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Sandia National Laboratories researchers have developed a new system to monitor how clouds affect large-scale solar photovoltaic power plants. By observing cloud shape, size and movement, the system provides a way for utility companies to predict and prepare for fluctuations in power output due to changes in weather. The resulting models will provide utility companies with valuable data to assess potential power plant locations, ramp rates and power output.

Two amateur astronomers who independently observed and videotaped an asteroid striking the giant planet Jupiter on June 3 have opened the possibility, in effect, of a giant research lab in space for planetary scientists.

Solid-state lighting pioneers long have held that replacing the inefficient Edison light bulb with more efficient solid-state light-emitting devices (LEDs) would lower electrical usage worldwide, not only "greenly" decreasing the need for new power plants but even permitting some to be decommissioned. But, in a paper published Thursday in the Journal of Physics D, leading LED researchers from Sandia National Laboratories argue for a shift in that view.

A team of scientists used an ion beam in a basement room at Los Alamos National Laboratory to simulate solar winds on the surface of the moon. The table-top simulation helped confirm that the moon is inherently dry.

In an innovation critical to improved DNA sequencing, a markedly slower transmission of DNA through nanopores has been achieved by a team led by Sandia National Laboratories researchers.

Sandia National Laboratories and SunPower Corp. recently formalized an agreement to conduct research on integrating large-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems into the grid. By signing a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, the organizations will leverage approximately $1 million of combined US Department of Energy and SunPower funding. Additionally, a consortium led by SunPower, which includes Sandia as a partner, was recently awarded a $1 million grant from the California Solar Initiative to improve modeling of high-penetration PV systems.

A climate-change study at Sandia National Laboratories that models the near-term effects of declining rainfall in each of the 48 US continental states makes clear the economic toll that could occur unless an appropriate amount of initial investment -- a kind of upfront insurance payment -- is made to forestall much larger economic problems down the road.

Sandia National Laboratories researchers have taken the first steps toward reducing the size and enhancing the functionality of devices in the terahertz frequency spectrum.

Sandia National Laboratories computational scientists will lead two of five technical areas in a US Department of Energy effort to create a "virtual" nuclear reactor, to be headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.