Energy Technologies Area

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 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)

Reset Search

2017

Chen, Yixing, Tianzhen Hong, and Mary Ann Piette."Automatic Generation and Simulation of Urban Building Energy Models Based on City Datasets for City-Scale Building Retrofit Analysis." (2017).

Luo, Na, Tianzhen Hong, Hui Li, Rouxi Jia, and Wenguo Weng."Data Analytics and Optimization of an Ice-Based Energy Storage System for Commercial Buildings." (2017).

van der Heijde, Brahm, Marcus Fuchs, Carles Ribas Tugores, Gerald Schweiger, Kevin Sartor, Daniele Basciotti, Dirk Muller, Christoph Nytsch-Geusen, Michael Wetter, and Lieve Helsen."Dynamic equation-based thermo-hydraulic pipe model for district heating and cooling systems."Energy Conversion and Management 151 (2017). DOI

Luo, Xuan, Tianzhen Hong, Yixing Chen, and Mary Ann Piette."Electric Load Shape Benchmarking for Small- and Medium-Sized Commercial Buildings." (2017).

Yoshino, Hiroshi, Tianzhen Hong, and Natasa Nord."IEA EBC Annex 53: Total Energy Use in Buildings – Analysis and Evaluation Methods."Energy and Buildings 152 (2017). DOI

Yan, Da, Tianzhen Hong, Bing Dong, Ardeshir Mahdavi, Simona D'Oca, Isabella Gaetani, and Xiaohang Feng."IEA EBC Annex 66: Definition and simulation of occupant behavior in buildings."Energy and Building 156 (2017). DOI

Zhang, Rongpeng, and Tianzhen Hong."Modeling of HVAC Operational Faults in Building Performance Simulation." (2017).

Hong, Tianzhen, Yixing Chen, Zsofia Belafi, and Simona D'Oca."Occupant behavior models: A critical review of implementation and representation approaches in building performance simulation programs." (2017).

Zhang, Qi, Da Yan, Jingjing An, Tianzhen Hong, Wei Tian, and Kaiyu Sun."Spatial Distribution of Internal Heat Gains: A Probabilistic Representation and Evaluation of Its Influence on Cooling Equipment Sizing in Large Office Buildings."Energy and Buildings (2017). DOI

D'Oca, Simona, Chien-Fen Chen, Tianzhen Hong, and Zsofia Belafi."Synthesizing building physics with social psychology: An interdisciplinary framework for context and occupant behavior in office buildings." (2017).

Cui, Ying, Da Yan, Tianzhen Hong, and Jingjin Ma."Temporal and spatial characteristics of the urban heat island in Beijing and the impact on building design and energy performance." (2017).

Hong, Tianzhen, Da Yan, Simona D'Oca, and Chien-Fei Chen."Ten Questions Concerning Occupant Behavior in Buildings: The Big Picture."Building and Environment (2017).

D'Oca, Simona, Tianzhen Hong, and Jared Langevin."The Human Dimensions of Energy Use in Buildings: A Review." (2017).

2016

Pass, Rebecca Zarin, Michael Wetter, and Mary Ann Piette."A Tale of Three District Energy Systems: Metrics and Future Opportunities."2016 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2016).

Hong, Tianzhen, Sarah C Taylor-Lange, Simona D'Oca, Da Yan, and Stefano P Corgnati."Advances in research and applications of energy-related occupant behavior in buildings."Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 694-702. DOI

Yu, Xinqiao, Da Yan, Kaiyu Sun, Tianzhen Hong, and Dandan Zhu."A Comparative Study on Energy Performance of Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems and Variable Air Volume Systems in Office Buildings."Applied Energy (2016).

Sun, Kaiyu, and Tianzhen Hong."A Simulation Approach to Estimate Energy Savings Potential of Occupant Behavior Measures."Energy and Buildings (2016).

Chen, Yixing, Xuan Luo, and Tianzhen Hong."An Agent-Based Occupancy Simulator for Building Performance Simulation." (2016).

Liang, Xin, Tianzhen Hong, and Geoffrey Qiping Shen."Improving the accuracy of energy baseline models for commercial buildings with occupancy data."Applied Energy (2016).

D'Oca, Simona, Stefano P Corgnati, Anna Laura Pisello, and Tianzhen Hong."Introduction to an occupant behavior motivation survey framework." (2016).

Zhang, Rongpeng, and Tianzhen Hong."Modeling and Simulation of Operational Faults of HVAC Systems Using Energyplus." (2016).

Liang, Xin, Tianzhen Hong, and Geoffrey Qiping Shen."Occupancy data analytics and prediction: a case study." (2016).

Zhang, Lei, Rongpeng Zhang, Yu Zhang, Tianzhen Hong, Qinglin Meng, and Yanshan Feng."The Impact of Evaporation Process on Thermal Performance of Roofs - Model Development and Numerical Analysis."Energy and Buildings (2016).

2015

Wetter, Michael, Marco Bonvini, and Thierry Stephane Nouidui."Equation-based languages – A new paradigm for building energy modeling, simulation and optimization."Energy and Buildings 117 (2015) 290-300. DOI

Singh, Reshma, Baptiste Ravache, and Spencer M Dutton."CLIMATE-SPECIFIC MODELING AND ANALYSIS FOR BEST-PRACTICE INDIAN OFFICE BUILDINGS."BS2015: 14th Conference of International Building Performance Simulation Association (2015).