News

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of California, the California Air Resources Board, and NASA will use aircraft outfitted with atmospheric sampling devices in mid-June to measure greenhouse gases over California, in an effort to better understand the relative... Read more

Faced with a crisis that suddenly pushed electricity prices up to five times the usual, Juneau responded with a campaign to cut energy use drastically. How do you save electricity in a hurry? One way to do it is to call in Berkeley Lab scientist Alan Meier, who wrote the book Saving Electricity in a Hurry while on leave to the International Energy Agency.... Read more

For the third consecutive year the U.S. was home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report whose primary authors were Ryan Wiser and Mark Bolinger, of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.... Read more

QUEST, a KQED multimedia series exploring Northern California science, environment, and nature, highlights the work of Ashok Gadgil and his colleagues.... Read more

The revised and updated 2nd edition of Jon Koomey's book Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving has been released by Analytics Press.The 2nd edition includes a new chapter on data sharing web sites, an epilogue summarizing Koomey's experience debunking an urban legend, an expanded further reading section, numerous updates and improvements throughout, and a new... Read more

Renewable electricity is being supported by a growing number of states through the creation of renewables portfolio standards (RPS). A report released by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) provides a comprehensive overview of the early experiences with these state-level RPS policies.... Read more

Science at the TheaterBerkeley Repertory TheaterBerkeley, CaliforniaMarch 10, 2008A talk by Mary Ann Piette, scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, on how automated demand response technology is reducing peak power demand in California.... Read more

The internet, along with a yellow box full of electronics installed in your office building or commercial facility, is the key to saving energy and managing grid emergencies during those hot summer days when power is scarce. These are the technology elements of "automated demand response." Thanks to research conducted at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with... Read more

California needs new, responsive, demand-side energy technologies to ensure that periods of tight electricity supply on the grid don't turn into power outages. Led by Berkeley Lab's Mary Ann Piette, the California Energy Commission (through its Public Interest Energy Research Program) has established a Demand Response Research Center that addresses two motivations for adopting demand... Read more

The Indian state of Maharashtra is at a crossroads. Its people endure frequent electricity blackouts due to a booming energy demand that far outpaces energy production. One solution is to build more coal-fired power plants, which are among the chief greenhouse-gas-emitting culprits of climate change. Another solution takes a different approach: reduce electricity demand, and the need for more... Read more

Energy now lost as heat during the production of electricity could be harnessed through the use of silicon nanowires synthesized via a technique developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley. The far-ranging potential applications of this technology include DOE's hydrogen... Read more

A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found evidence that the prevalence of building-related symptoms (BRS) increases with increasing outdoor concentrations of the pollutant ozone. They have also discovered that the type of air filter that some buildings use in their ventilation systems may also play a role in the... Read more

November/December 2007, Volume 65, Number 6 Power requirements on the electric grid are in constant flux, based on the demand of the devices connected to it. Demand varies, based on time of day, weather and other factors. Traditionally, supply is varied to meet the demand by increasing or decreasing electric generation capacity. Given the strain on the nation's electric grid, though, supply cannot... Read more

Employees of The New York Times Company (The Times) began occupying their new headquarters on the west side of Manhattan in mid-2007. Three years before this milestone, The Times's facility team had approached building scientists at Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), looking for help. They were searching for reliable and affordable technologies, not yet available in... Read more

In recent years battery failures in laptops and cell phones — many overheating, some bursting into flame — have drawn attention to one of the biggest problems posed by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries: overcharging can lead to battery failure and chemical leakages from the battery pack, and sometimes fire and personal injury. "Electrolyte material in these batteries is highly energetic," says... Read more

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were important contributors to the research on global climate change that has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize.... Read more

The better transportation battery — a battery for hybrid-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles — needs to be lighter than today's battery, store more charge, and last through more charge-discharge cycles. Also, it needs to be safe, affordable, and compact enough to fit under the hood.... Read more

An experimental gas turbine simulator equipped with an ultralow-emissions combustion technology called LSI has been tested successfully using pure hydrogen as a fuel — a milestone that indicates a potential to help eliminate millions of tons of carbon dioxide and thousands of tons of NOx from power plants each year.... Read more

Three of R&D Magazine's prestigious R&D 100 Awards for 2007, which recognize the 100 most significant proven technological advances of the year, have gone to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues.... Read more

At major retail stores like Ikea, there's an unusual collaboration going on between PG&E, Lawrence Berkeley Labs, system control firms, and energy consultants. Produced by: Tech Closeupwww.techcloseup.com(408) 807-5119... Read more

The Department of Energy has released its annual report on "U.S. Wind Power Installation, Cost, and Performance Trends 2006." The primary authors are Ryan Wiser and Mark Bolinger of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, with contributions from EETD's Galen Barbose and Andrew Mills. The report describes the rapid growth in U.S. wind power installations. In 2006, U.S. wind power... Read more

A pair of studies to be published in the journal Indoor Air have quantified the considerable public health risks and economic consequences in the United States from building dampness and mold.... Read more

The House of Representatives of the United States Congress has decided to set an example by reducing its carbon footprint, an announcement which came from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and colleagues on April 19. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) provided technical assistance to House staff as they developed their plans.... Read more

To play its part in reducing the consequences of global warming, the state of California has embarked on a trailblazing effort to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Assembly Bill 32, recently passed by the California legislature and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, requires the state to substantially reduce GHG emissions by the year 2030 — and, by the summer of... Read more

If all goes well, when the Summer Olympics opens in Beijing in 2008 visitors will see a new, green Olympic athletes' center built expressly for this international event. The state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly building is being planned now with technical consultation from a group of U.S. energy-efficient building experts led by Joe Huang, of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies... Read more