News

The Tang Prize Foundation announced that the 2016 prize in Sustainable Development goes to Berkeley Lab’s Arthur Rosenfeld, known in the field as the “godfather” of energy efficiency. He was chosen as the category’s awardee “for his lifelong and pioneering innovations in energy efficiency resulting in immense reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions around the... Read more

During the afternoon of June 6, 2016, one day ahead of the U.S.-China Climate-Smart/Low-Carbon Cities Summit, the Climate-Smart/Low-Carbon Cities Initiative Secretariat Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and China’s Energy Research Institute (ERI), organized a Cities Tools Training Workshop in Beijing with support from the U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of Energy, and Energy... Read more

In California, a number of regulators work together to take charge of infrastructure planning and investment processes. The entire power planning and procurement process is transparent and allows public participation. Taking into account the power supply and demand side of the resources, making the California power industry to efficient, low-carbon, sustainable direction to accelerate the... Read more

The fourth International Energy Policy & Programme Evaluation Conference (IEPPEC) held in Amsterdam from June 6 – 9, 2016 brought together energy and evaluation researchers and practitioners from around the world. The conference began with pre-conference workshops focusing on process and market evaluations, evaluation of energy saving programs and greenhouse gas emissions reductions, target... Read more

Two outstanding postdoctoral fellows were recently announced as the winners of the 2016 ITRI-Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Energy Technologies Area. The fellowship honors the contributions of Art Rosenfeld, of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab's) Energy Technologies Area (ETA), for his pioneering work toward the advancement of energy efficiency on a global... Read more

The Materials Project, run by Berkeley Lab, accelerates innovation by enabling computationally driven materials and battery design.The Materials Project, a Google-like database of material properties aimed at accelerating innovation, has released an enormous trove of data to the public, giving scientists working on fuel cells, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and a host of other advanced materials... Read more

LIQUIDARMOR, a sprayable liquid sealant developed by The Dow Chemical Company and evaluated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), recently won the 2016 Gold Edison Award for Building Construction & Lighting Innovations. The Edison Awards honor the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services.The ORNL and Dow Chemical collaboration to develop and evaluate... Read more

LBNL is collaborating with ClimateWorks on defining metrics for tracking changes in energy efficiency progress, measuring impacts and assessing strategic opportunities. This report provides a detailed description of the indicators selected. The authors considered a wide range of indicators drawing upon the literature, their own experience and consultation with experts and practitioners. A round... Read more

In Fall 2016, three postdoctoral fellows from the Institute of Renewable Energy (IER) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico started a fellowship at Berkeley Lab with the support of the SENER-CONACYT Energy Sustainability Fund (FSE).A welcome reception attended by the Consul General of Mexico, Gemi José González López, and the Director of IER, Antonio del Rio, was held on November 9 to... Read more

The local news station and combustion scientist Don Lucas of the Energy Technologies Area ignited car seats to test how those treated with flame retardant chemicals compared with so-called “green seats” that used wool. The green seat provided about the same amount of protection, but without the chemicals, which have been shown to be harmful.... Read more

A major new initiative tackles water-energy issues in California and beyond.Billions of gallons of water are used each day in the United States for energy production—for hydroelectric power generation, thermoelectric plant cooling, and countless other industrial processes, including oil and gas mining. And huge amounts of energy are required to pump, treat, heat, and deliver water.This... Read more

On May 10, 2016, the Berkeley-Tsinghua Joint Research Center on Energy and Climate Change (BT-JRC) was formally launched at the Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley campus. UC Berkeley Chancellor Dirks, Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong, and Berkeley Lab Director Witherell were all present and offered their strong support to this joint initiative between UC Berkeley, Tsinghua University of China,... Read more

Samveg Saxena, from the Grid Integration Group, will present MyGreenCar: Test driving “virtually” to compare real fuel economy and EV range, at the Lab’s Science at the Theater program in San Francisco’s Marine’s Memorial Theatre. Six scientists will present their big ideas to transform the world — from turning CO2 into fuel and desalinating seawater in an energy efficient way, to... Read more

