Global archive of historical renewable energy documents

Sandia National Laboratories began studying the powerfulness of the prima to nutrient utility-scale vigor successful the 1960s. Sandia's National Solar Thermal Test Facility was commissioned successful 1978, spurred by the lipid situation of 1973.

Many of the documents detailing the design, operation and probe conducted astatine the world's archetypal multimegawatt concentrating star operation spent decades sitting successful boxes oregon connected shelves successful basements and backrooms. Until now.

Sandia's star researchers and librarians person spent the past fewer years collecting, digitizing and cataloging a big of reports, memos, blueprints, photos and much connected concentrating star power, a benignant of renewable vigor produced by utilizing ample mirrors to bespeak and ore sunlight onto a receiver connected a operation to make electricity. These humanities probe documents are present successful a publicly accessible integer archive for different concentrating star powerfulness researchers, historians, corporations and citizens to view.

"We judge being capable to stock this accusation volition marque the exertion successful wide much accessible and the way to commercialization faster," said Ken Armijo, a concentrating star powerfulness researcher astatine Sandia and the task leader. "A batch of 'what if' questions tin beryllium answered if you look astatine what was documented backmost successful the day. By having this accusation available, we're redeeming the U.S. taxpayers wealth due to the fact that caller researchers and companies won't request to reinvent the wheel."

In summation to the tens of thousands of Sandia reports, hand-drawn diagrams, videos and monolithic floppy disks, the squad worked with collaborators successful Australia, South Africa, Germany, the U.S. Department of Energy and others to see their one-of-a-kind concentrating star powerfulness documents from the aforesaid clip period, Armijo said. The squad hopes to grow the archive to see humanities concentrating star powerfulness documents from partners successful different countries arsenic well.

'On the shoulders of giants'

Successful probe projects are shared wide wrong the probe assemblage successful the signifier of peer-reviewed papers, presentations and reports truthful that different researchers tin larn from the results. However, the results of unsuccessful projects are often shared softly from 1 idiosyncratic to another, Armijo said. This cognition tin beryllium mislaid erstwhile a researcher retires and tin pb to caller researchers repeating the mistakes of the past retired of ignorance.

"As we were looking done these paper-based documents, we recovered that determination were 20,000 to 50,000 documents that had ne'er been digitized, and if 1 time determination was a large flood oregon a fire, each of that accusation would beryllium gone," Armijo said. "Over the years Sandia has been progressive successful a batch of significant, impactful, adjacent seminal probe successful concentrating star power. The thought was to digitize and signifier each of this invaluable worldly into an archive disposable to everyone truthful that researchers could larn what had been done—what were the successes and failures of the aboriginal probe truthful that we don't hazard making those aforesaid mistakes again."

Some of these seminal projects see Solar One, a 1981 Sandia-led task with Rocketdyne, present Aerojet Rocketdyne, to present 10 megawatts of energy to Barstow, California. The concentrating star powerfulness operation operated from 1982 to 1986. In 1995, Sandia and Rocketdyne upgraded the operation to Solar Two, utilizing a caller high-temperature molten-salt receiver susceptible of storing vigor to person into energy aft the prima went down. Solar Two operated from 1996 to 1999. Earlier this year, Sandia received a $25 cardinal grant from DOE to physique a third-generation, particle-based concentrating star powerfulness works with adjacent much retention capacity. Documents from the archive could pass this third-generation plant.

In summation to these important renewable vigor probe projects, Sandia's solar tower has been utilized successful probe for NASA, defence investigating and assisted with star vigor commercialization.

From 'Down Under' to the World Wide Web

Of course, Sandia is not the lone probe instauration that has been studying concentrating star powerfulness for decades. In fact, the Australian National University's concentrating star powerfulness task successful White Cliffs, Australia, predates Solar One.

The absorption of the ANU researchers from the 1970s onward was connected star crockery exertion for concentrating sunlight, said Joe Coventry, a concentrating star powerfulness technologist with ANU and the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute.

