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While women make up 48 percent of the workforce in the US, they hold only 24 percent of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs. About 40 percent of men with STEM college degrees work in STEM jobs, whereas only 26 percent of women with STEM degrees work in STEM jobs. STEM jobs pay well. STEM skills are also important for innovation. For America to become more competitive in... Read more

New projects for hydrogen storage and fuel cell performance aim to bring down cost of fuel cell electric vehicles.With commitments from leading car and stationary-power manufacturers to hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and the first ever fuel cell electric vehicle to go on sale later this year, interest is once again swelling in this carbon-free technology. Now, thanks to several new projects... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the University of California (UC) Berkeley and partners Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkley Lab) and UC Irvine $12.5 million over five years to help fund the Clean Energy Research Center for Water Energy Technologies (CERC-WET). Ashok Gadgil, deputy of research at Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area and UC Berkeley professor, will lead the... Read more

Berkeley Lab researchers are measuring truck emissions from above the Caldecott Tunnel. The effort, led by Berkeley lab Staff Scientist Thomas Kirchstetter, aims to track pollutants emitted not just from trucks generally, but from individual trucks. The study has already determined that California’s new emissions controls seem to be working, with “a factor of 10 decrease in the amount of... Read more

On Friday, September 25, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping made a Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change and issued a related Fact Sheet.The Statement describes a common vision for a new global climate agreement to be concluded in Paris this December, explaining: “On the occasion of President Xi’s State Visit to Washington, D.C., the two Presidents reaffirm... Read more

New Berkeley Lab program seeks scientists to commercialize the next breakthrough technology.Steven Kaye got his Ph.D. working on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), one of the most exciting materials in chemistry today and especially effective for separating gases. But nearly a decade after earning his degree, he saw that the science-to-product gap was still gaping: despite the discovery of thousands... Read more

Berkeley Lab study reveals 70% decline in PPA prices since 2009Solar energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a new report released by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Driven by lower installed costs, improved project performance, and a race to build projects ahead of a reduction in a key federal incentive, utility-scale solar project developers have been negotiating... Read more

Berkeley Lab scientists have been awarded $1.3 million to study health impacts of thirdhand smoke.Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researchers have been awarded $1.3 million for two sets of studies to better understand the health impacts of thirdhand smoke, the noxious residue that clings to virtually all indoor surfaces long after the secondhand smoke from a cigarette has... Read more

On Thursday, September 24, 2015, the honorable LI Qiang, Governor of Zhejiang Province, led a delegation team from Zhejiang Province to visit Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Honorary Zhejiang delegates accompanying the Governor included Yonghui Jin, Director General of Zhejiang Provincial Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Department, Jianming Shen, Deputy Secretary General... Read more

The 2015 Bay Area Battery Summit is scheduled for November 3rd, 2015 at Berkeley Lab!Emerging energy storage technologies and effective state and federal policies have, and will continue to drive important changes to the nation’s transportation and electric grid infrastructure and ecosystems. However, uncertainty in technology choices and policy options may hinder the speed of adoption and... Read more

Small businesses in the clean energy sector are invited to apply for assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories through the department's new Small Business Vouchers Pilot.David Danielson, DOE Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), announced the launch of the pilot website during EERE's Industry Day event at Oak Ridge National... Read more

In the run-up to its annual supercomputing conference, SC15 organizers have released a video on the Electrolyte Genome, a project led by Kirstin Persson that uses computing to speed up the materials discovery process. Watch her and others on the team describe how it could lead to the next breakthrough battery. Read more on the official SC15 blog.... Read more

The China Energy Group of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) participated in the two-day U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit in Los Angeles this week. The Summit fulfills a key element of the U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change by Presidents Obama and Xi last November, helping to ensure that the ambitious actions to address climate change that both leaders committed to... Read more

The technology, developed by Ashok Gadgil, which uses electrochemistry to remove arsenic from drinking water, has been licensed and soon will aid affected villages throughout India and Bangladesh. The method is will also be used to help clean tens of thousands of rural wells in the U.S. Read more at the BLUM Center website.... Read more

A delegation from China’s National Energy Conservation Center and local energy conservation centers visited the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) on September 2nd, 2015. Mr. Wang Shancheng, Deputy Director of the Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) led the delegation team. The... Read more

Berkeley Lab energy analysis finds gaming computers consume $10 billion in electricity per year.In the world of computer gaming, bragging rights are accorded to those who can boast of blazing-fast graphics cards, the most powerful processors, the highest-resolution monitors, and the coolest decorative lighting. They are not bestowed upon those crowing about the energy efficiency of their system.... Read more

New report finds that increasingly severe weather is linked to longer lasting power outagesIn the most comprehensive analysis of electricity reliability trends in the United States, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Stanford University have found that, while, on average, the frequency of power outages has not changed in recent years, the total number of... Read more

Latest "Tracking the Sun" report highlights progress in lowering solar soft costsBerkeley, CA — The installed price of distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States continues to fall precipitously. This is according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost tracking report produced by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory... Read more

Wind energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The prices offered by wind projects to utility purchasers averaged under 2.5¢/kWh for projects negotiating contracts in 2014, spurring demand for wind energy.“Wind energy prices—particularly in the central United... Read more

While on a trip to New York and Chicago, Chinese Pinggu Party Secretary Zhang Jifu developed a strong interest in environmentally-friendly city design. Thereafter, he attended a two-week course in the U.S arranged by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Paulson Institute.As a result of the course, and his understanding of the Paulson Institute’s 65-page report, coauthored by LBNL’s... Read more

Soon, for the first time, a group of researchers will connect a fleet of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) to the electricity grid in Southern California in a test of the connected fleet's ability to provide the grid with power and excess storage capacity.Furthermore, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James will be getting a demonstration of the project in August.... Read more

A new paper co-authored by ETA researcher Jeff Greenblatt looks at the potential energy and environmental impacts of combining two emerging trends: driverless cars and on-demand mobility. He notes several synergies that may result from using autonomous vehicles as shared cars, including lower greenhouse gas emissions.... Read more

Katya Cherukumilli of the Energy Technologies Area won first place in the Designing Solutions for Poverty contest for her super-low-cost approach to groundwater purification in India. Her technology uses use slightly processed bauxite, an aluminum-rich ore, to remove the excess fluoride.... Read more

Berkeley Lab, partnering with Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Labs, awarded $4.15 million by Department of Energy to work with small businesses.Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories/California (SNL/CA) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has been awarded $4.15 million by the Department of Energy (DOE) to jointly... Read more

Berkeley, CA – Future distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment levels are highly sensitive to retail electricity rate design, according to a newly released report by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The study also explores the feedback effects between retail electricity rates and PV deployment, and suggests that... Read more