News

Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will work together to develop and evaluate advanced building technologies and use simulation tools to better understand building performance. Representatives of the two institutions have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore mutual research opportunities in the experimental evaluation of... Read more

Posted today by our colleague Jon Bashor in the Computing Research Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:A six-month study led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) with funding from Google has found that moving common software applications used by 86 million U.S. workers to the cloud could save enough electricity annually to power Los Angeles for a year. The study,... Read more

China Energy Group's Deputy Director Nan Zhou and Senior Research Associate John Romankiewicz attended the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ECEEE) Summer Study in Hyeres, France last week. Nan presented two papers, "Quantifying the Potential Impact of Energy Efficiency and Low Carbon Policies for China" and "Evaluating China's pilot low-carbon city initiative: national goals and... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is conducting a study to explore the efficiency of hot water distribution systems in California residences. You’ve likely had the experience of waiting for shower water to get hot? Until the shower reaches a comfortable temperature, the water goes down the drain. Both water and energy could be saved! Information about hot water and natural gas use in homes... Read more

Learn more about what this group does. View its new website at the address below.... Read more

Come and learn about what EETD's Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Department does. See their new website at the address below.... Read more

Searching for a safer, less expensive alternative to today's lithium-ion batteries, scientists have turned to lithium-sulfur as a possible chemistry for next-generation batteries. Li/S batteries have several times the energy storage capacity of the best currently available rechargeable Li-ion battery, and sulfur is inexpensive and nontoxic. Current batteries using this chemistry, however, suffer... Read more

From a Berkeley Lab news release: If you suspect that opening windows to let in fresh air might be good for you, a new study by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has confirmed your hunch. Analyzing extensive data on ventilation rates collected from more than 150 classrooms in California over two years, the researchers found that bringing classroom ventilation rates... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has issued the first full public release of EnergyIQ, its web-based action-oriented benchmarking tool for non-residential buildings. EnergyIQ is free and can be accessed at http://energyiq.lbl.gov/. EnergyIQ improves upon typical "whole-building" energy benchmarking tools by providing benchmarking at the end-use level, and enabling users to use... Read more

The 34th AIVC Conference, titled "Energy conservation technologies for mitigation and adaptation in the built environment: the role of ventilation strategies and smart materials," will take place 25-26 September 2013 in Athens, Greece. This Joint Conference will focus on ventilative cooling, and is co-sponsored by TightVent, the European Cool Roof Council, and Venticool. The Joint Conference aims... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Energy Efficiency Standards Group, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Program, is pleased to announce the third year of the Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition for Ultra-Low-Energy-Use Appliances and Equipment. The goals of the competition are... Read more

As a part of Berkeley Lab's ongoing Science Video Glossary, scientists from the Heat Island Group discuss the team's research.Watch Project Scientist George Ban-Weiss explain the causes and effects of the urban heat island effect, as well as Berkeley Lab's efforts to mitigate it and keep cities cooler:Watch other videos featuring Berkeley Lab researchers in the Berkeley Lab Science Video... Read more

The energy density in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries enables them to store and provide considerable energy in a small package. Powering devices from pacemakers to smart phones, these small, lightweight, rechargeable batteries have become a ubiquitous part of modern electronics. Using materials such as tin and silicon give Li-ion even a higher energy density—enough for a battery to power an... Read more

EETD scientist Marc Fischer was one of several experts to testify last week at an informational hearing on short-lived climate pollutants to the California Senate Select Committee on Climate Change and AB 32 Implementation. The landmark Global Warming Solutions Act (AB-32) requires California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Fischer described his group’s research... Read more

Webinar: Home Area Network (HAN) Security ConsiderationsThurs., May 23, 2013, 11:00AM - 12:00PM PSTThe cost of deploying smart meters throughout the US has been justified by a combination of benefits to both utilities and consumers. Utilities would receive operational benefits from the use of modern Smart Meter communications capabilities (i.e. Advanced Metering Infrastructure – or AMI) for both... Read more

Eight faculty-led student teams from U.S. Universities will present their innovative prototype designs and testing results of energy-efficient appliances and commercial equipment through a national Webinar hosted by the Energy Efficiency Standards Group. This event, in its second year, is the culmination of the U.S. Department of Energy's funded Max Tech Design Competition, which offered an... Read more

A select group of public, private and non-profit organizations from the U.S. and China have joined together in EcoPartnerships to pilot best practices in promoting economic growth, energy security and environmental sustainability.EcoPartnerships are cooperative relationships between Chinese and U.S. entities who jointly demonstrate and share best practices that promote economic growth, energy... Read more

For 30 years or so, researchers in the Laser Spectroscopy and Applied Materials Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been studying laser beams.Berkeley Lab's Rick Russo—a pioneer in the field—has been working with a technology called Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), refining and expanding the technology for many applications. Famous for its use on Mars... Read more

A project conducted by Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division and Synapsense, Inc. titled "Energy Savings with Reliability from Data Center Fan Control" was a finalist in the 2013 Uptime Institute Green Enterprise IT Award competition. EETD's Steve Greenberg will discuss this project at the Green Enterprise IT Awards showcase on May 13 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa... Read more

A press release from CalCharge announcing the opportunity to partner with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on battery research:Beginning this month, the rapidly emerging California battery sector will have access to new resources to accelerate its growth: an opportunity to work alongside world-class scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This opportunity is... Read more

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) Guest House, guests who have business with Berkeley Lab can get a comfortable night's sleep—while experiencing a living example of some of the laboratory's scientific research. The Guest House is one of the demonstration sites and the testing site (or test bed) for the Demand to Grid (D2G) Lab in the Demand Response Research Center... Read more

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) Guest House, guests who have business with Berkeley Lab can get a comfortable night's sleep—while experiencing a living example of some of the laboratory's scientific research. The Guest House is one of the demonstration sites and the testing site (or test bed) for the Demand to Grid (D2G) Lab in the Demand Response Research Center... Read more

A new assessment of the potential benefits from deploying super-efficient air conditioners has found significant untapped potential for air conditioner efficiency equivalent that can avoid more than 120 Rosenfelds (i.e. 120 medium-sized (500 MW) power plants) in the countries studied* by 2020. The International Energy Studies group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in... Read more

This policy brief describes the challenges that low gas prices pose for the cost effectiveness of energy efficiency programs, using an electric-gas efficiency program and portfolio as an example. We quantify options available to regulators and program administrators who want to evaluate the tradeoffs among multiple policy choices and objectives. We illustrate the implications of applying a range... Read more

(Reuters) - Converting the world's roofs from dark colours to reflective white would cancel the warming effect of 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year for the lifetime of the roof, according to former California Energy Commissioner Arthur Rosenfeld.The reduction in warming would be equivalent to taking half the world's cars off the road for 20 years, Rosenfeld wrote in a recent commentary... Read more