A new report outlines the challenges and opportunities for the state’s 200 isolated communities that pay some of the highest electricity and heating costs in the nation. Peter Larsen of the Energy Technologies Area, was among the study’s authors.... Read more

As climate change disrupts weather patterns, many countries face swamping along the coasts, but also shrinking freshwater supplies in many regions. The Lab’s Ashok Gadgil is the principal investigator on the U.S. side of a new $64 million collaboration between China and the United States to develop strategies and technologies to conserve water in energy production and use.... Read more

China’s President Xi Jinping called for accelerating the establishment of innovation platform led by national laboratories in his discourse on the Explanation of the Suggestions on Developing China’s 13th Five-Year Plan in November, 2015. In the discourse, President Xi pointed out that national laboratories are the indispensable momentum for the development and innovation of science and... Read more

A start-up team, including Dr. Hanna Breunig of the Sustainable Energy Systems group at LBNL, was recently accepted into the Bay Area regional NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™), a program designed to help start-ups conduct customer discovery. Torq3, the start-up team, is developing new configurations of the Halbach Array Electric Motor (HAEM) to make them more powerful and energy efficient.... Read more

Berkeley Lab study finds roof racks responsible for almost 1 percent of national fuel consumption.As you get ready to hit the road this summer, with the kids loaded inside and the bikes strapped to the roof of your car, you may want to stop and consider that the roof rack on your car may be costing you as much as 25 percent more in gas.In the first study of its kind, Lawrence Berkeley National... Read more

Wei Feng, Principal Scientific Engineering Associate at China Energy Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory attended the fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Nearly (Net) Zero Energy Buildings Working Group meeting in Taiwan in April, 2016. In the workshop, Dr. Feng gave a talk about recent net zero energy building development in the U.S. There were another forty-four delegates... Read more

Project funded by $3M California Energy Commission grant will convert an existing grocery store to scalable near-zero net energy — serving as a model for stores throughout the stateSan Francisco, CA — The California Energy Commission awarded a $3 million grant to the MarketZero Project — an effort to convert an existing San Francisco Whole Foods Market to Zero Net Energy (ZNE). The... Read more

Register to attend the April 28, 2016 Automated Demand Response Forum and Showcase: Space is limited and free: Join via simulcast orLocation: PG&E Pacific Energy Center (PEC) 851 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103Time: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. This free-all-day event will be focused on Automated Demand Response opportunities for commercial building applications and will include presentations... Read more

New technologies could significantly improve energy efficiency of televisions, gaming computers, pool pumps, and a variety of other plug loads.Plug loads, or devices that plug into the wall, are responsible for at least 25 percent of electricity use in California buildings. And not only is that percentage growing, it’s a hard number to manage since “plug loads” include hundreds of device... Read more

Berkeley Lab is co-sponsoring the RCMA International Roof Coatings Conference. Join the cool roofing industry at the 2016 conference in Philadelphia this year. The event includes an exciting lineup of expert speakers and educational sessions, as well as a number of fun networking events and activities for our attendees.Dates: July 18-21, 2016Hotel: Sonesta Hotel PhiladelphiaLocation: Philadelphia,... Read more

Registration is now open for the Fourth International Conference on Countermeasure to Urban Heat Island (4th IC2UHI) 2016Singapore on 30-31 May and 1 June 2016.The theme of the conference: Countering Urban Heat Island (UHI) and Climate Change through Mitigation and Adaptation.The conference will be hosted by the Department of Building, National University of Singapore. The venue of the conference... Read more

About 10% of the energy used in U.S. buildings—approximately 4 quads a year—compensates for energy lost through windows. To address this inefficiency, architects, engineers, and home-builders are advocating the use of high-performance windows, which are composed of insulated glass units (IGUs) that combine multiple panes, thin film coatings, and special gas fills between the panes, and... Read more