News
What's New 
Contents
July 2009
- A Meeting With a Berkeley Lab Scientist Inspires a Young Inventor
- New Study Sheds Light on the Growing U.S. Wind Power Market
June 2009
- EETD Nominates Buildy Award Winners
- Microsoft Licenses Berkeley Lab's Home Energy Saver Code for Its Energy Management Software
- Berkeley Lab Scientists Contribute to Major New Report Describing Climate Change Impacts on the U.S.
- Green Chemistry: Using Lasers to Detect Explosives and Hazardous Waste
- Working Toward the Very Low Energy Consumption Building of the Future
May 2009
April 2009
- Berkeley Lab Researchers Announce OpenADR Specification to Ease Saving Power in Buildings Through Demand Response
- Arun Majumdar Becomes an Associate Lab Director
- Aircraft Measured Bay Area, Sacramento Valley Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Scaling Up: From Green Buildings to Green Cities in the U.S. and China
March 2009
- Sustainability and the U.S. Energy System
- EETD Division Director's Testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Posted
- Environmental Energy Technologies Division Director Arun Majumdar Talks at UC Day in Sacramento
- Smart Buildings: UC Improves Energy Efficiency
February 2009
- New Berkeley Lab Report Shows Significant Historical Reductions in the Installed Costs of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the U.S.
- Berkeley Lab Analysis Finds Reduced Cooling and Heating May Improve Health
- Sustainable Scientists
July 2009
A Meeting With a Berkeley Lab Scientist Inspires a Young Inventor
Ashok Gadgil and Javier Fernández-Han first met in 2003, when Gadgil showed the young Javier a model of his UV Waterworks. They met again recently, after Javier took first place in the "Invent Your World 2009" contest.
New Study Sheds Light on the Growing U.S. Wind Power Market
The 2008 edition of the "Wind Technologies Market Report" provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the rapidly evolving U.S. wind power market. The need for such a report has become apparent in the past few years, as the wind power industry has entered an era of unprecedented growth, both globally and in the United States.
[ Top ]
June 2009
EETD Nominates Buildy Award Winners
Two companies nominated by the Demand Response Research Center received a Buildy Award at the recent Connectivity Week meeting in San Jose. The nomination of Powerit Solutions was based in the company's successful integration of the OpenADR communication infrastructure and enabling automated demand response (Auto-DR) at Amy's Kitchen, a specialty food manufacturer.
Microsoft Licenses Berkeley Lab's Home Energy Saver Code for Its Energy Management Software
Microsoft Corporation has launched a Web-based home energy management service, Hohm, which uses the energy models in the Home Energy SaverTM, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Hohm will provide homeowners with a web-based energy dashboard to help them manage their home's energy use more effectively.
Berkeley Lab Scientists Contribute to Major New Report Describing Climate Change Impacts on the U.S.
Two researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Evan Mills and Michael Wehner, contributed to the analysis of the effects of climate change on all regions of the United States, described in a major report released today by the multi-agency U.S. Global Change Research Program.
Green Chemistry: Using Lasers to Detect Explosives and Hazardous Waste
New technology uses laser ablation - laser pulses that vaporize small amounts of material - to test for hazardous wastes and explosives while generating almost no chemical waste. The technology can save the lives of soldiers, keep children safe from toys illegally coated with lead paints, and protect workers from chemical poisoning.
Working Toward the Very Low Energy Consumption Building of the Future
Producing new commercial buildings that use 80 percent less energy than today's average building is a new target in the fight against global climate change. If such a building's remaining energy consumption is supplied by clean, carbon-neutral renewable energy, it would be responsible for little or no greenhouse gas emissions.
[ Top ]
May 2009
The Coming of Biofuels: Study Shows Reducing Gasoline Emissions Will Benefit Human Health
President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steve Chu are consistent in their message that when it comes to transportation fuels, carbon-neutral biofuels as an alternative to gasoline are coming. While the focus of a shift from gasoline to biofuels has been on global warming, such a shift could also impact human health.
