News

Extreme conditions and high-value periods disproportionately boost the value of new transmission, but are not always adequately considered in forward-looking assessments Existing transmission planning approaches run the risk of understating the economic value of new transmission infrastructure, according to new research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In part, this is because roughly... Read more

In the United States, the towers of new wind plants often measure greater than 90 meters in height and the rotors themselves can extend another ~60 meters up. The tremendous height of these structures means that wind speeds far above the surface can impact wind generation. The ability to accurately characterize wind speeds at these heights is critical in order to estimate potential wind energy... Read more

Compensation rules for residential rooftop solar are evolving toward a model that encourages customers to use battery storage to maximize solar self-consumption. Is this a good thing? A paper recently published by Berkeley Lab researchers in the journal iScience explores this question. The article, entitled “Private vs. public value of U.S. residential battery storage operated for solar... Read more

The clean energy transition will require utilizing large swathes of land for utility-scale solar and wind energy project sites. The impacts of large-scale deployment of solar and wind energy projects on local communities raises questions of energy justice. Some argue that the clean energy transition could burden disadvantaged communities with negative impacts from project development, while others... Read more

Berkeley Lab-led initiative helps electric companies improve grid reliability and resilience Berkeley Lab has initiated a national public-private partnership to update and upgrade the Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator – a publicly available, online tool – which estimates the economic consequences of power interruptions. Information on the costs that customers experience when the... Read more

Berkeley Lab and The Brattle Group are pleased to announce the release of a new report, titled “Valuing Residential Energy Efficiency: Analysis for a Prototypical Southeastern Utility.” The study quantifies the amount of cost-effective residential energy efficiency (EE) that could be deployed by a prototypical summer-peaking utility in the Southeastern U.S. across scenarios representing... Read more

What will drive building investments in energy efficiency over the next 10 years? To find out, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers reviewed academic literature, analyzed recent state actions on demand-side management, and interviewed and surveyed experts throughout the country.A slide-deck report, Future of Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Drivers and Market Expectations, summarizes... Read more

The United States has set an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 50% by 2030. Are we on track to succeed? A new study by a team of scientists and policy analysts from across the nation suggests that there are multiple pathways to achieve this goal – but big commitments will need to be made, immediately. “This study should give policy makers and other energy... Read more

There are now over 1,300 gigawatts of solar, wind, and battery capacity seeking grid interconnection, but those proposed projects face long wait times and – in many cases – very high costs to upgrade and connect to the grid system. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are pleased to partner with teams from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the... Read more

Projecting the future cost of wind and solar generation is a challenge. While analysts employ a variety of methods to understand past wind and solar cost trends and to project future trends, learning curves tend to be the most common approach. Learning-by-doing is a broadly accepted concept for explaining relationships between technology cost reductions and cumulative output. It posits that costs... Read more

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article in the journal Wind Energy that identifies expectations about future wind turbine and plant designs in 2035 for onshore and offshore wind. The design of wind turbines and plants have changed considerably over the past three decades, adapting to changing electric power systems and markets, technological improvements, shifting policy... Read more

Public schools spend roughly $8 billion a year on energy bills — the second largest expense after teacher salaries. Promoting energy efficiency can be a good way to save money for school districts and increase the comfort and health of teachers and students, all while reducing pollution. At a briefing in April 2022, the White House gave a shout out to a new tool that Berkeley Lab has developed... Read more

Batteries IncludedTop 10 Findings from Berkeley Lab Research on the Growth of Hybrid Power Plants in the United StatesOne of the most important electric power system trends of the 2010s was the rapid deployment of wind turbines and photovoltaic arrays, but early data suggests a twist for the 2020s may be the rapid deployment of ‘hybrid’ generation resources.Hybrid power plants typically... Read more

Innovation is essential for future power systems to be “safe and secure, clean and sustainable, affordable and equitable, and reliable and resilient," according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In order to attain these goals, state regulatory reforms are needed to encourage adoption of the technologies that can support the evolution of the nation’s power... Read more

Berkeley Lab-led study shows over 1,300 gigawatts of solar, storage, and wind in interconnection queues - an indicator of a major energy transition underway, even if most proposed projects will not be builtThe amount of new power generation and energy storage in the transmission interconnection queues across the U.S. continues to rise dramatically, with over 1,400 gigawatts (GW) of total... Read more

As the transition to clean energy accelerates, developers are rushing to get new generation projects connected to the grid. This has caused a traffic jam on the on-ramps, as projects clog up the “interconnection queues,” where developers apply to grid managers for access. Berkeley Lab’s Electricity Markets & Policy Department has been tracking the phenomenon, and analyzing ways that the... Read more

Performance of energy efficiency loans is comparable to prime auto loans, ripe for growth and investment A State and Local Energy Efficiency Action Network (SEE Action) study, recently announced by Department of Energy Secretary Granholm and developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, shows that financial institutions can lend money to their customers for energy efficiency improvements at... Read more

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with staff from the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, National Grid, and Rocky Mountain Institute, have authored two NREL technical reports on work culminating from a project of the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN). SEIN supports teams composed of diverse stakeholders... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presents a free webinar on April 13, 2022, to discuss and demonstrate a new tool for electricity decision-makers and stakeholders, the Time-Sensitive Value Calculator.Who: Natalie Mims Frick, Margaret Pigman and Juan Pablo Carvallo, Berkeley LabDate: April 13, 2022Time: 9-10 a.m. PacificMost investment decisions for energy efficiency and solar... Read more

Exploring Wholesale Energy Price Trends: The Renewables and Wholesale Electricity Prices (ReWEP) tool, Version 2022.1 The Renewables and Wholesale Electricity Prices (ReWEP) visualization tool from Berkeley Lab has been updated with nodal electricity pricing and wind and solar generation data through the end of 2021. The tool allows users to explore trends in wholesale electricity prices and their... Read more

Information access, public participation, and fair decision-making are key to wind energy’s “procedural justice” Expanding wind energy deployment to meet climate and policy goals requires willing communities to host wind projects. Previous research finds that perceptions of the fairness of a wind project’s planning process strongly influences attitudes among host communities. Yet, few... Read more

Subsidies for low-income solar are reaching the right households and increasing adoption in disadvantaged communities. Many states have offered subsidies to promote rooftop solar adoption. Most of these subsidies have phased out over time, partly under the assumption that subsidies become less necessary as solar prices decline. However, even though solar prices have declined significantly,... Read more

Berkeley Lab is pleased to announce the release of a new report, titled “Plant-level performance and degradation of 31 GWDC of utility-scale PV in the United States.” This report updates an earlier analysis first published two years ago, with the benefit of a 50% larger sample than in the original study, as well as two additional years of performance to evaluate. Specifically, we assess the... Read more

A modernized power grid fueled by renewable energy is at the heart of China’s pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, and a new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) outlines how China can overcome the current logistical challenges of decarbonizing its power system by reforming some key select operational practices.... Read more

New Berkeley Lab study provides insights into wind turbine shadow flicker perception and annoyanceThe moving shadows caused by wind turbines, referred to as “shadow flicker” (SF) (see figure 1), are known to generate annoyance in some people. However, the relationship between the amount of SF exposure and the annoyance it causes is poorly understood. A better understanding of the magnitude,... Read more