What's New
2004 Archives
Contents
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
- Carbon in the Air
- Understanding the Weekend Effect
- When Mold Runs Amok
- Switchable Mirrors Win 2004 R&D 100 Award
May 2004
April 2004
- Toward a New Generation of Energy-Efficient Windows
- Solid Ideas for Lighting from Future Architects
- Demand Response Research Center
February 2004
- Building Better Batteries
- The New York Times Building: Designing for Energy Efficiency Through Daylighting Research
- Multi-Building Internet Demand-Response Control System: the First Successful Test
January 2004
November 2004
Fast-Growing State Support for Renewable Energy
A new report tracks renewable energy growth in the United STates and finds that states are playing an increasing role in funding renewable energy projects. Nine states have committed $345 million to support 163 large-scale renewable energy projects so far.
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October 2004
Berkeley Lab and Partners Provide Advice on 'How to Buy Green Power'
How do you buy power from renewable energy providers, or make the case for the business benefits of green power? A new document, incorporating technical advice from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as other institutions, can show the way.
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September 2004
Program Helps Building Managers Prepare for Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Threats
A team of researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed an interactive computer program that building managers and owners can use to assess their vulnerability to — and to prepare for — chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) weapons attacks or accidental toxic releases.
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August 2004
Real-Time Electricity Supply and Demand
Want to know if the region you live in is running out of electricity? If you live in California, Texas, New England, New York State, or the central Atlantic states (known as the PJM Interconnect: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia, including Washington, D.C.), you can find out by connecting to currentenergy.lbl.gov
Cool Colors, Cool Roofs
Roofs, and the rainbow of colors used in roofing materials, are getting cooler and cooler, thanks to research by Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD). The cooler roofs get, the more energy and money they save. A new program in cool materials will soon result in the first cool shingle for residential roofs becoming available on the market.
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July 2004
Carbon in the Air
Research continues at Berkeley Lab to better understand the history of carbon aerosol particles in the atmosphere and to find more accurate ways to measure their mass and light-absorbing effects.
Understanding the Weekend Effect
Ever notice that weekends are smoggier than weekdays? Probably not, but Robert Harley has. He's one of a growing number of scientists who are studying why smog levels spike on weekends.
When Mold Runs Amok
There is strong scientific and other evidence linking mold and damp conditions in homes and buildings to some health effects. This is one conclusion of a report, titled Damp Indoor Spaces and Health, released at the end of May 2004 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Switchable Mirrors Win 2004 R&D 100 Award
A unique new type of energy-saving window material developed by scientists at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Berkeley Lab has been recognized with a 2004 R&D 100 Award. Given by R&D Magazine, the awards have been called "the Oscars of technology." The addition of this winner, and an R&D 100 award won by another Lab division (Materials Sciences for their work on nanomotors) brings the total of R&D 100 Awards won by Berkeley Lab researchers to 34.
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May 2004
Carbonaceous Aerosols and Climate Change
They can absorb light, or scatter it. They are present in the atmosphere because of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. Now they are thought to have a significant impact on global warming. But until just 10 or 15 years ago, the scientific community did not accept that carbonaceous aerosol particles were common in the atmosphere. That they accept it now is because of the work of a research group led by Tihomir Novakov at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which has been studying these particles since the 1970s.
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April 2004
Toward a New Generation of Energy-Efficient Windows
The race is on to develop the next generation of energy-efficient windows, and it has a new entrant: transition-metal switchable mirrors (TMSMs). TMSMs are glass panels with a coating capable of switching back and forth between a transparent state and a reflective one.
Solid Ideas for Lighting from Future Architects
How can an energy-efficient, pinpoint light source best light up a room, or a part of one? That was the question recently asked in a five-week-long lighting-design class offered by the Department of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley.
Demand Response Research Center
The California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program is launching a Demand Response Research Center led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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February 2004
Building Better Batteries
A unique cell development program has been under way in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), led by Kathryn Striebel. The project uses standardized cells to assess, in a working battery, the performance of promising new materials. It aims to bridge the gap between materials research and commercial battery development.
The New York Times Building: Designing for Energy Efficiency Through Daylighting Research
The New York Times Company and Berkeley Lab's EETD have begun a cooperative research project to test new technologies to increase the energy-efficiency of the new building and to improve the indoor environment for the comfort of its occupants.
Multi-Building Internet Demand-Response Control System: the First Successful Test
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have completed the first successful test to evaluate automated demand response at five large building facilities. Demand-response technology manages electrical use in the buildings over the internet, whenever high prices, blackouts, or overloaded electrical demand threaten the power grid.
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January 2004
(Photo NASA)
Getting to Mars With Wheat
"To get to Mars, we need to develop a fully regenerative life-support system," says Ted Chang, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division who led the research. They key may be wheat.
Better Air Quality and Energy Efficiency for Classrooms
Researchers in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) recently finished field-testing a "relocatable" classroom of their own design, intended to save energy and provide good indoor air quality. This last in a series of Science Beat articles on energy-efficient buildings looks at how energy costs can be reduced and air quality can be improved in these ubiquitous structures.
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