The U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Office awarded Sandia National Laboratories $15 million to advance American industrial innovation. The National Solar Thermal Test Facility’s Thermal Energy Storage testbed (TESBed) award is one of sixteen projects chosen to accelerate the development and adoption of transformational technologies.
”Adoption of stored thermal energy to supply heat for industrial processes allows us to do more with existing energy infrastructure,” said Solar Thermal Technologies Manager Margaret Gordon. “TESBed will help industry by demonstrating cost effective thermal energy storage integration.”
The Sandia team is partnering with the National Laboratory of the Rockies, EPRI, and numerous stakeholder groups to model and demonstrate TES solutions coupled with industrial steam and air applications at multi-megawatt scale in order to independently validate performance and de-risk TES implementation within industrial sites. The project aims to accelerate adoption and development of technologies that optimize thermal processes, improve energy efficiency, and enhance U.S. industry competitiveness in global markets.
Sandia will assemble a multidisciplinary team of TES developers, engineers, researchers, and industrial heat users to design and construct TES test facilities at the NSTTF. The new facilities will support high-impact demonstrations that accommodate multiple energy sources: TES technologies, such as modular systems, two-tank particle, and molten salt components; and industrial applications, such as air, steam, and supercritical CO₂, across a wide range of temperatures and pressures. TESBed will also demonstrate integration with various applications, including air drying, calcination, steam heating, combined heat and power, and waste heat recovery.
These expanded lab capabilities will drive process and technological innovation, reduce costs, and increase prosperity for American workers and consumers.
For more information about the TESBed project, contact Principal Investigator Jeremy Sment. Visit Sandia’s Industrial Technologies webpage to discover more about our program.
Read the U.S. Department of Energy’s complete list of projects totaling $155 million for advanced American industrial innovation.
January 29, 2026