White Cliffs is simply a tiny, distant municipality astir 12 hours northeast of Sydney that was wholly disconnected the electrical grid erstwhile the concentrating star powerfulness task started, Coventry added. The White Cliffs concentrating star powerfulness works operated autonomously from 1983 to 1994, erstwhile the municipality was connected to the nationalist grid. After the White Cliffs project, ANU researchers focused connected overmuch larger star crockery prototypes and ammonia-based vigor retention systems for respective decades. Several of ANU's aboriginal projects were collaborations with Sandia.

Coventry volition message astir a half-dozen boxes of carnal documents from these aboriginal projects to Armijo and his squad to digitize and adhd to the archive.

"We person a acceptable of beautifully hand-drawn diagrams of immoderate of the aboriginal crockery designs and the designs for the world's archetypal objection star works presumption successful White Cliffs," Coventry said. "For immoderate of these pioneering designs, there's lone 1 transcript of the drafting successful the world. To person the accidental for those to beryllium digitized and disposable for radical to look astatine online, is rather exceptional."

He besides included strategy and imaginativeness documents—the astir absorbing finds, successful his opinion—project proposals and different reports crossed the water to beryllium digitized.

"The satellite is moving to decarbonize, and concentrating star powerfulness has a truly important relation successful providing low-cost vigor retention and to decarbonize energy-intensive concern processes," Coventry said. "Seeing however it each started retired is truly rather interesting, and Australia had its part, but it's truly hard to way the past connected innovation if the documents aren't accessible online."

In summation to entree from the superior integer archive, the digitized concentrating star powerfulness documents tin besides beryllium accessed by DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information room and Sandia's SAND study library, Armijo said.

Between the stacks successful the library

All of this would not person been imaginable without the enactment of a squad of method librarians.

Shannon O'Grady, 1 of these method librarians, constructed the idiosyncratic interface and the database for the concentrating star powerfulness archive. Annette Chavez, different subordinate of the room team, uploaded each the digitized documents onto Sandia's servers.

Technical librarian Alice Parsons has been moving connected the outer documents from DOE and planetary partners to marque definite that the documents' metadata is compatible with the archive and Sandia's room catalog. Sandra Pacheco, the library's authorization connected Sandia reports, did the aforesaid happening with the metadata for Sandia documents and made definite that they were accessible done the DOE library.

"Making these mostly forgotten documents accessible to colleagues and collaborators globally is truly exciting," said Parsons. "There are truthful galore aureate nuggets of accusation successful these aged documents that could beryllium invaluable to existent researchers. Hopefully the archive volition promote collaboration and trim the likelihood of probe being inadvertently repeated."

One of these aureate nuggets, successful Armijo's opinion, were documents connected molten sodium probe from 1981.

"My probe is successful molten sodium and vigor transportation liquids, truthful it was precise breathtaking to find sodium concentrating star probe done the twelvemonth I was born," Armijo said. "And I'm designing the aforesaid benignant of happening close now. It was similar looking into someone's caput from 40 years ago. I was capable to work those documents and usage the accusation they learned backmost past close distant to marque advancement connected my research."

These documents tin supply a batch of worth to the probe and commercialization communities. Parsons said that she would beryllium thrilled if the archive helps concentrating star powerfulness go a commercialized occurrence faster than it would person otherwise.

Next, Armijo volition enactment to digitize one-of-a-kind video reels of concentrating star power research. Armijo besides hopes to grow the archive to see one-of-a-kind humanities documents for different areas of renewable vigor research.

"I consciousness that there's not 1 metallic slug successful renewable energy," Armijo said. "Concentrating solar power is conscionable 1 exertion of many, specified arsenic wind, photovoltaic, geothermal, hydropower. I'm hoping that arsenic this archive takes off, we're capable to adhd much and much information, not conscionable reports but videos, engineering drawings and more."

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