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)

2022

Nemtzow, David, Cynthia Regnier, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Natalie Mims Frick, and Jason S. MacDonald."If One GEB is Good, a Community of GEBs is Better."2022 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2022).

Meyers, Stephen, Rongxin Yin, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Jennifer Stokes-Draut, Cynthia Regnier, and Purabi Thakre."Innovative Technologies for a Low Carbon Electricity System." (2022).

2020

Frick, Natalie Mims, Sean Murphy, Cesca Miller, Greg Leventis, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Charles A. Goldman, and Lisa C. Schwartz."Peak Demand Savings from Efficiency: Opportunities and Practices." (2020).

Larsen, Peter H., Megan Lawson, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, and Joseph H Eto."Severe weather, utility spending, and the long-term reliability of the U.S. power system."Energy 198 (2020). DOI

2019

Eto, Joseph H, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Heidemarie C. Caswell, and David Till."Distribution system versus bulk power system: identifying the source of electric service interruptions in the US."IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution 13.5 (2019) 717-723. DOI

Dunn, Laurel N., Michael D. Sohn, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, and Joseph H Eto."Exploratory analysis of high-resolution power interruption data reveals spatial and temporal heterogeneity in electric grid reliability."Energy Policy 129 (2019) 206 - 214. DOI

Larsen, Peter H., Alan H. Sanstad, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, and Joseph H Eto."Frontiers in the Economics of Widespread, Long-Duration Power Interruptions: Proceedings from an Expert Workshop."Frontiers in the Economics of Widespread, Long-Duration Power Interruptions (2019).

2018

Barbose, Galen L., Naïm R. Darghouth, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Dev Millstein, and Joseph Rand."Tracking the Sun: Installed Price Trends for Distributed Photovoltaic Systems in the United States - 2018 Edition." (2018).

LaCommare, Kristina Hamachi, Joseph H Eto, and Heidemarie C. Caswell."Distinguishing Among the Sources of Electric Service Interruptions."2018 IEEE International Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems (PMAPS) (2018). DOI

LaCommare, Kristina Hamachi, Joseph H Eto, Laurel N. Dunn, and Michael D. Sohn."Improving the Estimated Cost of Sustained Power Interruptions to Electricity Customers."Energy 153.15 June 2018 (2018) 1038-1047. DOI

2017

Barbose, Galen L., Naïm R. Darghouth, Dev Millstein, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Nicholas DiSanti, and Rebecca Widiss."Tracking the Sun X: The Installed Price of Residential and Non-Residential Photovoltaic Systems in the United States." (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).

LaCommare, Kristina Hamachi, Peter H. Larsen, and Joseph H Eto."Evaluating Proposed Investments in Power System Reliability and Resilience: Preliminary Results from Interviews with Public Utility Commission Staff." (2017).

Larsen, Peter H., Brent Boehlert, Joseph H Eto, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Jeremy Martinich, and Lisa Rennels."Projecting Future Costs to U.S. Electric Utility Customers from Power Interruptions." (2017).

2016

Larsen, Peter H., Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Joseph H Eto, and James L. Sweeney."Recent trends in power system reliability and implications for evaluating future investments in resiliency."Energy 117 (2016) 29 - 46. DOI

Eto, Joseph H, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Michael D. Sohn, and Heidemarie C. Caswell."Evaluating the Performance of the IEEE Standard 1366 Method for Identifying Major Event Days View Document."IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 32.2 (2016). DOI

2015

Wiser, Ryan H., Mark Bolinger, Galen L. Barbose, Naïm R. Darghouth, Ben Hoen, Andrew D. Mills, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Dev Millstein, Dana Hansen, Kevin Porter, Rebecca Widiss, Michael Buckley, Frank Oteri, Aaron Smith, and Suzanne Tegen."2014 Wind Technologies Market Report." (2015).

Larsen, Peter H., Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Joseph H Eto, and James L. Sweeney."Assessing Changes in the Reliability of the U.S. Electric Power System." (2015).

2014

Larsen, Peter H., James L. Sweeney, Joseph H Eto, and Kristina Hamachi LaCommare."Exploring the Reliability of U.S. Electric Utilities."37th IAEE International Conference (2014).

Billingsley, Megan A., Ian M. Hoffman, Elizabeth Stuart, Steven R. Schiller, Charles A. Goldman, and Kristina Hamachi LaCommare."The Program Administrator Cost of Saved Energy for Utility Customer-Funded Energy Efficiency Programs." (2014).

2013

Thiemann, Johannes J, Nicholas DeForest, Michael Stadler, Judy Lai, Wei Feng, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Yu Joe Huang, and Chris Marnay."Identification of Demand Response Potential for Microgrids Using the Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adaption Model, A Case Study of the Alameda County Santa Rita Jail for 2011." (2013).

2012

Eto, Joseph H, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Peter H. Larsen, Annika Todd, and Emily Fisher."Distribution-level electricity reliability: Temporal trends using statistical analysis."Energy Policy 49 (2012) 243 - 252. DOI

Eto, Joseph H, and Kristina Hamachi LaCommare."A Quantitative Assessment of Utility Reporting Practices for Reporting Electric Power Distribution Events."IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (2012). DOI

Eto, Joseph H, Kristina Hamachi LaCommare, Peter H. Larsen, Annika Todd, and Emily Fisher."An Examination of Temporal Trends in Electricity Reliability Based on Reports from U.S. Electric Utilities." (2012).

Fisher, Emily, Joseph H Eto, and Kristina Hamachi LaCommare."Understanding Bulk Power Reliability: The Importance of Good Data and A Critical Review of Existing Sources."IEEE 45th Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS) (2012). DOI