News

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have completed the first successful test to evaluate automated demand response at five large building facilities. Demand-response technology manages electrical use in the buildings over the internet, whenever high prices, blackouts, or overloaded electrical demand threaten the power grid.... Read more

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said last week they have wrapped up a successful trial run of an Internet-based system designed to avoid blackouts and help large electricity users cut their bills — without utility operators or building managers having to lift a finger.... Read more

BERKELEY, CA Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have completed the first successful test to evaluate automated demand response at five large building facilities. Demand-response technology manages electrical use in the buildings over the internet, whenever high prices, blackouts, or overloaded electrical demand threaten the power grid.... Read more

"To get to Mars, we need to develop a fully regenerative life-support system," says Ted Chang, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division who led the research. The key may be wheat.... Read more

Researchers in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) recently finished field-testing a "relocatable" classroom of their own design, intended to save energy and provide good indoor air quality. This last in a series of Science Beat articles on energy-efficient buildings looks at how energy costs can be reduced and air quality can be improved in... Read more

This web site is designed for middle and high school students, their teachers and their parents. Students use the web-based Home Energy Saver (a "virtual laboratory" for studying energy use and savings in the home) to conduct energy efficiency audits. HES in turn accesses a sophisticated computer model, called DOE-2, developed by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The site... Read more

Developing internet-based control systems to improve the energy efficiency of buildings is one of the key elements of the recently concluded High-Performance Commercial Buildings Systems (HPCBS) research program funded by the California Energy Commission.... Read more

Commercial buildings in California are beginning to use less energy, thanks to a major energy-efficiency research program based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, recently completed.... Read more

The Advanced Window Systems Test Facility was built to test new window technology that will increase energy savings and occupant comfort.... Read more

Within hours of the August 14 blackout, researchers throughout the U.S. in the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) began mobilizing resources to help the U.S. Department of Energy find an answer. Among them is Berkeley Lab's Joe Eto of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, who overnight became a much sought-after expert on the subject.... Read more

The Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) was formed in 1999 to research, develop, and disseminate new methods, tools, and technologies to protect and enhance the reliability of the U.S. electric power system and functioning of a competitive electricity market.... Read more

Within hours of the August 14 blackout, researchers throughout the U.S. in the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) began mobilizing resources to help the U.S. Department of Energy find an answer. Among them is Berkeley Lab's Joe Eto of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, who overnight became a much sought-after expert on the subject. A unique type of... Read more

Industrial research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory covers a wide spectrum of practical applications. Berkeley Lab researchers work closely with representatives from many industries to analyze and improve industrial processes.... Read more

EETD's Indoor Environment Department has developed a new web site on commercial buildings, showcasing results of recent research concerning ventilation and indoor air quality. The audience for this web site is building managers, architects, and other building professionals.... Read more

The World Technology Network has announced that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division has won the 2003 World Technology Award for Energy, in the corporate category. The awards honor individuals and corporations from 20 technology-related sectors selected by their peers as being the innovators doing work of the greatest likely long-term significance.... Read more

R&D Magazine has announced the winners of the 41st annual R&D 100 Awards, honoring the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year. One of the 2003 awards, which have been called the "Oscars of Invention," has gone to a technology developed by scientists at Berkeley Lab's EETD and their collaborators: the EnergyPlus Building Simulation Program.... Read more

Billions of dollars could be saved by improving the power management interface on computers, monitors, copiers, and other office equipment.... Read more

EETD works with America's communities through the Department of Energy's Rebuild America program.... Read more

Berkeley Lab researchers invent an aerosol duct sealing system to reduce energy loss in large commercial buildings.... Read more

With the help of technical advice from EETD's China Energy Group, as well as experts from other institutions around the globe, energy efficiency is playing a larger role in China's energy plans.... Read more

A new web site describing Berkeley Lab's capabilities in the area of sensor technology development for industrial applications is now online.... Read more

EETD researchers are studying the energy savings of a new energy-efficient lighting control system to be installed at a DoubleTree Hotel in Sacramento, under an agreement just signed by Berkeley Lab, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), DoubleTree Hotels, and The Watt Stopper, Inc. The system was based on research performed by EETD scientists on improving hotel room energy efficiency,... Read more

EETD scientists are helping to develop a new approach to power generation in which a cluster of small, on-site generators serves office buildings, industrial parks, and homes. Called a microgrid, the system could help shoulder the nation's growing thirst for electricity—estimated to jump by almost 400 gigawatts by 2025—without overburdening aging transmission lines or building the 1,000 new... Read more

The California electricity crisis has receded from the headlines, but energy costs are still high in the state. So there was anticipation in the audience when Oakland's Mayor Jerry Brown announced the start of the Oakland Energy Partnership at a news conference on January 9, 2003. Developed with the help of EETD researchers, Quantum Consulting, and other experts, the new $6 million partnership has... Read more

A new article by Ashok Gadgil and Jon Koomey, of EETD, and Paul Craig, Professor Emeritus of Engineering at the University of California at Davis, published in the 2002 Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, assesses the success of many of the major long-term energy forecasts published in the United States dating back to the 1960s. A second article by Jon Koomey of EETD and others in the... Read more