For Millions of Bangladeshis, Ash May Offer Hope
Ashok Gadgil, a scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), is developing a cheap and effective way to provide safe drinking water to 60 million Bangladeshis who live with the threat of arsenic poisoning. Gadgil’s idea is to create arsenic filters from coal ash, the fine gray powder that piles up, waiting to be discarded, at the bottom of furnaces at all coal-fired power stations. “It’s just coal ash, nothing fancy,” says Gadgil. “But it could save so many lives.”
Advanced cognitive skills, including problem solving and systems thinking, are critical for success in today’s information-based workplace. The need for these skills is particularly compelling for those who manage the equipment, systems, and energy use of buildings.
PROFORM: Assessing Energy and Environmental Impacts
How much energy is saved by spending X dollars installing energy-efficient lights, and what is the financial return on that investment? How many tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are avoided by developing a 50-megawatt wind farm? How does switching from burning coal to burning natural gas in a generating plant reduce emissions? ProForm, a free spreadsheet program developed by researchers in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), has been answering these questions for users all over the world since 2000, and its developers have just released a new, easier-to-use Version 4.0.
Improved Control Algorithm Appears in a Next-Generation Daylighting Product
Seeking ways to save billions of dollars in lighting energy by using daylight to reduce electric lighting needs, researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) proposed, in 1984, a method to make daylight sensors more reliable. Now, this method, the sliding setpoint algorithm, has been incorporated in a commercial product, the LS-301 Dimming Photosensor recently released by The Watt Stopper Inc.
Technology Transfer: Gas Filled Panels
Gas-filled panels (GFPs) have a great deal of potential for use in building materials, appliances, vehicles, and insulation applications, where insulation is needed. GFPs are an innovative approach to ambient-temperature thermal insulation.
Better Power Interfaces for Computers and Consumer Electronics
Fuzzy Logic and Public Health
The Insurance Industry and Climate Change
An EETD Blog: bleer.lbl.gov