News

Help the Residential Building Systems Group of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division to model exposures to air pollutants in homes! Please take a few minutes and fill out our cooking survey.The survey asks questions about what and how you have cooked in past 24 hours in your home. The survey does not ask for any private information and should only take 10 minutes of your time. Previous... Read more

The Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) program has issued its second quarterly report of research highlights for Fiscal Year 2012. You can download it from the BATT web site.The BATT Program is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Vehicle Technologies (OVT) to help develop high-performance rechargeable batteries for use in electric vehicles (EVs) and... Read more

From Symmetry Magazine, a publication of Fermilab and SLAC: Brian Gerke follows the second law of thermodynamics: He likes to spread his energy in different directions. An English major who also studied physics—not physics for poets, but a rigorous second major in physics—Gerke has always prized a full, diverse life. So even though it wasn't an easy decision after 10 years in cosmology... Read more

The Energy Service Company (ESCO) industry is analyzed in a new report from the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).The authors of the study conceived it as a snapshot of the ESCO industry prior to the economic slowdown and the introduction of federal stimulus funding mandated by enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act... Read more

Alan Meier, a scientist in EETD and at the University of California, Davis, as well as Executive Editor of Home Energy magazine, has published an article there titled "Why Japan's ELectricity Crisis Matter." Here's an excerpt and a link to the full piece:You may not read about it on the front page of the newspapers, but Japan is undergoing a second electricity crisis. The first took place last... Read more

As high-performance supercomputer performance begins to approach the Exascale range, the accompanying increases in electricity required to power these computers is motivating developers to produce components that provide higher flops (floating-point operations per second) per watt. It is well agreed that improved performance will save both time and computing costs, but how is performance best... Read more

The Heat Island Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laborartory, in partnership with Graniterock, hosted a free seminar titled "The Benefits of Reflective Pavements" at LBNL on Tuesday June 19, 2012. The event featured presentations by leading experts to explain the benefits of reflective pavements for pedestrian safety, pavement durability, community cooling, and local air quality.Click here for... Read more

Greenwire has published an article describing Department of Energy Secretary Chu's research collaboration with Robert van Buskirk and Colleen Kantner of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division. Their research, which is in press, examines the cost of producing more energy-efficient appliances."For energy efficiency, Chu's Law is on the way."... Read more

The Heat Island Group, in partnership with the Facilities Division, has launched an exhibit of “cool” pavement technologies in the newly-opened Bevatron parking lot, unveiling four solar-reflective coatings donated by Emerald Cities Cool Pavement. This showcase of Berkeley Lab’s cool pavement research is part of a cooperative effort with the State of California to advance the use of cool... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in partnership with Graniterock, will host a free seminar titled "The Benefits of Reflective Pavements" at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Tuesday June 19, 2012, from 10 am to 2 pm. The event will feature presentations by leading experts to explain the benefits of reflective pavements for pedestrian safety, pavement durability, community cooling, and... Read more

Global news agency AFP interviewed Dr. Arthur Rosenfeld, Scientist Emeritus with the Heat Island Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in video report titled "White roofs, cool city." The report highlighted California's leadership in cool roof policy, namely the requirement in its Building Energy Efficiency Code (Title 24) that all new or renovated low-slope roofs must be white or... Read more

SAN JOSE and BERKELEY, Calif. – June 12, 2012 – The City of San Jose and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) today announced a partnership to accelerate the advancement of clean energy technologies while also helping San Jose and other cities achieve their environmental sustainability goals. The partnership brings together the extensive capabilities of San Jose’s ProspeCT... Read more

The spring 2012 issue of the EETD News is posted here.Contents:Cap and Trade Programs and InnovationAshok Gadgil Wins 2012 Lemelson-MIT Award for InnovationEffect of Soot on Snow and Ice AlbedoBerkeley Lab Technology Improves Laser SpectroscopyTraveling the Road not Taken in Fuel Cell Research... Read more

A new report released by the State and Local Energy Efficiency Action Network (SEE Action) prepared by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provides guidance and recommendations on methodologies that can be used for rigorously estimating energy savings from residential behavior-based efficiency programs. The report was designed for regulators, evaluation professionals, program... Read more

Cooking exhaust hoods designed for home kitchens vary widely in their ability to capture and vent away the air pollutants generated by the gas burners on cook stoves, according to a study by two Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists. Of seven representative devices they tested, the capture efficiency varied from less than 15 percent to more than 98 percent.The study, by... Read more

Marc Fischer, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), presented research results about methane, as part of a panel discussion on short-lived greenhouse pollutants, and climate change at a recent meeting of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on May 24. He was one of six distinguished scientists who presented there. Their research suggested that focusing on... Read more

CalCEF, which creates innovative financial products for the clean energy economy, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) today announced a partnership to launch CalCharge, a consortium uniting California’s emerging and established battery technology companies with critical academic and government resources. By bringing together the dozens of battery companies and institutions... Read more

Demand response programs to date have largely relied on a labor-intensive approach that has required operators in different customer sites to manually turn off lights, HVAC equipment, and other energy consuming systems to control peak demand and balance loads on the grid.... Read more

A profile of EETD's Emily Fisher appears in the current eNews Update of the Power and Energy Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Fisher conducts research on bulk power transmission systems: planning, policy, modeling, reliability and operations.... Read more

Nine groups of university students will present their prototypes for the next generation of energy-efficient appliances and commercial equipment on May 23 by webinar hosted at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This event is the culmination of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Max Tech and Beyond Competition, which challenged the nation’s universities to submit proposals for advanced... Read more

The Lemelson-MIT Program today announced Dr. Ashok Gadgil as the recipient of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation in recognition of his steady pursuit to blend research, invention, and humanitarianism for broad social impact. Gadgil is the Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and a professor of... Read more

The Darfur Stoves Project has changed its name to Potential Energy. This change reflects the non-profit organization's expansion beyond Darfur and our intention to disseminate technologies in addition to cookstoves.The organization states its mission this way: "Potential Energy’s mission is to adapt and scale technologies that improve lives in developing countries. We believe there is a wealth... Read more

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 8:00 am - 4:00 pmMicrosoft Auditorium, 1288 Pear Ave., Mountain View, CA (map)The Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is an event partner with Joint Venture Silicon Valley of the Silicon Valley Energy Storage Symposium.This symposium will bring together key participants—from the public and private sectors and from the... Read more

Dale Sartor, an expert on energy efficiency for data centers in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, will be a speaker at an event hosted by Sustainable Silicon Valley in Palo Alto. "Data Centers represent a significant opportunity for companies (and all instiitutions) to save energy and costs, while achieving high performance. The life cycle cost of energy for high technology gear is... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has been selected to lead a new joint U.S.-India research center focusing on energy efficiency technologies for buildings. It is one of three consortia that will make up the U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC). Together, these three groups will receive a total of $5 million this year from the U.S. Department of... Read more