News

Jiang Lin of Berkeley Lab's China Energy Group will join the University of California-Berkeley as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, beginning January 1, 2018. Lin is a staff scientist in the China Energy Group, the Nat Simons Presidential Chair in China Energy Policy, and co-director of the Berkeley Tsinghua Joint Research Center on Energy and Climate... Read more

Berkeley Lab's Jiang Lin delivered a keynote speech at the International Forum on Sustainable Solutions for New Era of Ecological Civilization at Tsinghua University on December 18, 2017. Dr. Lin presented research results on potential impacts of electricity market reforms in Guangdong Province from a study by Berkeley Lab's China Energy Group and the Berkeley-Tsinghua Joint Research Center.... Read more

Peter Larsen of the Energy Technologies Area recently announced the release of the Alaska Energy Data Gateway 2.0. The gateway, first released in 2013,provides Alaskans with data to make informed decisions prior to undertaking rural energy projects. The project is a joint effort of the Alaska Microgrid Partnership and DOE's Grid Modernization Initiative.... Read more

The 3rd Sino-U.S. Energy and Environment Summit Forum was held in Changsha, China on December 4-5, 2017. The event was organized by Stony Brook University and Tongji University under the banner of the U.S.-China EcoPartnerships program. Over 300 representatives from the U.S. and Chinese government, universities, research organizations and private sector participated in the forum, which focused on... Read more

Kristin Persson of the Energy Technologies Area was a recent guest on the NPR radio program "Marketplace," where she discussed developments in battery technology. Lithium-ion batteries currently in use are "highly optimized" and not likely to improve, she says. "If you're going to do a better battery, you have to discover a completely new material." Read or listen to the full interivew at:... Read more

The Berkeley-Tsinghua Joint Research Center on Energy and Climate Change (BTJRC) is pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 2018 Chern-Simons Leadership Fellows Program for Energy & Climate Change.In partnership with the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) of the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, this program provides... Read more

Scientists from research areas across Berkeley Lab, including ETA's Hanna Breunig and Anna Spurlock, have been awarded new Early Career Development awards, as part of the Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program.... Read more

After an extensive search, Associate Lab Director Ramamoorthy Ramesh has announced the appointment of Tom Kirchstetter as the Division Director of the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division. Kirchstetter had served as acting director since June 2017.... Read more

Kendra Kuhl, Nicholas Flanders, and Etosha Cave were included in the magazine's list of "25 People Shaping the Future in Tech, Science, Medicine, Activism and More" feature. The researchers — who are part of the Energy Technologies Area's Cyclotron Road Division, which seeks to prepare energy technologies for the market — were recognized for their efforts to build reactors that trap greenhouse... Read more

7×7 Magazine recently recognized Opus 12 Chief Science Officer Etosha Cave of the Lab's Cyclotron Road for her efforts to develop an industrial-scale reactor that has the power of 37,000 trees to upcycle carbon dioxide waste into useful (and profitable) fuels, chemicals, and plastics that are typically generated from petroleum. Read the full article:... Read more

The China Energy Group took home a prestigious R&D 100 Award for its innovative Benchmarking and Energy Saving Tool for Low-Carbon Cities (BEST Cities), which provides software for low-carbon planning that users can easily install and run. Berkeley Lab also won awards for technologies that help determine how solar energy affects the grid; understand the functions of genes in microbes under... Read more

Nan Zhou, Head of the International Energy Analysis Department (IEAD) and China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), recently joined the editorial board of Applied Energy. Her responsibility on the editorial board includes defining the journal's policy and scope, attracting articles for submission, and setting the future direction for the journal. Applied Energy is a... Read more

In the October 2017 Special EditionofUSGBC+ Magazine, the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) highlights the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) program.The article, “Advocating for Change – China makes its mark on the world of sustainability,” by Elizabeth Beardsley. The article discusses the value USGBC places on CERC-BEE for its collaborative... Read more

Gerald Robinson recently received a 2017 Federal Energy and Water Management Award for his work as part of a federal team that developed an innovative, multi-agency contract solution that saved the government millions of dollars. In the picture, Robinson is fourth from the right.Robinson worked with several agencies to conduct the first-ever aggregated procurement for on-site solar PV arrays. By... Read more

On October 26th, NanZhou, Head of the International Energy Analysis Department (IEAD) and China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), delivered a talk to 300-400 faculty members and students at Chang’An University’s School of Architecture on "Reinventing Fire: Low Carbon Development Pathway to 2050" as part of the university’s distinguished lecture series.On October... Read more

On September 5th, Carolyn Szum, China Energy Group Program Manager, delivered a presentation entitled, “California’s Movement to NZEB: Title 24,” to 40 building energy efficiency experts from 11 APEC economies (Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Russia, Thailand, and the United States) at the 5th Workshop of the APEC Nearly/Net Zero Energy Program in... Read more

This 3-D rendering, generated by an X-ray-based imaging technique at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source, shows tiny pockets of water (blue) in a fibrous sample. The X-ray experiments showed how moisture and temperature can affect the performance of fuel-cell components. (Credit: Berkeley Lab)Like a well-tended greenhouse garden, a specialized type of hydrogen fuel cell – which shows promise as... Read more

The International Energy Studies Group recently announced the release of a new Berkeley Lab study that will improve the energy efficiency of room air conditioners. "Assessment of commercially available energy-efficient room air conditioners including models with low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants" reviews improvement of energy efficiency of room air conditioners (RACs) while... Read more

On Friday, Nov. 3, Berkeley Lab researcher-entrepreneurs made their business cases in front of an expert panel at LBNL's Inaugural Pitch Competition, hosted by Berkeley Lab's Innovation and Partnerships Office.ETA Postdoc, Andrew Haddad, won the People's Choice Award: SAFR: Scalable and Affordable Fluoride Removal.... Read more

Oct. 19th, the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) program hosted its first U.S.-China bilateral Industry Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting at the Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) Headquarters (HQ) Asia-Pacific (APAC) in Shanghai, China. More than 80 stakeholders from the U.S. and Chinese government, researcher institutes, national laboratories, private industry,... Read more

Energy Technology Area researchers ​made extensive contributions to the International Energy Agency's Energy Efficiency 2017 Report. A major focus of the report’s chapter on industrial energy efficiency is ISO 50001 - the internationally developed framework for managing energy as a business practice. Research led by Peter Therkelsen and Berkeley Lab​'​s Industrial Applications Team... Read more

Hydro-Québec and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have agreed to explore collaborations toward the research and development of manufacturing and scale-up technology to advance transportation electrification and energy storage. The two institutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to assess the feasibility of creating a Québec... Read more

Ravi Prasher, division director of the Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division at Berkeley Lab, recently gave a talk at UC Berkeley about the electricity grid. Below is an excerpt and video of his talk.Fossil fuels have powered economic growth and improved quality of life for more than two centuries – and for good reason. They can store a great deal of energy, and it can be used any... Read more

Mary Ann Piette, director of the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division and of the Demand Response Research Center at Berkeley Lab, recently spoke at UC Berkeley about building efficiency. Below is an excerpt and video of her talk.Our homes and buildings consume huge amounts of energy — up to 40 percent of all energy use in the U.S. Research at Berkeley Lab has greatly boosted energy... Read more

On Oct. 19th, the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) program hosted its first U.S.-China bilateral Industry Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting at the Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) Headquarters (HQ) Asia-Pacific (APAC) in Shanghai, China. More than 80 stakeholders from the U.S. and Chinese government, researcher institutes, national laboratories, private industry,... Read more