News

The insurance industry, the world's largest business with $4.6 trillion in revenues, is making larger efforts to manage climate change-related risks, according to a new study published today in the journal Science. "Weather- and climate-related insurance losses today average $50 billion a year. These losses have more than doubled each decade since the 1980s, adjusted for inflation," says the... Read more

Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR)—the standard for open automation of building electricity demand response and price communications—has gained considerable attention since it emerged from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab's) Demand Response Research Center in 2008. This non-proprietary DR interface facilitates open, standardized communication that enables power... Read more

This article was also published as a press release on the Berkeley Lab News Center website.Today marks the start of a new era for research on energy-efficient buildings at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Lab leadership and distinguished guests from the U.S. Department of Energy, the state of California, utilities and the building industry broke ground on the start of... Read more

In 2002, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory introduced its non-proprietary Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) – the standard for open automation of building electricity demand response and price communications. According to Berkeley Lab, although OpenADR 1.0 was developed for US markets, it is now becoming an integral component of the international Smart Grid, as well.... Read more

It’s official: California’s big three utilities are getting behind OpenADR 2.0, the latest version of an open standard for turning buildings, motors, microgrids and other distributed forms of “demand” into grid assets. Starting next year, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric will ask their partners to support OpenADR 2.0-certified products... Read more

ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects – Energy) has announced 66 research grants to develop transformational energy technologies. Two projects were awarded to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researchers. Researchers from Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) will also participate in a third project awarded to the University of California,... Read more

Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR)—the standard for open automation of building electricity demand response and price communications—has gained considerable attention since it emerged from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab's) Demand Response Research Center in 2002. This non-proprietary DR interface facilitates open, standardized communication that enables power... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced that it was awarding a $120 M Energy Storage Hub to a consortium led by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), with the participation of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Scientists in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) of Berkeley Lab will play a lead role in the battery research hub.Read the Department of Energy... Read more

The California and Council of Science and Technology has released the next in its series of studies documenting the technology required to meet radical greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts by 2050 (80 percent below 1990 levels). This report focuses on strategies for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions through energy-efficient technologies and retrofits of the residential and industrial... Read more

This article was originally published on the website of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Molecular Foundry:Heliotrope Technologies, a Molecular Foundry spinoff company, has been declared the winner of the 2012 NOVA Innovation Competition. An Oakland, CA based start-up, Heliotrope works to develop energy-efficient electrochromic window coatings that can switch reversibly between three... Read more

Contact: Allan Chen (510) 486-4210, [email protected] Contacts: Galen Barbose (510) 495-2593, [email protected]; Ryan Wiser (510) 486-5474, [email protected] installed price of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2011 and through the first half of 2012, according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost-tracking report... Read more

Today marks the opening of the first two testbeds of FLEXLAB®, the Facility for Low Energy eXperiments in Buildings at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Constructed within an existing building, Berkeley Lab researchers and their partners will study and demonstrate energy-efficient lighting and plug load systems, and collaborate in the design of the next generation of... Read more

Congratulations to Mary Ann Piette, Head of the Building Technology and Urban Systems Department in EETD. She has been named one of the VERGE 25 by GreenBiz.com. She was cited in the category of next-gen buildings for “Setting the research agenda for smart, efficient and connected buildings.” According to their website, “The VERGE 25 Awards celebrate executives, entrepreneurs, policy makers,... Read more

Vince Battaglia leads a behind-the-scenes tour of Berkeley Lab's BATT, the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies Program he leads, where researchers aim to improve batteries upon which the range, efficiency, and power of tomorrow's electric cars will depend. This is the first in a forthcoming series of videos taking viewers into the laboratories and research facilities that members of... Read more

The University of California, Berkeley announced today that Ashok Gadgil, leader of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), will lead the new Development Impact Laboratory (DIL). Gadgil is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley.The United States Agency for International Development is funding DIL with up to... Read more

Research HighlightThe following article is by Vi Rapp, a postdoctoral scholar in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division.Air sealing of homes to reduce the uncontrolled entry of outdoor air is typically among the most cost-effective retrofit measures to reduce energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Airtight envelopes are at the center of energy efficient upgrade... Read more

Researchers of the Indoor Environment Group are seeking participants for an indoor air quality study. All non-smoking California homes are eligible. Participants are asked to complete 2 phone interviews about their home (10-30 minutes each), and set up a small package of air samplers, which they receive by mail, in their home for a 6-day period. In return, they will receive information about their... Read more

A first-of-its-kind study of the indoor air quality of 40 childcare centers in California finds that most concentrations of contaminants in the air are well within state and federal guidelines, although a few chemicals such as formaldehyde substantially exceeded guidelines. Randy Maddalena and Thomas McKone of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) participated in the study, which... Read more

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed Assembly Bill 296, which calls upon the California Department of Transportation to develop a standard specification for sustainable or cool pavements that can be used to mitigate urban heat islands. Cool pavements absorb less sunlight than conventional pavements, helping reduce surface and air temperatures in cities. The new specifications for cool... Read more

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed Assembly Bill 296, which calls upon the California Department of Transportation to develop a standard specification for sustainable or cool pavements that can be used to mitigate urban heat islands. Cool pavements absorb less sunlight than conventional pavements, helping reduce surface and air temperatures in cities. The new specifications for cool... Read more

A team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s (Berkeley Lab) Ashok Gadgil is the recipient of the 5th Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water. Gadgil, head of the Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division and a Professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, will receive the Creativity Prize on behalf of the team. The prize... Read more

A team of researchers from the Environmental Energy Technologies Division and State University of New York—Upstate Medical University has found that increasing indoor carbon dioxide concentrations at the higher end of the range typically measured in buildings, 1,000 parts per million, and 2,500 ppm, can reduce human decision-making performance. Relative to a concentration 600 ppm in a... Read more

The Smart Grid promises to deliver the right amount of power to the right equipment at the right time and at the right price. However, fulfillment of this promise is dependent on precise control of electricity, and is being offered just as renewable generation and variable pricing structures introduce more challenges to grid operations. Berkeley Lab’s Bruce Nordman and Alan Meier, and Ken... Read more

The Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Scientific Findings Resource Bank (IAQ-SFRB) serves as a resource for public health professionals, building professionals, and others who seek scientific information about the effects of IAQ on people's health or work performance. For general introductory-level background information on IAQ, please see An Overview of IAQ.The IAQ-SFRB provides information summarizing... Read more

What will California’s energy system look like in 2050 if the state reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below the 1990 level? Research conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Jeffery Greenblatt and Jane Long, California’s Energy Future Committee Co-Chair, answers that question by presenting portraits of a state energy system that achieves these reductions through... Read more