News

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was recently honored with a prestigious Green Leadership Award at the 12th Annual Green California Summit in Sacramento.The Lab's Energy Technologies Area (ETA) was highlighted for innovative breakthroughs in the energy efficiency category for research aimed at helping California meet its zero net energy (ZNE) building goals, while ensuring adequate indoor air... Read more

Hanna Breunig has always forged her own path in science. “If something feels right, I don’t hesitate to pursue an idea that could make the world a better place,” says Breunig, a senior scientific engineering associate in the Energy Technologies Area.Now with funding from an Early Career Laboratory Directed Research and Development award announced last November, she’s looking for affordable... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in collaboration with public and private partners, has released the most comprehensive publicly available database yet of U.S. wind turbine locations and characteristics. The United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) will allow unparalleled ability for government agencies and others to make planning decisions. The USWTDB, funded by the U.S.... Read more

Lab researchers Marc Fischer, Seongeun Jeong, and Xinguang Cui contributed to a study led by Imperial College London that reported a new technique to estimate CO2 emissions from fossil fuels using atmospheric measurements, tested over three months in California. This is the first time fossil fuel emissions have been independently checked for such a large area. Read the full article at the Berkeley... Read more

Whether it’s e-cigarettes or emerging heated tobacco products, the market for electronic nicotine delivery systems is booming. Most scientists agree that vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco, but how much is known about the “clouds” they create? ETA’s Hugo Destaillats discusses the chemical composition of these complex aerosols in a recent article in the Analytical Scientist.... Read more

It may be only a matter of time before urban dwellers can hail a self-driving taxi, so researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley decided to analyze the cost, energy, and environmental implications of a fleet of self-driving electric vehicles operating in Manhattan.Using models they built and data from more than 10 million taxi... Read more

Stakeholders in government, business, and academia recently met to identify solutions to Mexico’s growing space cooling (air conditioning) energy demand. The “Summit on Space Cooling Research Needs and Opportunities in Mexico” was convened by the Berkeley Lab Mexico Energy Initiative and United States Agency for International Development, in partnership with Mexico. More information is... Read more

Berkeley Lab's International Energy Studies group recently hosted a delegation from the Indonesian Government to discuss energy efficiency and clean energy issues. The delegation was led by Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs (CMMA) Deputy Minister for Infrastructure Ridwan Djamaluddin. Berkeley Lab researchers identified 10 GW of peak load savings from energy efficiency, and presented the... Read more

Read about one researcher's take on the experience of forming research partnerships between academia, national laboratories and private industry that serve the public good.Corinne Scown is Deputy for Research in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.... Read more

Research by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) suggests that traffic apps might work for an individual, but could make congestion worse overall. “This problem has been vastly overlooked,” said Alexandre Bayen of the Lab’s Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division in The Atlantic. “It is just the beginning of something that is going be much worse.” Read... Read more

Most Americans don’t realize cooking can be a major source of indoor air pollutants, unless they’ve recently burned something on the stove. But studies have shown that cooking-related contaminants can cause health problems such as respiratory illness and asthma attacks.To learn more, I spoke with Brett Singer, PhD, a scientist at Berkeley Lab who investigates indoor air quality. Recently, he... Read more

Berkeley Lab-led study suggests early exposure to thirdhand smoke may lead to greater health risks later in life.Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) identified thirdhand smoke, the toxic residues that linger on indoor surfaces and in dust long after a cigarette has been extinguished, as a health hazard nearly 10 years ago. Now a new... Read more

in light of changes in how electricity is being both generated and consumed, the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has written a new report analyzing challenges facing the nation's electric grid and making recommendations for ensuring continued reliability.The report was prepared for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Office of Electric... Read more

With traffic congestion at a record high, some Bay Area officials would like to see more people take public transportation to work. Habits, however, are hard to break — and so the gridlock grinds on, with no solution in sight.But for Anna Spurlock, an environmental and behavioral economist in the Electricity Markets and Policy Group of the Lab's Energy Technologies Area, the path to changing our... Read more

Through the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) program, the U.S. Department of Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and U.S. industry, are working together to accelerate the research, development and deployment (RD&D) of advanced building energy efficiency technologies. A cornerstone of the program is R&D on building energy... Read more

The 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development was held in Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on December 9–11, 2017. This important forum allows Chinese leadership to engage the international community on environment and development issues. The theme of the 2017 meeting was “Ecological Civilization in Action: a... Read more

On December 12th in Beijing, China, Carolyn Szum participated in a panel discussion entitled, “International Green Finance Experience Exchange,” alongside representatives from Citibank, HSBC, and the Green Climate Fund, to advise leading Chinese banks and government agencies, such as Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission), People’s Bank of China, China Banking and... Read more

Berkeley Lab Atmospheric Chemist Allen Goldstein and Theoretical Physicist Hitoshi Murayama received prestigious research grants from the Humboldt Foundation, which promotes collaborative research with German scientists. As part of the award, the two researchers will be invited to spend a period of up to one year cooperating with colleagues at a research institution in Germany.Goldstein is a... 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

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

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

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

The International Energy Studies Group is pleased to announce the release of Berkeley Lab’s new study: Energy Efficiency Roadmap for Uganda, Making Energy Efficiency Count.The Energy Efficiency Roadmap for Uganda is a response to the important role that electrical energy efficiency can play in meeting Uganda’s energy development goals. The report shows that implementing energy efficiency in... Read more