News & Events

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 systems.¹ 

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.

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 low risk in support of a more efficient building stock.

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.

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.

Berkeley Lab is pleased to announce the release of a new report, titled “Plant-level performance and degradation of 31 GW_DC 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.

New Berkeley Lab study provides insights into wind turbine shadow flicker perception and annoyance

The 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, drivers, and potential mitigation strategies of SF annoyance is needed to better understand this concern and be able to properly regulate it, if desired.

The capacity factor of wind plants in the United States has improved significantly in recent years, with newer plants exhibiting higher capacity factors than older plants. Some researchers have attributed this increase to technology improvements that boost energy capture per unit capacity, while others have instead argued that the role of technology may be overstated, and that a substantial portion of the gains in wind plant output are instead due to a global trend of increasing wind speeds.

Meeting state energy and climate goals requires policies and programs to make electricity use more flexible and efficient.

A new Berkeley Lab report, State Indicators for Advancing Demand Flexibility and Energy Efficiency in Buildings, provides signposts in 10 categories: building energy codes, appliance and equipment standards, resource standards, utility planning, utility programs, advanced metering infrastructure and meter data, rate design, state programs, state energy planning, and related state policies and regulations.