Sandia National Laboratories

About: Sandia National Laboratories is a facility organization based out in Livermore, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Laser & Thin film. The organization has 21501 authors who have published 46724 publications receiving 1484388 citations. The organization is also known as: SNL & Sandia National Labs.

Microwave Power Transmission: Historical Milestones and System Components

Abstract: Microwave power transmission (MPT) is the wireless transfer of large amounts of power at microwave frequencies from one location to another. MPT research has been driven primarily by the desire to remotely power unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and by the concept of space solar power (SSP) first conceived by Dr. Peter Glaser of the Arthur D. Little Company in 1968. This paper attempts to reveal, in adequate chronological detail, many of the MPT milestones reached over the past 50 years, including those related to SSP. Key components to various MPT systems are presented as well as design schemes for achieving efficient MPT. Special focus is given to rectenna design since this particular MPT component has received the most attention from researchers over the last couple of decades.

An Update on Solar Central Receiver Systems, Projects, and Technologies

Abstract: Central Receiver Systems that use large heliostat fields and solar receivers located on top of a tower are now in the position to deploy the first generation of grid-connected commercial plants. The technical feasibility of the CRS power plants technology can be valued as sufficiently mature after the pioneering experience at the early 1980s of several pilot plants in the 0.5-10 MW power range and the subsequent improvement of key components like heliostats and solar receiver in many projects merging international collaboration during the past 15 years. Solar-only plants like Solar Tres and PS10 or hybrid schemes like SOLGAS, CONSOLAR, or SOLGATE are being developed and supply a portfolio of alternatives leading to the first scaling-up plants during the period 2000-2010. Those projects with still non-optimized small sizes of 10-15 MW are already revealing a dramatic reduction of costs versus previous feasibility studies and give the path for the formulation of a realistic milestone of achieving a LEC of $0.08/kWh by the year 2010 and penetrating initial competitive markets by 2015 with LECs between $0.04/kWh-$0.06/kWh.

A Comparison of Diode-Clamped and Cascaded Multilevel Converters for a STATCOM With Energy Storage

Abstract: The progression of distributed generation within a bulk power system will lead to the need for greater control of transmission-line power flows. Static synchronous compensators (STATCOMs) provide a power-electronics-based means of embedded control of transmission-line voltage and power flows. The integration of energy storage with a STATCOM can extend traditional STATCOM capabilities to four-quadrant power flow control and transient stability improvement. This paper discusses energy storage systems (ESSs) integrated with conventional and multilevel bidirectional power converters for a hybrid STATCOM/ESS. Conventional, diode-clamped, and cascaded multilevel converter-based STATCOM/ESSs are developed, and their performances for a variety of power system applications are compared using battery energy storage. The advantages and disadvantages of each topology are presented. Both simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the conclusions