News

The United States has made progress toward a more sustainable energy system since 2000 in some areas, and has moved away from sustainability in others, according to an analysis by Berkeley Lab scientists Mark Levine and Nathaniel Aden. Their analysis is published in a chapter of a new book, Agenda for a Sustainable America. The volume was published by the Environmental Law Institute and contains... Read more

Arun Majumdar's testimony outlines a potential national strategy for making buildings more energy-efficient and moving new buildings toward zero-net energy use. His strategy addresses needs in science and technology, policy and finance, technology deployment and market transformation, and workforce development.... Read more

No question there's plenty of bad news when it comes to the environment. Now get ready for some good news – scientists and engineers are working, right now, on some of the tools we hope will lift us out of our environmental malaise. Join Barbara Bogaev and explore Sustainability, part of the Global Challenges Series from the Purdue University College of Engineering.... Read more

"This is no time for business as usual," said Arun Majumdar, director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. "We need some major changes and innovation."... Read more

This article describes energy efficiency research in the University of California system, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Environmental Energy Technologies Division on efficient building technology.... Read more

A new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S. shows that the average cost of these systems declined significantly from 1998 to 2007, but remained relatively flat during the last two years of this period.... Read more

Research conducted at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that operating buildings more energy efficiently could have benefits for the health of occupants and, surprisingly, also for their comfort.The researchers, Mark Mendell and Anna Mirer of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, analyzed data collected from 95 air-conditioned office... Read more

In the current issue of Environmental Science and Technology, EETD's Evan Mills has a cover story, "Sustainable Scientists," examining how scientists might practice energy efficiency in research facilities to help reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions as well as reduce the amount of research money spent on energy costs. He notes that scientific research in the U.S. has a yearly energy bill of... Read more

Hashem Akbari and Surabi Menon, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and Art Rosenfeld, California Energy Commissioner, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Berkeley Lab scientist, have proposed a "Cool World" plan that would use white roofs, and solar-reflective roofs of other colors, to reduce... Read more

In this article, which provides a primer on Automated Demand Response (Auto‐DR) technology and results, we hope to ease the mystery that surrounds Auto‐DR and to open the door for ongoing ideas and discussions.... Read more

The Economist magazine has named California Energy Commissioner Art Rosenfeld recipient of one of this year's Innovation Awards. The weekly British magazine awards Innovation awards in several areas; Rosenfeld won the award in the "Energy and the Environment" sector. A former Berkeley Lab scientist, Rosenfeld was director of the Center for Building Science (Environmental Energy Technologies... Read more

Data centers are the unseen workhorses of the global economy. Their numbers have grown rapidly along with their energy use. Now, the government and the information technology industry are cooperating to develop solutions to the rapid rise in data center energy consumption. This article in the U.S. Department of Energy's Conservation Update covers research and program efforts to increase the energy... Read more

Royal Philips Electronics and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) today announced that they have signed an agreement to jointly research new energy-efficiency solutions for buildings. Philips and Berkeley Lab will work together to develop new technologies for the control of multiple building sub-systems such as lighting and temperature controls, and new building simulation tools... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley have announced a joint research and development program in which researchers will work with the government and private sector of India to develop paths toward reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) while maintaining sustained economic growth.... Read more

2008 Summer Lecture SeriesBerkeley LabJuly 1, 2008Here is a video of EETD scientist Surabi Menon delivering her Summer Lecture series talk on climate change.... Read more

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of California, the California Air Resources Board, and NASA will use aircraft outfitted with atmospheric sampling devices in mid-June to measure greenhouse gases over California, in an effort to better understand the relative... Read more

Faced with a crisis that suddenly pushed electricity prices up to five times the usual, Juneau responded with a campaign to cut energy use drastically. How do you save electricity in a hurry? One way to do it is to call in Berkeley Lab scientist Alan Meier, who wrote the book Saving Electricity in a Hurry while on leave to the International Energy Agency.... Read more

For the third consecutive year the U.S. was home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report whose primary authors were Ryan Wiser and Mark Bolinger, of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.... Read more

QUEST, a KQED multimedia series exploring Northern California science, environment, and nature, highlights the work of Ashok Gadgil and his colleagues.... Read more

The revised and updated 2nd edition of Jon Koomey's book Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving has been released by Analytics Press.The 2nd edition includes a new chapter on data sharing web sites, an epilogue summarizing Koomey's experience debunking an urban legend, an expanded further reading section, numerous updates and improvements throughout, and a new... Read more

Renewable electricity is being supported by a growing number of states through the creation of renewables portfolio standards (RPS). A report released by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) provides a comprehensive overview of the early experiences with these state-level RPS policies.... Read more

Science at the TheaterBerkeley Repertory TheaterBerkeley, CaliforniaMarch 10, 2008A talk by Mary Ann Piette, scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, on how automated demand response technology is reducing peak power demand in California.... Read more

The internet, along with a yellow box full of electronics installed in your office building or commercial facility, is the key to saving energy and managing grid emergencies during those hot summer days when power is scarce. These are the technology elements of "automated demand response." Thanks to research conducted at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with... Read more

California needs new, responsive, demand-side energy technologies to ensure that periods of tight electricity supply on the grid don't turn into power outages. Led by Berkeley Lab's Mary Ann Piette, the California Energy Commission (through its Public Interest Energy Research Program) has established a Demand Response Research Center that addresses two motivations for adopting demand... Read more

The Indian state of Maharashtra is at a crossroads. Its people endure frequent electricity blackouts due to a booming energy demand that far outpaces energy production. One solution is to build more coal-fired power plants, which are among the chief greenhouse-gas-emitting culprits of climate change. Another solution takes a different approach: reduce electricity demand, and the need for more... Read more