Science Foundation Arizona, a non-profit organization that helps to diversify the state's economy, is creating the Solar Technology Institute (STI) with a $4 million investment. The new partnership of universities and energy industries will launch five solar R&D projects, says STI co-director Dick Powell. One of the project leaders, Roger Angel, a University of Arizona astronomer and optical scientist, will hire about six researchers to produce commercially viable satellite-based reflectors to concentrate sunlight onto photovoltaic cells. Other projects will focus on the use of nanotechnology in energy storage, smart-grid management and reduction of photovoltaic-cell cost.