sun to produce utility-scale energy in the 1960s. Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility was commissioned in 1978, spurred by the oil crisis of 1973.[caption id="" align="alignleft" w…
Categories: History, Renewable energy
High-speed alloy creation might revolutionize hydrogen’s future
September 20, 2021 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — A Sandia National Laboratories team of materials scientists and computer scientists, with some international collaborators, have spent more than a year creating 12 new alloys — and modeling hundreds more — that demonstrate how machine learning can help accelerate the future of hydrogen energy by making it...
Sandia uncovers hidden factors that affect solar farms during severe weather
August 31, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers combined large sets of real-world solar data and advanced machine learning to study the impacts of severe weather on U.S. solar farms, and sort out what factors affect energy generation. Their results were published earlier this month in the scientific journal Applied Energy....
Sandia designs better batteries for grid-scale energy storage
July 21, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have designed a new class of molten sodium batteries for grid-scale energy storage. The new battery design was shared in a paper published today in the scientific journal Cell Reports Physical Science. Molten sodium batteries have been used for many years to...
Categories: Renewable energy, Science / Technology / Engineering
Sandia-led center to advance understanding of new solar panel technology
July 8, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Energy recently awarded $14 million to form a Sandia National Laboratories-led center to improve the understanding of perovskite-based photovoltaic technologies and determine the best tests to evaluate the new solar panels’ lifetimes. The efficiency of perovskite-based solar cells has reached 25%, approaching the levels...
Categories: Renewable energy
Sandia app assesses value of energy storage for businesses, utilities
May 19, 2021, Media Advisory • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Utility companies and corporate project developers now have help assessing how much money adding an energy storage system will save them thanks to new Sandia National Laboratories software.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="250"] A new Sandia Natio…
Categories: Computing, Renewable energy
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