News

Recent wildfire smoke has greatly impacted air quality in the Bay Area. Experts from the Energy Technologies Area (ETA) weigh in on tips and resources for the public. Brett Singer and Woody Delp are internationally recognized experts in the field of indoor air quality. Singer is a Principal Investigator, Staff Scientist and Leader in the Indoor Air group; Delp is a Research Engineer in the Indoor... Read more

In a recent Facebook post, Energy Secretary Rick Perry lauds the DOE’s national labs and “the incredible work being undertaken by our nation’s brightest minds.” The post includes a video that features his visit to all 17 national labs, including Berkeley Lab.... Read more

Mexico City Mayor-elect Claudia Sheinbaum visited Berkeley Lab on Nov. 9, 2018, as part of a visit to the Bay Area to learn about urban sustainability practices. Dr. Sheinbaum spent four years at the Lab (1991-1994) analyzing energy consumption in Mexico and other industrialized countries. She and Lab scientist Lynn Price were lead authors of the Industry Chapter of Working Group III... Read more

The International Energy Studies (IES) Group is pleased to announce the publication of A study of appliance ownership and electricity consumption determinants in urban Ghanaian households in Sustainable Cities and Society Journal, January 2019 edition. The paper was coauthored by past visiting scholar Marriette Sakah, upcoming visiting scholar Felix Diawuo and assistant leader of the IES Group... Read more

Applying artificial intelligence to self-driving cars to smooth traffic, reduce fuel consumption, and improve air quality predictions may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but researchers from the Lab’s Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division have launched two research projects to do just that. For the full story:... Read more

The Energy Technologies Area’s ITRI-Rosenfeld 2017 and 2018 fellows are investigating a range of techniques to improve the energy efficiency of water treatment, remediation, and water consumption.Olga Kavvada, of EAEI, joined the Lab in January 2018 to work on developing water demand forecast models that can quantify the impacts of urban development decisions on the spatial distribution of water... Read more

ETA staff members were recently honored for outstanding efforts to improve diversity, implement innovative lighting in a "Living Lab" and performing breakthrough discoveries in thirdhand smoke research.The 2018 Director's Awards for Exceptional Achievement recognize accomplishments, leadership, collaboration, multi-disciplinary science, cross-divisional projects and commitment to excellence in... Read more

A color developed by Egyptians thousands of years ago has a modern-day application as well – the pigment can boost energy efficiency by cooling rooftops and walls, and could also enable solar generation of electricity via windows.Egyptian blue, derived from calcium copper silicate, was routinely used on ancient depictions of gods and royalty. Previous studies have shown that when Egyptian blue... Read more

Today, electric vehicles (EVs) make up just a small part of the U.S. road fleet, but they are gaining ground in some regions. While EVs hold promise for lowering costs and air pollutant emissions from auto travel, among other benefits, their growth raises questions about the changes needed to support this transition. How much charging infrastructure will be needed, and what role should utilities... Read more

As part of Berkeley Lab's mission to bring science to the world, the Energy Technologies Area is hosting three visiting scientists through the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs TechWomen program.The goal is to empower, connect and support the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by providing them access and... Read more

Three Berkeley Lab researchers, including Corinne Scown of the Energy Technologies Area, recently received the Secretary of Energy's Achievement Award as part of a larger team from the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Here's more from JBEI's announcement:The award is designed to recognize the contributions of Department of Energy (DOE) employees to the mission of the Department and to the benefit... Read more

A national online energy data management system is transforming how energy retrofit projects implemented by a wide variety of users – including local, state, and federal governments – develop projects and track performance.The eProject Builder energy project data management and benchmarking tool was developed by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to... Read more

Two projects from Berkeley Lab's Energy Technologies Area have been named as finalists for R&D Magazine's R&D 100 Awards, which recognize pioneering ideas in science and technology.OP1 from Opus 12, the carbon dioxide recycling startup included in Cyclotron Road's first cohort, and eProject Builder, a system that standardizes data collection for Energy Savings Performance Contract... Read more

Affordable indoor air quality monitors for the home can be worth the purchase, a recent product evaluation revealed, but all of the monitors tested by researchers were found to have either underreported or missed the presence of very small particles that can penetrate deeply into the lungs.Indoor air researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)... Read more

A newly updated online tool and guidebook from Berkeley Lab and industry partner Nexant Inc. will help utilities measure the cost and impact of power outages — a key strategic consideration as the nation works to modernize the electricity system, and especially important now during hot summer months that can strain the power grid.Read more at the Berkeley Lab News Center web site:... Read more

Ever wonder why it’s difficult to concentrate when office temperatures rise?A July 16, 2018 segment of NPR’s "Morning edition — Heat Making You Lethargic? Research Shows It Can Slow Your Brain, Too" - cites a 2006 Berkeley Lab study, "Effect of temperature on task performance in office environment" co-authored by William Fisk of the Sustainable Energy & Environmental Systems Department,... Read more

After serving four years as Berkeley Lab's Associate Director for Energy Technologies, Ramamoorthy Ramesh will be returning to his research in ultra low-power electronics while also helping to lead a major Berkeley Lab research initiative in next-generation, energy-efficient microelectronics.This new initiative has been dubbed "Beyond Moore's Law," as it seeks the solution to what will happen when... Read more

Ravi Prasher has been appointed Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Technologies at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The announcement follows an international search.Prasher, an internationally renowned scientist in the field of thermal energy science and technologies, has been director of Berkeley Lab's Energy Storage and Distributed Resources... Read more

The United States and China have been cooperating since 2016 under the Power Consumption, Demand and Competition Cooperation to identify solutions to advance key elements of China’s comprehensive market reforms to foster a competitive, transparent and sustainable electric power sector in China. Co-led by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources and China’s National... Read more

Energy savings programs offered by utilities—from residential lighting and appliance rebates to programs for small businesses—help ensure reliability on the grid at the most affordable cost, according to a comprehensive study just released by the Electricity Markets & Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory."At an average cost of just 2.5 cents to save a kilowatt-hour, energy... Read more

A team led by ETA’s Robert Kostecki is one of 14 awardees whose research is focused on reducing the cost of solar-thermal desalination and helping the technology reach new markets, including areas that are not connected to the electric grid. Read the full announcement on the DOE energy.gov website.... Read more

Ryan Wiser of Berkeley Lab's Electricity Markets and Policy Group was named one of Wind Power Monthly's influential people of 2017.Wiser is the lead author of Berkeley Lab's annual Wind Technologies Market Report, which can be found at https://emp.lbl.gov/wind-technologies-market-report/Read the full article at www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1448419/influential-interesting-2017... Read more

A study involving Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been named among the best of 2017 in a new ranking from Environmental Science & Technology, one of the leading journals in its field. "High-Resolution Air Pollution Mapping with Google Street View Cars: Exploiting Big Data," was the top environmental technology paper in ES&T's roundup, which also named top papers in three other... Read more

Indoor air quality in schools often fails to meet minimum standards, and student performance is clearly diminished when ventilation rates are low, according to a recent analysis from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.Elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide have been documented in schools across the U.S., Europe and Asia, the study finds. "These CO2 data indicate a widespread failure to provide the... Read more

Berkeley Lab has designed, calibrated and has been operating a world-class testing laboratory for efficiency and emissions from biomass cookstoves for many years. However, no guidebooks or textbooks are available that advise other researchers on how to build their own similar testing laboratory. Due to a significant number of requests from cookstove researchers around the world (including but not... Read more