Research Themes +
Energy Technologies Area (ETA) researchers are continually building on the strong scientific foundation we have developed over the past 50 years. We address the world’s most pressing climate challenges by bringing to market energy-efficient innovations across the buildings, transportation, and industrial sectors. ETA is at the forefront of developing better batteries for electric vehicles; improving the country's aging electrical grid and innovating distributed energy and storage solutions; developing grid-interactive, efficient buildings; and providing the most comprehensive market and data analysis worldwide for renewable technologies like wind and solar.
Strategic Initiatives +
The Energy Technologies Area (ETA) Strategic Plan is the guiding force for our research and development for the next ten years. It clearly charts a path toward clean-energy solutions and focuses on five detailed Strategic Initiatives. The Plan provides an in-depth look at how ETA is accelerating research to provide affordable, clean energy to all while accomplishing deep, economy-wide decarbonization, looking to avoid a rise in global average temperature while simultaneously developing solutions to increase humanity's resilience to extreme weather volatility.
Publications
News +
For media inquiries,
please contact ETA
Interim Communications Manager
Kiran Julin

kjulin@lbl.gov
About Us +
The Energy Technologies Area (ETA) is unique in translating fundamental scientific discoveries into scalable technology adoption. Our approach combines an understanding of the marketplace and the role of state and federal regulation and policies. ETA's research drives real-world, practical results that affect and improve the everyday lives of Americans and those across the globe. Saving energy and battling the Climate Crisis are key to the foundation of our research, which is driven by technoeconomic analysis and in-lab experimentation and discovery.

Publications

Publications by Research Area

Demand Response

Electricity Markets & Policy

Energy Efficiency

Industrial Energy Analysis

Renewable Energy

Sustainable Energy & Environmental Systems

Publications by Division

Building Technology (BTUS)

Energy Analysis (EAEI)

Energy Storage (ESDR)

2022

Orner, Kevin D., Sarah Josephine Smith, Sarah L. Nordahl, Alicia Chakrabarti, Hanna Breunig, Corinne D. Scown, Harold Leverenz, Kara L. Nelson, and Arpad Horvath."Environmental and Economic Impacts of Managing Nutrients in Digestate Derived from Sewage Sludge and High-Strength Organic Waste."Environmental Science & Technology 56.23 (2022) 17256 - 17265. DOI

Breunig, Hanna, Sarah Josephine Smith, Laxmi Rao, Alastair Robinson, Jacky Kinson, Robert Thornton, Corinne D. Scown, and Vi H. Rapp."Economic and greenhouse gas analysis of regional bioenergy-powered district energy systems in California."Resources, Conservation and Recycling 180 (2022) 106187. DOI

2021

Orner, Kevin D., Sarah Josephine Smith, Hanna Breunig, Corinne D. Scown, and Kara L. Nelson."Fertilizer demand and potential supply through nutrient recovery from organic waste digestate in California."Water Research 206 (2021) 117717. DOI

Smith, Sarah Josephine, Andrew Satchwell, Thomas W. Kirchstetter, and Corinne D. Scown."The implications of facility design and enabling policies on the economics of dry anaerobic digestion."Waste Management 128 (2021) 122 - 131. DOI

2020

Gerke, Brian F., Giulia Gallo, Sarah Josephine Smith, Jingjing Liu, Shuba V. Raghavan, Peter Schwartz, Mary Ann Piette, Rongxin Yin, and Sofia Stensson."The California Demand Response Potential Study, Phase 3: Final Report on the Shift Resource through 2030." (2020). DOI

Nordahl, Sarah L., Jay P. Devkota, Jahon Amirebrahimi, Sarah Josephine Smith, Hanna Breunig, Chelsea V. Preble, Andrew Satchwell, Ling Jin, Nancy J. Brown, Thomas W. Kirchstetter, and Corinne D. Scown."Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Human Health Trade-Offs of Organic Waste Management StrategiesLife-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Human Health Trade-Offs of Organic Waste Management Strategies."Environmental Science & Technology 54.15 (2020) 9200 - 9209. DOI

Masanet, Eric R., Arman Shehabi, Nuoa Lei, Sarah Josephine Smith, and Jonathan G. Koomey."Recalibrating global data center energy-use estimates."Science 367.6481 (2020) 984 - 986. DOI

