LIVERMORE, Calif. — Motivated by the need to eliminate expensive rare-earth magnets in utility-scale direct-drive wind turbines, Sandia National Laboratories researchers developed a fundamentally new type of rotary electrical contact. Sandia is now ready to partner with the renewable energy industry to develop the next generation of direct-drive wind turbines. Sandia’s Twistact technology takes a […]
Tag Archives: wind energy
20th anniversary of Sandia tribal energy internship program
July 13, 2022 – 5:00 am
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 them to be leaders in […]
New tool at Sandia brings some West Texas wind to the Duke City — virtually
February 2, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have a new tool that allows them to study wind power and see whether it can be efficiently used to provide power to people living in remote and rural places or even off the grid, through distributed energy. A new, custom-built wind turbine emulator has been installed […]
Carbon fiber optimized for wind turbine blades could bring cost, performance benefits
January 14, 2021 – 9:44 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new carbon fiber material could bring cost and performance benefits to the wind industry if developed commercially, according to a study led by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories. Wind blades containing carbon fiber weigh 25% less than ones made from traditional fiberglass materials. That means carbon fiber blades could be longer […]
Don’t set it and forget it — scan it and fix it with tech that detects wind blade damage
June 24, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Drones and crawling robots outfitted with special scanning technology could help wind blades stay in service longer, which may help lower the cost of wind energy at a time when blades are getting bigger, pricier and harder to transport, Sandia National Laboratories researchers say. As part of the Department of Energy’s Blade […]
First 3-D printed wind-blade mold, energy-saving nanoparticles earn Sandia national awards
April 25, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has won the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer’s national 2018 Technology Focus Award for designing the first wind turbine blades fabricated from a 3-D printed mold, which could dramatically shorten the time and expense of developing new wind energy technology. The labs also won FLC’s Excellence in Technology […]
Wind energy team to compete nationally after winning Sandia Labs’ first pitch competition
November 27, 2017 – 7:05 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In an effort to help researchers think about their ideas from a business perspective, Sandia National Laboratories collaborated with startup accelerator ABQid in the labs’ first Pitch Competition this fall. A team working to commercialize wind energy for retailers and data centers took first place among six Sandia teams at the competition […]
Enormous blades could lead to more offshore energy in U.S.
January 28, 2016 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new design for gigantic blades longer than two football fields could help bring offshore 50-megawatt (MW) wind turbines to the United States and the world. Sandia National Laboratories’ research on the extreme-scale Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor (SUMR) is funded by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program. The […]
Sen. Bingaman tells Sandia Wind Turbine Blade Workshop that renewable energy is important to US policy
May 30, 2012 – 4:23 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Sen. Jeff Bingaman said Wednesday the on-again, off-again nature of U.S. energy tax incentives and the uncertainty over federal spending on research and innovative technology presents a major challenge to the wind energy industry and other alternative energy industries. Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, spoke at the opening session […]