News & Events
New LBNL Study Finds ESCO Industry Growing but Facing New Challenges
The U.S. energy services company (ESCO) industry revenue grew more than 3% annually between 2014 and 2018, after a previous 3-year period of little growth, according to a new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Berkeley Lab’s latest “Utility-Scale Solar” report sees continued growth and falling costs for big solar
We are pleased to release the 2021 edition of Berkeley Lab’s Utility-Scale Solar report, which presents analysis of empirical project-level data from the U.S. fleet of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV), PV+battery, and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) plants with capacities exceeding 5 MWAC.
How Do Buildings Use Energy? New Public End-Use Load Profiles for the U.S. Building Stock
End-use load profiles that describe how and when buildings use energy are critically important to utility planners, regulators, state energy offices, researchers, and building owners to understand ways to best manage energy use. For example, load profiles can identify energy-consuming activities that can be shifted to different times of the day to reduce peak loads that drive utility costs and to reduce customer bills.
New Resource for State and Local Governments on Practices for Demonstrating Energy Savings from Commercial PACE Projects
Nearly three-fourths of U.S. states have authorized local governments to use voluntary special assessments on commercial properties to finance energy improvements that boost economic development, create jobs, increase property values and advance energy goals. Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing allows building owners to repay the borrowed capital — from private or public sources — over time using their property as security.
Project developer options to enhance the value of solar electricity as solar and storage penetrations increase
Increasing the penetration of photovoltaics (PV) reduces the marginal grid value of PV electricity, which potentially limits solar deployment and thus impedes the achievement of decarbonization goals. PV project developers can alter the design of plants in ways that preserve this value. Developers can make simple tilt and azimuth adjustments or incorporate more transformational changes such as vertical bifacial modules, provision of ancillary services, and addition of energy storage.
Innovations in Electricity Modeling
Virtual Training Series for National Council on Electricity Policy
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are offering free virtual training on innovations in electricity system modeling, in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
New Berkeley Lab report explores the contributions and uncertainty of the effects major rate drivers have on future retail rate growth
We are pleased to announce the release of a new Berkeley Lab report: “Disaggregating Future Retail Electricity Rate Growth.”
New Report Shows Technology Advancement and Value of Wind Energy
Berkeley Lab research finds that societal value of wind is far in excess of costs
Call for Applications: Technical Assistance to State Public Utility Commissions
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with five national labs, is announcing a new opportunity for state public utility commissions (PUCs) to receive high-impact, in-depth technical assistance from national labs over the course of 12-24 months to beginning in early 2022.
Interest in Hybrid and Co-Located Power Plants Continues to Grow
Newly released data compilation from Berkeley Lab tracks existing and proposed projects
Falling battery prices and the growth of variable renewable generation are driving a surge of interest in “hybrid” power plants that combine, for example, wind or solar generating capacity with co-located batteries. While most of the current interest involves pairing photovoltaic (PV) plants with batteries, other types of hybrid or co-located plants with wide-ranging configurations have been part of the U.S. electricity mix for decades.
Distributed solar-plus-storage data and trends detailed in new Berkeley Lab report
As the distributed solar market evolves toward more dynamic forms of deployment, interest in paired solar-plus-storage applications continues to gain steam, but details on the current state of the market are relatively sparse. To fill that void, Berkeley Lab has released an in-depth analysis of this budding market segment.
Still the One: New Study Finds Efficiency Remains a Cost-Effective Electricity Resource
Energy efficiency continues to be a low-cost way to meet electricity needs, according to a new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The U.S. DOE and Berkeley Lab release streamlined tool to help state and local governments demonstrate the value of energy savings performance contracts
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) have released eProject eXpress (ePX), which provides a streamlined, tailored pathway for state and local governments to document, track, and demonstrate the ongoing value of their energy project retrofits.
The Declining Cost of Wind and Solar Power Is In a Race With Declining Market Value: Which Will Win?
In regions where wind and solar make up a large share of power generation, sunny and windy days lead to a glut of electricity supply, driving down hourly power prices – especially for that same wind and solar generation.
While lower prices are good for consumers, this decline in market value is not as good for producers. It could potentially limit wind and solar deployment and thus endanger decarbonization goals.
New data products from Berkeley Lab summarize proposed projects in interconnection queues
The amount of new power generation and energy storage in the transmission interconnection queues across America continues to rise, reaching a new record of over 750 GW of generation and an estimated 200 GW of storage capacity at the end of 2020. To put that in perspective, the United States had 1,117 GW of total utility-scale electricity generating capacity in operation last year.
New data tool explores trends in wholesale power prices and renewable energy supply
Exploring Wholesale Energy Price Trends: Introducing the Renewables and Wholesale Electricity Prices (ReWEP) tool
Where should batteries be put to manage wind and solar power?
Batteries are becoming an increasingly common part of new power generation projects, especially for solar and wind farms. Solar projects use batteries to shift generation from the day to the evening, to capture higher power prices as the sun goes down. Wind projects can use batteries to smooth power output and avoid congestion.
New DOE Report Shares National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Energy-Efficient Buildings
We are pleased to announce the publication of A National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings, a comprehensive plan describing the value that grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) can add to the power system, their technology attributes, and recommendations for addressing the top barriers to GEB adoption and deployment.
New Berkeley Lab study analyzes the financial performance of Connecticut solar leasing program that targets low- and moderate-income customers
Policymakers are increasingly interested in how to expand access to rooftop photovoltaic systems.