2019

Breunig, Hanna, Jahon Amirebrahimi, Sarah Josephine Smith, and Corinne D. Scown."Role of Digestate and Biochar in Carbon-Negative Bioenergy."Environmental Science & Technology (2019). DOI

2018

Satchwell, Andrew, Corinne D. Scown, Sarah Josephine Smith, Jahon Amirebrahimi, Ling Jin, Thomas W. Kirchstetter, Nancy J. Brown, and Chelsea V. Preble."Accelerating the Deployment of Anaerobic Digestion to Meet Zero Waste Goals."Environmental Science & Technology 52.23 (2018) 13663–13669. DOI

Deason, Jeff, Max Wei, Greg Leventis, Sarah Josephine Smith, and Lisa C. Schwartz."Electrification of buildings and industry in the United States: Drivers, barriers, prospects, and policy approaches." (2018).

Shehabi, Arman, Sarah Josephine Smith, Eric R. Masanet, and Jonathan G. Koomey."Data center growth in the United States: decoupling the demand for services from electricity use."Environmental Research Letters 13.12 (2018) 124030. DOI

2017

Alstone, Peter, Jennifer Potter, Mary Ann Piette, Peter Schwartz, Michael A. Berger, Laurel N. Dunn, Sarah Josephine Smith, Michael D. Sohn, Arian Aghajanzadeh, Sofia Stensson, and Julia Szinai."Demand Response Potential for California SubLAPs and Local Capacity Planning Areas: An Addendum to the 2025 California Demand Response Potential Study - Phase 2." (2017).

Wei, Max, Sarah Josephine Smith, and Michael D. Sohn."Experience curve development and cost reduction disaggregation for fuel cell markets in Japan and the US."Applied Energy 191 (2017) 346 - 357. DOI

Schwartz, Lisa C., Max Wei, William R. Morrow III, Jeff Deason, Steven R. Schiller, Greg Leventis, Sarah Josephine Smith, Woei Ling Leow, Todd Levin, Steven Plotkin, Yan Zhou, and Joseph Teng."Electricity end uses, energy efficiency, and distributed energy resources baseline." (2017).

2016

Smith, Sarah Josephine, Max Wei, and Michael D. Sohn."A retrospective analysis of compact fluorescent lamp experience curves and their correlations to deployment programs."Energy Policy 98 (2016) 505 - 512. DOI

Smith, Sarah Josephine, Max Wei, and Michael D. Sohn."A retrospective analysis of compact fluorescent lamp experience curves and their correlations to deployment programs."Energy Policy 98 (2016) 505 - 512. DOI

Morrow, William R. III, Arman Shehabi, and Sarah Josephine Smith."Lifecycle Industry GreenHouse gas, Technology and Energy through the Use Phase (LIGHTEnUP) – Analysis Tool User’s Guide." (2016).

Shehabi, Arman, Sarah Josephine Smith, Dale A. Sartor, Richard E. Brown, Magnus Herrlin, Jonathan G. Koomey, Eric R. Masanet, Nathaniel Horner, Inês Lima Azevedo, and William Lintner."United States Data Center Energy Usage Report." (2016).

Alstone, Peter, Jennifer Potter, Mary Ann Piette, Peter Schwartz, Michael A. Berger, Laurel N. Dunn, Sarah Josephine Smith, Michael D. Sohn, Arian Aghajanzadeh, Sofia Stensson, and Julia Szinai."2015 California Demand Response Potential Study - Charting California's Demand response Future: Interim Report on Phase 1 Results." (2016).

2015

Wei, Max, Sarah Josephine Smith, and Michael D. Sohn."Non-Constant Learning Rates in Retrospective Experience Curve Analyses and their Correlation to Deployment Programs."Energy Policy 107 (2015) 356–369. DOI

Morrow, William R. III, Arman Shehabi, and Sarah Josephine Smith."Manufacturing Cost Levelization Model – A User’s Guide." (2015).

Smith, Sarah Josephine, Max Wei, and Michael D. Sohn."Retrospective North American CFL Experience Curve Analysis and Correlation to Deployment Programs." (2015).