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Power plants and other industrial facilities often spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere like a leaky faucet. As governments around the world are striving to reduce and even eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions and reach “net zero” emissions by mid-century, they’re looking for technologies to help. What if we could somehow suck up all that carbon dioxide, like a giant vacuum cleaner? A... Read more

Innovation is essential for future power systems to be “safe and secure, clean and sustainable, affordable and equitable, and reliable and resilient," according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In order to attain these goals, state regulatory reforms are needed to encourage adoption of the technologies that can support the evolution of the nation’s power... Read more

Berkeley Lab-led study shows over 1,300 gigawatts of solar, storage, and wind in interconnection queues - an indicator of a major energy transition underway, even if most proposed projects will not be built The amount of new power generation and energy storage in the transmission interconnection queues across the U.S. continues to rise dramatically, with over 1,400 gigawatts (GW) of total... Read more

Record Amounts of Zero-carbon Electricity Generation and Storage now Seeking Grid Interconnection Berkeley Lab-led study shows over 1,300 gigawatts of solar, storage, and wind in interconnection queues – an indicator of a major energy transition underway, even if most proposed projects will not be built The amount of new power generation and energy storage projects in so-called... Read more

As the transition to clean energy accelerates, developers are rushing to get new generation projects connected to the grid. This has caused a traffic jam on the on-ramps, as projects clog up the “interconnection queues,” where developers apply to grid managers for access. Berkeley Lab’s Electricity Markets & Policy Department has been tracking the phenomenon, and analyzing ways that the... Read more

The third and final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Sixth Assessment Report calls for aggressive and comprehensive actions if we are to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century. It finds we still need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically, beyond what governments have pledged, and that this emissions gap is exacerbated by implementation gaps... Read more

We are pleased to announce that the Electricity Market and Policy Department has just published a paper, Large balancing areas and dispersed renewable investment enhance grid flexibility in a renewable-dominant power system in China. We found that larger balancing areas and more locally based renewable investment could provide significant benefits in system flexibility and reducing renewable... Read more

Improving a school's energy performance can affect more than utility bills — it can also boost indoor air quality and learning outcomes, making the classrooms healthier for students and staff. A new campaign, Efficient and Healthy Schools, will provide practical guidance on ventilation upgrades that can increase energy efficiency, lower costs, and improve the air at K-12 schools nationwide.... Read more

Performance of energy efficiency loans is comparable to prime auto loans, ripe for growth and investment A State and Local Energy Efficiency Action Network (SEE Action) study, recently announced by Department of Energy Secretary Granholm and developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, shows that financial institutions can lend money to their customers for energy efficiency improvements at... Read more

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with staff from the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, National Grid, and Rocky Mountain Institute, have authored two NREL technical reports on work culminating from a project of the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN). SEIN supports teams composed of diverse stakeholders... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presents a free webinar on April 13, 2022, to discuss and demonstrate a new tool for electricity decision-makers and stakeholders, the Time-Sensitive Value Calculator. Who: Natalie Mims Frick, Margaret Pigman and Juan Pablo Carvallo, Berkeley LabDate: April 13, 2022Time: 9-10 a.m. PacificRegister:... Read more

Exploring Wholesale Energy Price Trends: The Renewables and Wholesale Electricity Prices (ReWEP) tool, Version 2022.1 The Renewables and Wholesale Electricity Prices (ReWEP) visualization tool from Berkeley Lab has been updated with nodal electricity pricing and wind and solar generation data through the end of 2021. The tool allows users to explore trends in wholesale electricity prices and their... Read more

Information access, public participation, and fair decision-making are key to wind energy’s “procedural justice” Expanding wind energy deployment to meet climate and policy goals requires willing communities to host wind projects. Previous research finds that perceptions of the fairness of a wind project’s planning process strongly influences attitudes among host communities. Yet, few... Read more

Subsidies for low-income solar are reaching the right households and increasing adoption in disadvantaged communities. Many states have offered subsidies to promote rooftop solar adoption. Most of these subsidies have phased out over time, partly under the assumption that subsidies become less necessary as solar prices decline. However, even though solar prices have declined significantly,... Read more

Hydrogen is a colorless gas, but when it comes to talking about it – there’s a rainbow of possibilities. Energy professionals often use a color code system to categorize hydrogen by the carbon-emission impact of its production method. This simplified naming system can help ease conversations about research and policy towards a clean hydrogen vision and decarbonized future. However, as more... Read more

Berkeley Lab is pleased to announce the release of a new report, titled “Plant-level performance and degradation of 31 GWDC of utility-scale PV in the United States.” This report updates an earlier analysis first published two years ago, with the benefit of a 50% larger sample than in the original study, as well as two additional years of performance to evaluate. Specifically, we assess the... Read more

A modernized power grid fueled by renewable energy is at the heart of China’s pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, and a new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) outlines how China can overcome the current logistical challenges of decarbonizing its power system by reforming some key select operational practices.... Read more

A modernized power grid fueled by renewable energy is at the heart of China’s pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, and a new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) outlines how China can overcome the current logistical challenges of decarbonizing its power system by reforming some key select operational practices.... Read more

New Berkeley Lab study provides insights into wind turbine shadow flicker perception and annoyance The moving shadows caused by wind turbines, referred to as “shadow flicker” (SF) (see figure 1), are known to generate annoyance in some people. However, the relationship between the amount of SF exposure and the annoyance it causes is poorly understood. A better understanding of the magnitude,... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has released the latest edition of its annual report, Residential Solar-Adopter Income and Demographic Trends. The report, based on address-level data for 2.3 million residential solar adopters across the country, describes trends in solar-adopter household income levels, race and ethnicity, language preference, rural vs. urban, education levels, occupation... Read more

Researchers at Berkeley Lab are working with five other Department of Energy national labs to develop a roadmap for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to meet its 100% renewable energy mandate. A new Memorandum of Understanding, signed earlier this month between the Commonwealth and the federal government, kickstarts this “PR100 Study,” a two-year project funded by FEMA to conduct a comprehensive... Read more

A recent episode of A Day in the Half Life, a podcast produced by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), focuses on energy storage: What is it, why do we need it, and what are the latest advances? Host Aliyah Kovner talks with Noël Bakhtian, director of Berkeley Lab's Energy Storage Center, and Mike Gerhardt, research scientist at SINTEF, a research organization based in Norway.... Read more

The capacity factor of wind plants in the United States has improved significantly in recent years, with newer plants exhibiting higher capacity factors than older plants. Some researchers have attributed this increase to technology improvements that boost energy capture per unit capacity, while others have instead argued that the role of technology may be overstated, and that a substantial... Read more

Researchers at Berkeley Lab are working with five other Department of Energy national labs to develop a roadmap for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to meet its 100% renewable energy mandate. A new Memorandum of Understanding, signed earlier this month between the Commonwealth and the federal government, kickstarts this “PR100 Study,” a two-year project funded by FEMA to conduct a comprehensive... Read more

The Home Energy Score™ software suite, co-developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), was awarded the prestigious Federal Laboratory Consortium Impact Award (FLC) for excellence in technology transfer achievement. The FLC award is one of the field’s top honors for federal laboratories and their industry partners. Since 2012, the Home... Read more