News

The New York Times recently featured a report by ETA's Nihar Shah, which reviews the regulatory frameworks, energy efficiency standards, and labeling programs in 18 countries that account for roughly 65% of global AC demand. Shah previously found that improvements could roughly double the 89.7 gigatons of expected emissions savings from switching refrigerant alone.... Read more

ETA's Lynn Price (left), senior scientist, retired from Berkeley Lab on June 29 and has stepped down as acting division director of the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts (EAEI) Division as well as department head of the International Energy Analysis Department in the Energy Technologies Area. Tom Kirchstetter, staff scientist, head of the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems... Read more

On July 11th, the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) program hosted its Semi-Annual Industry Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting at the U.S. Green Building Council office in Washington, DC. Approximately 50 stakeholders participated in this event, including representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), national laboratories, private industry, and... Read more

India is pushing hard to electrify its automobile market, aiming to sell only electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. But what impact will that shift have on the country’s utilities and the grid? A new report by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that the prospective EV expansion will deliver economic benefits, help integrate renewable energy, and significantly... Read more

By using advanced lighting and automated shades, scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found that occupants on one floor of a high-rise office building in New York City were able to reduce lighting energy usage by nearly 80 percent in some areas.The dramatic results emerged at a "living laboratory" set up to test four sets of technologies... Read more

Panagopoulos received a $35,000 scholarship from the Sweden-America Foundation to support his work at the Lab and in collaborations with Swedish scientists. The research focuses on human exposure to chemicals from artificial turf in sports arenas. The Foundation supports the exchange of science between Sweden, the U.S. and Canada.... Read more

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) Center of Science and Technology of Construction (CSTC) held seminars themed “Concept and Roadmap of Net-Zero Energy Building” and “Workshop Demonstration of Net-Zero Energy Building Technology” in March and June 2017 respectively. Two project leads - China Academy of Building Research (CABR) and Shenzhen Institute of Building... Read more

Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), Chair of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) Industry Advisory Board (IAB), recently discussed how building energy efficiency public-private partnerships, such as CERC-BEE, are helping countries meet their energy and sustainability goals. Please click on the links below for recent articles published by the World Economic... Read more

Scientist Peter Therkelson organized a recent visit by the Association of Energy Service Providers (AESP) to the Energy Technologies Area at Berkeley Lab.AESP leaders Patsy Dugger from CB& and Karen Maos from Navigant also facilitated the visit.Seven LBNL speakers gave presentations, and the group enjoyed FLEXLAB® tours.Approximately 25 attendees from AESP, representing 15 organizations, were... Read more

China Energy Group and the Berkeley-Tsinghua Joint Research Center on Energy & Climate Change (BR JRC) are partnering with the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) at the University of California, Berkeley to provide lectures to broaden participants’ knowledge and perspectives on environmental and natural resource science, policy, management, and leadership. On June 22, Lynn Price,... Read more

A delegation from Didi visited China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) on June 16, 2017. Mr. Bei Zhang, the Vice President and Director of Institute of Policy Research from Didi led the delegation team. The delegation was consist of members from Didi, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The delegation was on... Read more

As solar energy’s popularity continues to grow among homeowners, it’s changing the way people buy and sell homes. Because solar has been found to consistently add value to homes, real estate agents need a new way to fairly value solar homes and make sure house hunters can easily find key solar system information. New data standards from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will enable... Read more

Surprising discovery is a major advance for low-cost, high-energy batteriesLithium-sulfur batteries have great potential as a low-cost, high-energy, energy source for both vehicle and grid applications. However, they suffer from significant capacity fading. Now scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have made a surprising discovery that... Read more

On June 5, Berkeley Lab and the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency (CABEE) conducted a joint workshop on building energy data and provincial energy calculation. The workshop was conducted to support China in developing a Better Buildings China Pilot Program – a voluntary energy efficiency market transformation pilot program modeled after the U.S. Better Building Program which aims... Read more

On June 7th, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) Center for Science and Technology of Construction (CSTC), co-hosted a side event, “The Role of Bilateral Research, Development, and Deployment (RD&D) Programs in Accelerating Clean Energy Solutions: Lessons from the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy... Read more

As solar energy's popularity continues to grow among homeowners, it's changing the way people buy and sell homes. Because solar has been found to consistently add value to homes, real estate agents need a new way to fairly value solar homes and make sure house hunters can easily find key solar system information. New data standards from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will enable thousands... Read more

On June 5, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) and Innovative Green Development Program (iGDP) co-hosted the "Low Carbon City Tools Workshop" in Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. The workshop is supported by U.S. Department of Energy and the Energy Foundation China, and it gathered more than 50 low-carbon city researchers from research institutions, universities... Read more

Google Street View cars with pollution sensors are mapping pollution in Oakland, block by block, joining another assortment of low-cost sensors monitoring a wider array of gases and particles from the roofs of schools, museums, and hospitals in the Bay Area. The latter effort, led by ETA's Ronald Cohen, is called BEACO2N (BErkeley Atmospheric CO2 Observation Network).Read the full story at Wired... Read more

Two projects on residential buildings will help state meet targets for low-energy buildings.California has established ambitious goals to reduce energy consumption in buildings, including a policy goal for all new residential buildings to be zero net energy (ZNE) by 2020. Now the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has launched two projects to help the state... Read more

The knowledge and expertise of a seasoned energy efficiency professional has been packed into a high-tech suitcase.The Sensor Suitcase is a portable case that contains easy-to-use sensors and other equipment that make it possible for anyone to identify energy-saving opportunities in small commercial buildings. The automated and reusable system combines hardware and software in one package so its... Read more

Berkeley Lab was actively involved in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the exploration of geothermal energy potential in Mexico through technical support provided for the development of the Cerro Prieto geothermal field in Baja California, one of the largest hot water geothermal systems in North America.Currently, the Cerro Prieto geothermal field has an installed capacity of 570 MW and,... Read more

Two projects on residential buildings will help state meet targets for low-energy buildings.California has established ambitious goals to reduce energy consumption in buildings, including a policy goal for all new residential buildings to be zero net energy (ZNE) by 2020. Now the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has launched two projects to help the... Read more

Berkeley Lab finds that the choice of pavement material can significantly impact carbon emissions, creates decision tool for cities to useCool pavements can help keep cities cool, right? Yes, but according to new research from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), many reflective pavements have some unexpected drawbacks relative to conventional pavements... Read more

Alex Bayen, the director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies and a researcher in the Lab’s Energy Technologies Area, was recently featured in a news segment titled “Driving apps like Waze are creating new traffic problems” for Crosscurrents, an award-winning daily news magazine from KALW Public Radio.Read More... Read more

Since 2014, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's startup incubator program, Cyclotron Road, has helped energy researchers survive the "valley of death" that claims many budding ideas in the field. The six projects from the first year collectively raised more than $18 million in additional research funding or private investments. The program will soon welcome its third cohort of innovators. This year's... Read more