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Leon (Lee) Schipper, a scientist who worked in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division for more than two decades, passed away on August 16 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. He was 64 and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May. Schipper was an energy efficiency expert who first worked at the Lab as a graduate student in 1972 and then joined as a scientist in 1978. He went on leave in 1995 to work as a visiting scientist... Read More
Recently, EETD's Thomas Kirchstetter, and Tim Dallman and Robert Harley of the University of California, Berkeley, presented the results of a study on the emissions of PM (particulate matter) and NOx (nitrogen oxides) from trucks at the Port of Oakland. The occasion was an August 4th hearing in Oakland, California, convened by Alameda County supervisors to discuss... Read More
The Department of Energy has awarded up to $1.9 million to a research team led by EETD's Eric Masanet to develop "total cost of ownership" models for low- and high-temperature stationary fuel cell systems up to 250 kilowatts. The work will support research and development efforts for fuel cells by assessing the impact of state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies, system designs, and deployment strategies on the life-cycle cost of fuel cells in... Read More
EETD scientists conduct research to analyze energy use in India, evaluate energy efficiency opportunities in its economy, and develop road maps to promote lower-carbon-emitting, sustainable economic development. They also work with their Indian colleagues on joint research, and provide technical consulting in a variety of areas such as energy-efficient building design and operation.
Here are a few resources for further information.
Berkeley-... Read More
The U.S. Department of Energy has released six fact sheets to assist American Reinvestment and Recovery Act grantees and end-users in benchmarking energy efficiency upgrade costs and expected annual savings. The fact sheets are directed at municipal, state, and federal government buildings, healthcare facilities, universities, colleges, and K-12 schools. The fact sheets provide information on the typical range of project installation costs,... Read More
Despite a trying year in which wind power capacity additions declined significantly compared to both 2008 and 2009, the U.S. remained one of the fastest-growing wind power markets in the world in 2010—second only to China—according to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
A paper by William Fisk, Anna Mirer, and Mark Mendell has received a "best paper" award from the editors of the journal Indoor Air.
According to the citation, "Quantitative relationship of sick building syndrome symptoms with ventilation rates," was "one of the top papers published in the journal during the years 2008-2010."
The authors were honored at one of the plenary sessions of the Indoor Air 2011 conference, which takes place this... Read More
"California's Energy Future - The View to 2050" looks a generation ahead at what's required to reach the goal of reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below the 1990 level by 2050. Several researchers in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division participated in developing this study, the result of a multi-institutional partnership to examine energy futures to reduce California's emissions.
The report finds that the... Read More
A benchmarking tool to help dairy owners and operators use energy and water as efficiently as possible in their facilities was released today by scientists at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The BEST-Dairy allows a user to calculate energy and water use intensity and obtain a benchmarking score for the selected plant, as compared with the best available references that researchers... Read More
Two Berkeley Lab Scientists Were Authors
A recent report examining the potential role of renewable power in reducing emissions of climate-altering greenhouse gases concludes that a high percentage of the world's energy supply could be met by renewables by mid- century if backed by the right enabling public policies.
Two researchers in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Jayant... Read More
As China's economy continues to soar, its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will keep on soaring as well—or so goes the conventional wisdom. A new analysis by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) now is challenging that notion, one widely held in both the United States and China.
New research by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds strong evidence that homes with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sell for a premium over homes without solar systems.
EETD Post-Doctoral Fellow George Ban-Weiss participated in an atmospheric modeling study of black carbon aerosols and their impact on climate change while he was with the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University. Read Carnegie's press release, "Climate change from black carbon depends on altitude," here:
"Palo Alto, CA — Scientists have known for decades that black carbon aerosols add to global warming. These airborne particles... Read More
Thomas McKone, Leader of the Environmental Chemistry, Exposure, and Risk Group of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, has been quoted extensively in the news media on the transport and health risks of radiation from Japan.
