News

Six researchers in the Energy Technologies Area have been recognized in the annual Director's Awards, which applauds outstanding scientific contributions at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).Tom McKone received the Berkeley Lab Prize, a lifetime achievement award; Nihar Shah, a research scientist/engineer, received a societal impact award; and the... Read more

Adam Weber’s research team sits together in a cluster of offices, cubicles, and laboratories deep in the labyrinth of the Department of Energy’s (DOE's) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab) Buildings 62 and 70.A staff scientist/engineer who won a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2014, Weber has now collected a solid and multidisciplinary group... Read more

The National Alliance for Water Innovation, which is led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has been awarded a five-year, $100-million Energy-Water Desalination Hub by DOE (pending appropriations) to address water security issues in the United States. The Hub will focus on early-stage research and development for energy-efficient and... Read more

A class of alternative tobacco product called heat-not-burn is quickly gaining in popularity across the globe. The product manufacturers claim that these battery-operated devices produce a “clean,” nicotine-laden vapor that contains fewer irritant and carcinogenic chemicals than a conventional cigarette – and are therefore a less harmful option for tobacco users. New research from the... Read more

The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant near U.S. Route 101 (the Pacific Coast Highway) in the northern portion of San Diego County; Carlsbad, California. (Credit: Art Wager/iStock)As populations boom and chronic droughts persist, coastal cities like Carlsbad in Southern California have increasingly turned to ocean desalination to supplement a dwindling fresh water supply.Now... Read more

When Hannah Moring was growing up she loved tinkering around with her Dad in his woodworking shop, and learning how things worked and were put together, a fascination that flourished throughout high school, where she excelled in math and science.Today that experience has led her to a prestigious internship this summer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Moring is one of nine... Read more

Black carbon, commonly known as soot, is a significant contributor to global warming and is strongly linked to adverse health outcomes. Produced by the incomplete combustion of fuels – emitted from large trucks, trains, and marine vessels – it is an air pollutant of particular concern to residents in urban areas. Sensors available on the market today are expensive, making black carbon... Read more

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) recently collaborated on the development of a new kind of roof shingle that will help reduce air pollution.The shingles’ photocatalytic granules, developed by 3M, were evaluated at Berkeley Lab during a three-year testing period to determine effectiveness and performance. The innovative methodology researchers developed during... Read more

Two researchers are working at the forefront of water-energy technologies as 2018 Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellows at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).Akanksha Menon and Arkadeep Kumar joined Berkeley Lab's Energy Technologies Area last year for two-year terms as part of the fellowship, which is awarded to outstanding recent Ph.D. recipients. Both are doing work that honors... Read more

A group of industry leaders learned the latest techniques and technologies to save energy and water at a recent two-day event hosted by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings, Better Plants program.The event was held at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).Through the Better Plants program, DOE works with industrial partners... Read more

Johnson Controls’ new Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai, a CERC-BEE Showcase Building, is the first triple-certified green building in China, achieving LEED Platinum, IFC EDGE and China Three Star Certification.To ensure building operations remain sustainable over time, Johnson Controls turned to Building Information Modeling energy analysis using Autodesk software to quickly create an... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Johnson Controls, Inc. released an alpha version of the Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER) on January 15 at the 2019 AHR conference in Atlanta, Georgia.BETTER provides commercial, institutional, and government building owners and managers with an open-source, easy-to-use tool to target efficiency improvements by... Read more

A select audience recently gathered for the 2019 Art Rosenfeld Symposium on Energy Efficient and Grid Interactive Buildings. The day was dedicated to the ongoing scientific discoveries and research inspired by Rosenfeld, a Berkeley Lab Senior Scientist, UC Berkeley Professor and former Commissioner of the California Energy Commission.Berkeley Lab Director Mike Witherell greeted the audience with a... Read more

With new funding, thirdhand smoke researchers will pursue translational studies aimed at lessening the health impacts of exposure to thirdhand smoke (THS)—the toxic residues from tobacco smoke that linger on indoor surfaces and in dust long after a cigarette has been extinguished.The researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) received a three-year grant totaling $904,744 from... Read more

Water-purifying technology developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) was named among only five in the world that meet current international standards in a recent study from United Nations University examining systems for small communities.The Lab's Electro Chemical Arsenic Remediation (ECAR) removes arsenic from drinking water effectively while remaining affordable—a rare... Read more

A grid communications model that began as a research project at Berkeley Lab has now become an international standard, paving the way toward smart grid improvements around the world.The standard, OpenADR, aids in demand response, the practice of managing energy demand from customers with signals based on price or reliability. OpenADR offers a common language energy customers and grid operators can... Read more

Utility Dive quoted the Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division's Chris Marnay in a recent article about de-energizing utility lines as a safety measure.Chris Marnay is a retired Staff Scientist who worked at Berkeley Lab for 29 years. He models economic-environmental problems related to likely future adoption patterns of small-scale distributed energy resources (DER), especially when... Read more

A new research team bringing together a multidisciplinary group of experts to explore ways to make our cities more efficient has been created at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).The Urban Systems group will focus on buildings and their interactions with the urban environment. The group is part of the Building Technology & Urban Systems division in Berkeley Lab’s Energy... Read more

Computer gaming accounts for about 5 percent of all residential energy use in California -- equal to the same amount as 10 million new refrigerators – yet gamers do not routinely think about energy efficiency or ways to trim energy costs while gaming.In a recent study sponsored by the California Energy Commission, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) have revealed... Read more

Students and early career researchers in the areas of building science, energy-efficiency and the electricity grid are invited to enter a prestigious poster competition sponsored by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.Five winners will be invited to give a five-minute lightning talk at Rosenfeld Symposium 2019 - Energy-Efficient and Grid-Interactive Buildings, to be held at the David Brower... Read more

Two projects awarded to Berkeley Lab and Mexican institutions advancing energy efficiency in buildings in Mexico as part of the call “Collaboration Projects in Energy Efficiency; Cooperation with the University of California” started work this fall. The call, issued last year by the CONACYT-SENER Energy Sustainability Fund (ESF) in a ceremony led by UC President Janet Napolitano and Mexico... Read more

Four scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.AAAS awarded 416 of its members the distinction of Fellow this year for “their scientifically or socially distinguished... Read more

An online data management tool for water/energy retrofits, and a device that recycles carbon dioxide into renewable fuels have both been recognized in the 2018 R&D 100 Awards given to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).eProject Builder won the 2018 R&D 100 Award, and Opus 12 is a co-recipient of a Special Recognition Award. The... Read more

The Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division's Electricity Markets & Policy Group won the 2018 R&D 100 Award for eProject Builder, a secure, web-based data management tool developed by Berkeley Lab with funding from the Department of Energy. It is the only nationwide system that standardizes the collection and tracking of information for energy/water retrofit projects... Read more

EAEI staff were recently recognized for the 2018 LBL Director's Awards for Exceptional Achievement.Anna Spurlock,Hugo Destaillats, Lara Gundel, Brett Singer, Mohamad Sleiman and Xiaocheng Tang from EAEI.The Director’s Awards program recognizes significant achievements of Lab employees. Each year, these awards are given for accomplishments, leadership, collaboration, multi-disciplinary science,... Read more