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

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)

2021

Wiser, Ryan H, Joseph Rand, Joachim Seel, Philipp Beiter, Erin Baker, Eric Lantz, and Patrick Gilman."Expert elicitation survey predicts 37% to 49% declines in wind energy costs by 2050."Nature Energy (2021). DOI

Mills, Andrew D, Joachim Seel, Dev Millstein, James Hyungkwan Kim, Mark Bolinger, Will Gorman, Yuhan Wang, Seongeun Jeong, and Ryan H Wiser."Solar-to-Grid: Trends in System Impacts, Reliability, and Market Value in the United States with Data Through 2019." (2021).

2020

Mills, Andrew D, Ryan H Wiser, Dev Millstein, Juan Pablo Carvallo, Will Gorman, Joachim Seel, and Seongeun Jeong."The impact of wind, solar, and other factors on the decline in wholesale power prices in the United States."Applied Energy (2020). DOI

Bolinger, Mark, Joachim Seel, Dana Robson, and Cody Warner."Utility-Scale Solar Data Update: 2020 Edition." (2020).

Wiser, Ryan H, Mark Bolinger, Will Gorman, Joseph Rand, Seongeun Jeong, Joachim Seel, Cody Warner, and Bentham Paulos."Hybrid Power Plants: Status of Installed and Proposed Projects." (2020).

Wiser, Ryan H, Mark Bolinger, and Joachim Seel."Benchmarking Utility-Scale PV Operational Expenses and Project Lifetimes: Results from a Survey of U.S. Solar Industry Professionals." (2020).

Seel, Joachim, Andrew D Mills, Cody Warner, Bentham Paulos, and Ryan H Wiser."Impacts of High Variable Renewable Energy Futures on Electric-Sector Decision Making: Demand-Side Effects." (2020).

2019

Bolinger, Mark, Joachim Seel, and Dana Robson."Utility-Scale Solar: Empirical Trends in Project Technology, Cost, Performance, and PPA Pricing in the United States –2019 Edition." (2019).

Mills, Andrew D, Dev Millstein, Ryan H Wiser, Joachim Seel, Juan Pablo Carvallo, Seongeun Jeong, and Will Gorman."Impact of Wind, Solar, and Other Factors on Wholesale Power Prices: An Historical Analysis—2008 through 2017." (2019).

2018

Wiser, Ryan H, Naïm R Darghouth, Ben Hoen, Galen L Barbose, Joachim Seel, Varun Rai, Ariane Beck, Ashok Sekar, D. D Cale Reeves, Erik Funkhouser, Eric O'Shaughnessy, Ben Sigrin, and Casey Canfield."Diffusion of Innovations: Interplay of Social, Economic, Technological, and Policy Drivers in the Solar Industry—Summary of UT Austin Student Capstone Research Projects." (2018).

Bolinger, Mark, and Joachim Seel."Utility-Scale Solar: Empirical Trends in Project Technology, Cost, Performance, and PPA Pricing in the United States – 2018 Edition." (2018).

Seel, Joachim, Andrew D Mills, and Ryan H Wiser."Impacts of High Variable Renewable Energy Futures on Wholesale Electricity Prices, and on Electric-Sector Decision Making." (2018).

2017

Wiser, Ryan H, Andrew D Mills, Joachim Seel, Todd Levin, and Audun Botterud."Impacts of Variable Renewable Energy on Bulk Power System Assets, Pricing, and Costs." (2017).

Mills, Andrew D, Ryan H Wiser, and Joachim Seel."Power Plant Retirements: Trends and Possible Drivers." (2017).

Bolinger, Mark, Joachim Seel, and Kristina Hamachi LaCommare."Utility-Scale Solar 2016: An Empirical Analysis of Project Cost, Performance, and Pricing Trends in the United States." (2017).

2016

Wiser, Ryan H, Karen Jenni, Joachim Seel, Erin Baker, M Maureen Hand, Eric Lantz, and Aaron Smith."Expert elicitation survey on future wind energy costs."Nature Energy 1.10 (2016) 16135. DOI

Mills, Andrew D, Galen L Barbose, Joachim Seel, Changgui Dong, Trieu Mai, Ben Sigrin, and Jarett Zuboy."Planning for a Distributed Disruption: Innovative Practices for Incorporating Distributed Solar into Utility Planning." (2016).

Wiser, Ryan H, Karen Jenni, Joachim Seel, Erin Baker, M Maureen Hand, Eric Lantz, and Aaron Smith."Forecasting Wind Energy Costs and Cost Drivers: The Views of the World’s Leading Experts." (2016).

Barbose, Galen L, John Miller, Ben Sigrin, Emerson Reiter, Karlynn Cory, Joyce McLaren, Joachim Seel, Andrew D Mills, Naïm R Darghouth, and Andrew Satchwell."Utility Regulatory and Business Model Reforms for Addressing the Financial Impacts of Distributed Solar on Utilities." On the Path to Sunshot (2016).

Bolinger, Mark, Joachim Seel, and Manfei Wu."Maximizing MWh: A Statistical Analysis of the Performance of Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Projects in the United States." (2016).

Bolinger, Mark, and Joachim Seel."Utility-Scale Solar 2015: An Empirical Analysis of Project Cost, Performance, and Pricing Trends in the United States." (2016).

2015

Mills, Andrew D, and Joachim Seel."Flexibility Inventory for Western Resource Planners." (2015).

Feldman, David, Galen L Barbose, Robert Margolis, Mark Bolinger, Donald Chung, Ran Fu, Joachim Seel, Carolyn Davidson, and Ryan H Wiser."Photovoltaic System Pricing Trends: Historical, Recent, and Near-Term Projections." (2015).

Bolinger, Mark, and Joachim Seel."Utility-Scale Solar 2014: An Empirical Analysis of Project Cost, Performance, and Pricing Trends in the United States." (2015).

2014

Seel, Joachim, Galen L Barbose, and Ryan H Wiser."An Analysis of Residential PV System Price Differences Between the United States and Germany."Energy Policy 69.June 2014 (2014). DOI