McKone will be a speaker at the Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association webinar on April 6 at 12:00 Pacific Time titled "... Read More
Launched in 2006, over 8,700 residential energy upgrades have been completed through Austin Energy's Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES) program. The program's lending partner, Velocity Credit Union (VCU) has originated almost 1,800 loans, totaling approximately $12.5 million. Residential energy efficiency loans are typically small, and expensive to originate and service relative to larger financing products. National lenders have been... Read More
Michael Sohn, Staff Scientist and Leader of the Airflow and Pollutant Transport Group, EETD, is serving on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Panel, Office of Pesticide Programs. The purpose of the panel is to review a probabilistic approach to source-to-outcome health risk assessments.
The Healthy Zero Energy Buildings (HZEB) website has made its debut.
The HZEB research program's goal is to develop the information needed for scientifically-sound commercial building ventilation standards that balance energy efficiency objectives with the need to maintain acceptable indoor air quality.
Zero (net) energy buildings have a net energy consumption of zero over a typical year. The California Public Utility Commission and the... Read More
The two largest greenhouse gas-emitting nations, the United States and China, have formed a partnership to research and develop clean energy technology. Agreements formalizing the research plans of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC), announced jointly by President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao more than a year ago, were signed in January 2011 during a state visit to Washington D.C. of the Chinese President and other... Read More
Governor Jerry Brown has appointed Carla Peterman to the California Energy Commission.
Peterman is a doctoral candidate in the Energy and Resources Group, University of California Berkeley and a graduate student researcher with the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her primary research interests are renewable energy, technology innovation, and climate change mitigation policy. Her dissertation... Read More
From the FERC news release:
"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today issued for public comment a study that seeks to ensure reliability for consumers by identifying tools that will help manage the planning and operations of new generation resources into the nation's electricity system.
The study, conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with a team of power system experts, and initiated and funded by FERC's Office of... Read More
Buildings are responsible for a large fraction of total U.S. energy demand and buildings are replaced slowly. About one third of the U.S. population lives in multifamily buildings. The residents of multifamily buildings often have below-average incomes and they are sometimes exposed to high levels of potentially harmful indoor contaminants. The U.S. is embarking on a program of aggressive energy retrofits in homes, with a substantial focus on... Read More
Environmental Energy Technologies Division researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have released a new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S., showing that the average cost of these systems remained largely unchanged from 2008 to 2009, before beginning a steep decline in 2010.
The number of solar PV systems in the U.S. has been growing at a rapid... Read More
Charles Goldman, a scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, has been given a special award by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy in recognition of the "Electricity Markets and Policy Group's critical achievements and leadership in the energy efficiency field." Goldman is the leader of this research group.
The award was presented at a reception during the ACEEE's "Energy Efficiency-Advancing Our Economy,... Read More
Eric Masanet, deputy leader of the International Energy Studies (IES) Group, was a guest editor of a special issue of Yale's Journal of Industrial Ecology exploring new applications of information and communication technology (ICT) that could save society significant amounts of energy and money, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet.
IES is part of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence... Read More
The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been chosen to lead a consortium for a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center on Building Energy Efficiency. The Center will develop technologies for low-energy residential and commercial buildings, as well as work on commercialization of those technologies and research how human behavior affects building energy use.
The Clean Energy Resource Center (CERC) will receive $... Read More
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) released a new study Thursday documenting the design of and early experience with state-level renewables portfolio standard (RPS) programs in the United States that have been specifically designed to encourage solar energy. The study finds that these state-level RPS programs have already proven to be an important driver for solar energy deployment... Read More
Hundreds of millions of dollars in public money are flowing into programs to support improvements in home energy efficiency. Ensuring that these funds have their maximum impact by motivating homeowners to seek out home energy improvements is the subject of a new report from researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
"Convincing millions of Americans to divert their time and resources into upgrading their homes to... Read More
New efficiency standards proposed to take effect in 2014, announced recently by the U.S. Department of Energy, continue a 40-year trend of improving energy efficiency of this essential home appliance. The standard is a negotiated agreement between environmentalists, consumer advocates, and... Read More
Another reason for including asthma on the list of potential health risks posed by secondhand tobacco smoke, especially for non-smokers, has been uncovered. Furthermore, the practice of using ozone to remove the smell of tobacco smoke from indoor environments, including hotel rooms and the interiors of vehicles, is probably a bad idea.
The U.S. was one of the fastest-growing wind power markets in the world in 2009, second only to China, according to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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