News

Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area staff have provided technical support to the Efficient and Healthy Schools Program since its launch in 2021. The team supporting this program includes staff from Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area who helped design and administer the program, including technical assistance and recognition for schools and districts. The program team works... Read more

As the world copes with more extreme heat because of climate change, the need for efficient cooling devices is more pressing than ever. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is co-leading an effort to create global equipment guidelines that serve the places where this equipment is needed most. In October, the Lab and the United Nations Environment Program’s United for Efficiency... Read more

Several employees in the Energy Technologies Area were honored in this year’s Director’s Awards at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab). The Lab’s Director’s Awards program recognizes employees’ accomplishments, leadership, collaboration, multi-disciplinary science, cross-divisional projects, and commitment to excellence in support of the Lab’s... Read more

Physicist Senior Scientist Vassilia Zorba, leader of the Laser Technologies Group in the Energy Storage and DIstributed Resources Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has been recognized by multiple field-leading groups as a key figure in optics and photonics today. The professional society Optica (formerly OSA) – one of the largest in the field with 24,000 members,... Read more

During a ceremony at the White House today, President Biden awarded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) retired Faculty Senior Scientist Ashok Gadgil the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement. His award is “for providing life-sustaining resources to communities around the world. His innovative, inexpensive... Read more

Growing up in Mumbai, India in the 1950s, Ashok Gadgil remembers his small apartment overflowing with books. “My dad was a member of a number of libraries and he would bring in a dozen books at a time,” he fondly recalls. These early experiences contributed to his growing curiosity and awareness of the world, and subsequently, his interest in science. Gadgil earned degrees in physics from the... Read more

By harnessing the power of AI and machine learning, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists are developing a tool that predicts properties of high-potential, bio-based molecules and fuels, paving the way for cost-effective and sustainable jet fuel production. This innovation offers a promising short-term solution to reduce emissions. This video originally appeared at the Berkeley Lab News... Read more

Resource adequacy (RA) – the ability of the power system to meet load whenever and wherever is needed – has come under scrutiny with recent widespread interruptions due to weather events and the challenges brought on by decarbonization. Our report titled “A Guide for Improved Resource Adequacy Assessments in Evolving Power Systems” proposes a technical-institutional roadmap to assist... Read more

Several states in MISO and SPP previously opted out of allowing third-party aggregators of retail customers to directly participate in the demand response programs of organized wholesale markets following FERC Order 719. Some have begun to explore the possibility of allowing direct third-party participation in organized wholesale markets in light of FERC Order 2222 which requires states to allow... Read more

Hydrogen, the smallest element in the universe, has huge potential as a clean energy source. Using hydrogen (H2) as a fuel and as a means of storing energy could reduce our dependence on petroleum and help us reduce air pollution and greenhouse emissions to meet our goals for a cleaner and better climate. However, adopting hydrogen power on a large scale requires advances in technology and the... Read more

We are pleased to release the 2023 edition of Berkeley Lab’s Utility-Scale Solar report, which presents analysis of empirical plant-level data from the U.S. fleet of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV), PV+battery, and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) plants with capacities exceeding 5 MWAC. While focused on key developments in 2022, this report explores trends in deployment, technology,... Read more

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will receive more than $9.7 million in federal funding to enhance the cybersecurity of our nation’s clean energy infrastructure. The award comes from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) as part of a $39 million package distributed across nine innovative... Read more

The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will host two new centers dedicated to advancing clean energy technology and combating climate change. The awards are part of DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative that launched in 2021 with the goal of speeding up technological breakthroughs and lowering costs. DOE has so far launched seven Earthshots spanning clean... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced up to $25 million to help six teams across the nation develop affordable, equitable, and reliable clean energy systems in their communities. The funding comes through the Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) partnerships program, an initiative designed to support local decarbonization strategies. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is... Read more

China has implemented reforms in its electricity markets as part of its goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, but the country has not fully realized the potential cuts in emissions. Recent work led by Jiang Lin of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) helped explain why. The “results begin to fill a notable gap in our understanding of what mediates the effectiveness of... Read more

Energy efficiency improvements in buildings could save the United States more than $100 billion in the effort to cut carbon emissions, according to a recent analysis from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab). That striking figure and other highlights from the "U.S. Building Sector Decarbonization Scenarios to 2050" report are the subject of a new blog post from the Natural Resources... Read more

We are pleased to announce the release of the latest edition of Berkeley Lab’s Tracking the Sun annual report, describing pricing and design trends for grid-connected, distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) and PV-plus-storage systems in the United States. The report is based on data from roughly 3.2 million systems installed nationally through year-end 2022, representing more than 80% of all... Read more

What would an efficient and decarbonized buildings sector look like in 2050? A new study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) quantified up to a 91% reduction in carbon emissions from buildings with a combination of energy efficiency, demand flexibility, electrification measures, and a decarbonized grid. Berkeley Lab researchers, in... Read more

For roughly the past year, 21 public utility commissions have been receiving technical assistance from a consortium of National Laboratories, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and funded by the Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Initiative, a collaborative partnership of five DOE Offices: Fossil Energy and Carbon Management; Nuclear Energy; Electricity; Energy Efficiency and... Read more

A consortium of the nation’s best battery scientists, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), will accelerate the commercialization of a new family of battery cathode materials called DRX or “disordered rock salt.” DRX cathodes could provide batteries with higher energy density than conventional lithium-ion battery cathodes made of nickel and cobalt, two metals that are... Read more

Innovative water treatment and desalination technologies hold promise for building climate resilience, realizing a circular water economy, and bolstering water security. However, more research and development is critical not only to radically lower the cost and energy of such technologies, but to effectively treat unconventional water sources. Conventional water supplies, such as fresh water and... Read more

Berkeley Lab-EPRI study quantifies the pros and cons of multiple participation models for hybrid power plants Utility-scale hybrid storage projects are on the rise in the U.S. The growth of these unique resources – which comprise battery energy storage and a separate technology, often solar or wind, behind the same point of interconnection – creates uncertainties for system operators, who... Read more

Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE) at the UC Berkeley School of Law are leading a project to explore the creation of a Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility that uses cutting-edge technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in California’s Southern San Joaquin Valley (SSJV). This foundational... Read more

Inflation Reduction Act promises new market dynamics for wind deployment and supply chains We are pleased to announce the release of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s annual “Land-Based Wind Market Report: 2023 Edition.” The release provides an updated overview of data and trends in land-based wind energy in the U.S., in the form of a report, a briefing slide deck, a data file, and a... Read more

Two innovative technologies from the Energy Technologies Area (ETA) are among four at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) that have been honored with a 2023 R&D 100 Award. The award, presented by R&D Magazine and selected by an independent panel of judges, recognizes the year’s 100 most innovative and disruptive technology products from... Read more