[ Top ]
April 2009
Berkeley Lab Researchers Announce OpenADR Specification to Ease Saving Power in Buildings Through Demand Response
A new data model developed by researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues at other universities and in the private sector will help facilities and buildings save power through automated demand response technology, and advance the development of the Smart Grid.
Arun Majumdar Becomes an Associate Lab Director
Interim Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Paul Alivisatos has announced the appointment of Arun Majumdar as an Associate Lab Director. Majumdar, director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, will serve as the Associate Lab Director for Energy and Environment.
Aircraft Measured Bay Area, Sacramento Valley Greenhouse Gas Emissions
R&D Collaboration of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, NOAA, UC Davis
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of California recently measured greenhouse gases over California using aircraft to improve estimates of the state's GHG emissions. The Airborne Greenhouse Gas Emissions Survey (AGES) project is developing methods that are expected to prove important for verifying emissions reductions mandated by California's assembly bill AB 32.
Scaling Up: From Green Buildings to Green Cities in the U.S. and China
Mark Levine, China Energy Group Leader and Former Environmental Energy Technologies Division Director to Speak
Buildings consume well over 30 percent of all primary energy in the world, more than either transportation or industry. By building green, we can reduce energy consumption in this key sector by 30 to 50 percent and cut greenhouse gas emissions by similar margins. It is also one of the cheapest ways to do so: green building adds only one to five percent to construction costs, which are recovered through reduced energy demand in a few years or less.
This one-day conference is the first to bring together leading green design specialists from the fields of research, technology, architecture, business, and policy from the U.S. and China to build dialogue and collaboration. The U.S. and China are rapidly becoming the global centers for green design promotion, development, and investment, and many other Asian countries are beginning to follow suit.
Mark Levine, leader of EETD's China Energy Group, will be a speaker at this conference.
Friday, May 1, 2009
8:30 am Registration/Breakfast
9:00 am - 5:00 pm Program
PG&E Auditorium
77 Beale St. (between Market and Mission)
San Francisco, CA
More information and conference registration
[ Top ]
March 2009
Sustainability and the U.S. Energy System
The United States has made progress toward a more sustainable energy system since 2000 in some areas, and has moved away from sustainability in others, according to an analysis by Berkeley Lab scientists Mark Levine and Nathaniel Aden. Their analysis is published in a chapter of a new book, Agenda for a Sustainable America. The volume was published by the Environmental Law Institute and contains contributions from 41 experts on various aspects of sustainability.
More information
Agenda for a Sustainable America
EETD Division Director's Testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Posted
Arun Majumdar's testimony outlines a potential national strategy for making buildings more energy-efficient and moving new buildings toward zero-net energy use. His strategy addresses needs in science and technology, policy and finance, technology deployment and market transformation, and workforce development.
Environmental Energy Technologies Division Director Arun Majumdar Talks at UC Day in Sacramento
"This is no time for business as usual," said Arun Majumdar, director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. "We need some major changes and innovation."
Smart Buildings: UC Improves Energy Efficiency
This article describes energy efficiency research in the University of California system, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Environmental Energy Technologies Division on efficient building technology.
[ Top ]
February 2009
New Berkeley Lab Report Shows Significant Historical Reductions in the Installed Costs of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the U.S.
A new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S. shows that the average cost of these systems declined significantly from 1998 to 2007, but remained relatively flat during the last two years of this period.
Berkeley Lab Analysis Finds Reduced Cooling and Heating May Improve Health
Research conducted at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that operating buildings more energy efficiently could have benefits for the health of occupants and, surprisingly, also for their comfort.
The researchers, Mark Mendell and Anna Mirer of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, analyzed data collected from 95 air-conditioned office buildings across the U.S. The data had been gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a study called BASE (Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation). The study produced data about indoor environmental conditions and the health of occupants in a representative set of U.S. office buildings.
Sustainable Scientists
In the current issue of Environmental Science and Technology, EETD's Evan Mills has a cover story, "Sustainable Scientists," examining how scientists might practice energy efficiency in research facilities to help reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions as well as reduce the amount of research money spent on energy costs. He notes that scientific research in the U.S. has a yearly energy bill of about $10 billion, and results in 80 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
[ Top ]
