News

Mexico's Deputy Secretary for Planning and Energy Transition at the Ministry of Energy of Mexico (SENER), Leonardo Beltran Rodriguez, led a ceremony held at Casa de la Universidad de California in Mexico City on November 16, 2017 to announce the funding awards for five projects that Mexican research institutions developed in partnership with University of California (UC) colleagues in response to... Read more

The International Energy Studies Group is pleased to announce the release of Berkeley Lab’s new study: Energy Efficiency Roadmap for Uganda, Making Energy Efficiency Count.The Energy Efficiency Roadmap for Uganda is a response to the important role that electrical energy efficiency can play in meeting Uganda’s energy development goals. The report shows that implementing energy efficiency in... Read more

Lynn Price has been awarded the 2017 Champion of Energy Efficiency in Industry Award by the American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The Champion award recognizes outstanding achievement and leadership in the field of industrial energy efficiency. Lynn is being honored for her passion for energy efficiency, including many and substantial accomplishments and she is being recognized... Read more

The New York Times recently featured a report by ETA's Nihar Shah, which reviews the regulatory frameworks, energy efficiency standards, and labeling programs in 18 countries that account for roughly 65% of global AC demand. Shah previously found that improvements could roughly double the 89.7 gigatons of expected emissions savings from switching refrigerant alone.... Read more

ETA's Lynn Price (left), senior scientist, retired from Berkeley Lab on June 29 and has stepped down as acting division director of the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts (EAEI) Division as well as department head of the International Energy Analysis Department in the Energy Technologies Area. Tom Kirchstetter, staff scientist, head of the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems... Read more

India is pushing hard to electrify its automobile market, aiming to sell only electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. But what impact will that shift have on the country’s utilities and the grid? A new report by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that the prospective EV expansion will deliver economic benefits, help integrate renewable energy, and significantly... Read more

As demand for air conditioners (ACs) grows, particularly in emerging economies, there is a global concern that this will dramatically increase energy consumption and emissions. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Global Cooling Efficiency Program is researching how to improve AC energy efficiency and transition to low-global warming potential refrigerants, while keeping... Read more

Scientist Peter Therkelson organized a recent visit by the Association of Energy Service Providers (AESP) to the Energy Technologies Area at Berkeley Lab.AESP leaders Patsy Dugger from CB& and Karen Maos from Navigant also facilitated the visit.Seven LBNL speakers gave presentations, and the group enjoyed FLEXLAB® tours.Approximately 25 attendees from AESP, representing 15 organizations, were... Read more

Over 100 scholars from more than 50 different universities and institutions recently gathered at UC Berkeley for the fourth annual Chinese Environmental Scholars Forum, an event supported by the Lab’s Environmental & Earth Sciences Area (EESA) and the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Water Energy Technologies.Read the full story at eesa.lbl.gov/forum-china-environment/.... Read more

To meet skyrocketing demand for electricity, African countries may have to triple their energy output by 2030. While hydropower and fossil fuel power plants are favored approaches in some quarters, a new assessment by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that wind and solar can be economically and environmentally competitive options and can... Read more

India has announced a target of increasing the total renewable energy (RE) installed capacity from about 34GW in 2015 to 175GW by 2022 (including 100GW solar and 60GW wind capacity). This study assesses the technical feasibility of integrating 175 GW of renewables capacity in the Indian electricity grid, ascertains its impact on power sector investments and operations, and quantifies the... Read more

ETA Researchers Michael McNeil, Wei Feng, Stephane de la Rue du Can, Nina Zheng Khanna, Jing Ke, and Nan Zhou were recently published in Energy Policy Journal. The article, Energy Efficiency Outlook in China's Urban Buildings Sector Through 2030, discusses "a bottom-up modeling approach to quantify emission reduction from efficiency programs," and its results.Abstract:This study uses bottom-up... Read more

Research by EAEI’s Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu on planning renewable energy zones in Africa was recently highlighted in Nature.Across Africa, several nations are moving aggressively to develop their solar and wind capacity. The momentum has some experts wondering whether large parts of the continent can vault into a clean future.See the full story here.... Read more

In the Nature article, "Can Wind and Solar Fuel Africa's Future?" IES' Grace Wu and Ranjit Deshmukh are quoted and their research highlighted on planning renewable-energy zones in Africa. "'The study is the most comprehensive mapping effort so far for most of those countries', says Wu."The article states, "Across Africa, several nations are moving aggressively to develop their solar and wind... Read more

Nihar Shah, founding director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Global Cooling Efficiency Program, was interviewed on Boston's NPR news station, WBUR, about the global air conditioning boom, and the push to decrease its negative effects on the environment. Link to the interview, which aired on June 2, 2016: wbur.org/hereandnow/2016/06/02/world-air-conditioners... Read more

LBNL is collaborating with ClimateWorks on defining metrics for tracking changes in energy efficiency progress, measuring impacts and assessing strategic opportunities. This report provides a detailed description of the indicators selected. The authors considered a wide range of indicators drawing upon the literature, their own experience and consultation with experts and practitioners. A round... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab's) study on the global air-conditioner (AC) boom is discussed in a Washington Post article on the ramifications of the drastic growth in AC use. The article cites Berkeley Lab’s findings that tremendous growth in AC demand is expected in China, India, Indonesia and Brazil, and highlights the significant impact that energy efficient AC... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley announced they are partnering with Tsinghua University in Beijing to form the Berkeley Tsinghua Joint Research Center on Energy and Climate Change, a center that will aim to develop scientifically based clean energy solutions and the next generation of leaders to champion those solutions.The three parties signed a Memorandum of... Read more

On Thursday, September 24, 2015, the honorable LI Qiang, Governor of Zhejiang Province, led a delegation team from Zhejiang Province to visit Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Honorary Zhejiang delegates accompanying the Governor included Yonghui Jin, Director General of Zhejiang Provincial Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Department, Jianming Shen, Deputy Secretary General... Read more

The China Energy Group of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) participated in the two-day U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit in Los Angeles this week. The Summit fulfills a key element of the U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change by Presidents Obama and Xi last November, helping to ensure that the ambitious actions to address climate change that both leaders committed to... Read more

Dr. Mark Levine, founder of China Energy Group of Lawrence Berkeley National Laobratory, has been named Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award for Societal Impact. For more detail, please visit LBNL's website.... Read more

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Working Group III, addressing the mitigation of climate change, has issued an executive summary of its Fifth Assessment report. The report updates policymakers on the technical and socio-economic aspects of climate change, including technologies and policies that can reduce impacts.According to its website, "The IPCC Working Group III assesses all... Read more

Ed Vine, a scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division is the editor of a special issue of the journal Energy Efficiency focusing solely on the evaluation of energy efficiency (2012: Volume 5 Number 1). The papers published in the issue are a subset of those delivered at the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference held in Europe in 2010.The issue's introduction, by Vine... Read more

EETD scientists conduct research to analyze energy use in India, evaluate energy efficiency opportunities in its economy, and develop road maps to promote lower-carbon-emitting, sustainable economic development. They also work with their Indian colleagues on joint research, and provide technical consulting in a variety of areas such as energy-efficient building design and operation.Here are a few... Read more

A benchmarking tool to help dairy owners and operators use energy and water as efficiently as possible in their facilities was released today by scientists at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.The BEST-Dairy allows a user to calculate energy and water use intensity and obtain a benchmarking score for the selected plant, as compared with the... Read more