Energy

Energy Security

The Energy Security program area works to reduce the risks of transformative energy solutions that will enhance the nation’s security and economic prosperity. Energy security research at Sandia seeks to address key challenges facing our nation and the world. We work with the energy industry to improve current hardware and develop the next generation of technologies to extract or produce energy.

The Energy, Climate, and Infrastructure Security (ECIS) Strategic Management Unit (SMU) spearheads research into energy alternatives that will help the nation reduce its dependence on oil and coal and to combat the effects of climate change. Sandia’s long history with geothermal, solar, and wind energy research has seen a vast increase in effort and intensity over the past 15 years and has also been supplemented in recent years with efforts in biologically based fuels: biomass from nonfood plant sources and algae—both of which can be grown on land unsuitable for farming.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and waves, and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished.

• Solar Energy
• Wind Energy
• Water Power
• Geothermal
• Bioenergy-Biomass
• Hydrogen & Fuel Cells

Transportation Energy

Transportation Energy programs at Sandia share a common goal: reducing dependence on petroleum-based fuels and developing sustainable alternative fuels and increased efficiency of vehicle technologies.

No single technology solution will address the hurdles in front of us; the future calls for a variety of options available to consumers. To that end, we have a broad portfolio of research activities related to achieving our transportation energy mission:

• Combustion
• Biofuels
• Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
• Vehicle Electrification
• Transportation Energy Systems Analysis

Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Programs

Sandia National Laboratories’ Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Programs provide a dynamic, multifaceted approach to systems-based research and development of nuclear energy and fuel cycle technologies. Sandia supports the safe, secure, reliable, and sustainable use of nuclear power worldwide through strengths in repository science, nonproliferation, safety and security, transportation, modeling, and system demonstrations. As a national leader, Sandia strives to enhance the nation’s security and prosperity through sustainable, transformative approaches to the world’s most difficult nuclear energy challenges.

• Defense Waste Management
• Advanced Nuclear Energy
• Nuclear Energy Safety Technologies

Fossil Energy

Since the late 1970s, this program has developed and transferred Sandia technologies to assist the natural gas and oil industry, especially U.S. independent producers. Our goal is to maintain a secure, economic supply of the nation’s natural gas and crude oil.

Energy Efficiency

The novel approaches to increasing energy efficiency and developing clean energy sources developed in the national laboratories can then be transferred to industry to resolve the nation’s energy future.

• Solid-State Lighting
• Building Technologies
• Transportation Energy

Top Energy Publications

• Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems: Final Report of the Florida Solar Energy Center Team 4.71 MB
• MEPV cells 242.63 kB
• Improved Test Method to Verify the Power Rating of a Photovoltaic (PV) Project 319.74 kB
• EERE Security Overview 3.13 MB
• The Interconnection of Photovoltaic Power Systems with the Utility Grid: An Overview for Utility Engineers 2.88 MB

View all of the Energy Publications

Upcoming Energy Events

• 2013 ARPA-e Energy Innovation Summit
  February 25, 2013 to February 27, 2013, Washington, D.C.
  

  The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has hosted the Energy Innovation Summit for the past three years. It brings together the nation’s most innovative minds to team together on potential breakthroughs in energy technologies.

  Map to Washington, D.C.
• AdvisoryCouncil - PV Rollout Conference
  February 26, 2013 to February 27, 2013, Metro Atlanta Chamber
  

  PV Rollout 3rd European American Solar Deployment Conference

  Map to Metro Atlanta Chamber
• 2013 MIT Energy Summit
  March 1, 2013 to March 2, 2013, MIT Campus
  

  The MIT Energy Conference is an annual two-day conference that brings together leaders in industry, academia, government, and finance to deliver critical knowledge and independent analysis on emerging trends in energy technologies, policies, and markets.

  Map to MIT Campus

See All Upcoming Events

Energy News

Sandia Expertise Guides New Photovoltaic RequirementsSandia’s Photovoltaic (PV) Arc-Fault Detec­tion and Mitigation team has gained worldwide renown as a leader in the science of PV arc faults. As a driver of groundbreaking experimental and numerical simulations in this area, codes and standards bodies have called on Sandia to improve requirements for arc-fault cir­cuit interrupters. Sandia has advised the National Electrical [...]

Solar Test Facility Upgrades Complete, Leading to Better Sandia Capabilities to Support Power IndustryA recent overhaul of the DOE’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF), operated by Sandia, is dramatically improving researchers’ ability to understand and use concentrating solar power (CSP). The $17.8M upgrade to the NSTTF adds state-of-the-art test capabilities, and the resulting research is expected to lead to more solar power use on the electric grid. [...]

Sandia Demonstrated First-Time, Single-Mode Lasing in Gallium-Nitride Nanowire LasersSemiconductor nanowire lasers have attracted intense interest as promising compact, low-power coherent light sources for on-chip applications, many of which (e.g., imaging, multiplex communica­tion, data storage) desire high beam quality and spectral purity—conditions that can be satisfied by single-mode operation in nanowire lasers. However, due to the lack of mode-selection mechanisms, most reported nanowire lasers exhibit [...]