The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative has selected a team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop and deploy new solar energy technology that will help to make solar energy cost-competitive with traditional forms of electricity by the end of the decade. Led by principal investigator Kimani Toussaint, an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department (MechSE) at Illinois, his team of researchers have received a cooperative award--one of only six awards granted nationwide--for their project on improving concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies.