News

Berkeley Lab scientists unravel structural ambiguities in lithium-rich transition metal oxides.Using complementary microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) say they have solved the structure of lithium- and manganese-rich transition metal oxides, a potentially game-changing battery material and the subject of intense debate in the... Read more

In the third episode, the Lab's MyGreenCar team visits favorite Berkeley hangouts to meet potential customers for their app. Later they face key bottom line questions: what is their target market and who will pay for fuel economy information? This is the third in a six-episode film series capturing the Lab's participation in DOE's Lab-Corps pilot program.... Read more

"You are literally changing the world, and I am honored to be part of it, even if for few hours" said Arwa Guesmi, from Tunisia after her visit to Berkeley Lab. Guesmi is an Emerging Leader (EL) at the U.S. Department of State's TechWomen program. Nine TechWomen ELs from seven countries visited Berkeley Lab on October 14th to learn more about energy research and green technology. The visiting... Read more

The chronicles of Berkeley Lab's MyGreenCar team continue. Episode two opens in Detroit where the Lab researchers attend a business boot camp designed for scientists and start round one of customer interviews, key elements of DOE's Lab-Corps Program. The team begins to fine-tune its target market and discovers the last place to ask questions about fuel economy.... Read more

New projects for hydrogen storage and fuel cell performance aim to bring down cost of fuel cell electric vehicles.With commitments from leading car and stationary-power manufacturers to hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and the first ever fuel cell electric vehicle to go on sale later this year, interest is once again swelling in this carbon-free technology. Now, thanks to several new projects... Read more

The 2015 Bay Area Battery Summit is scheduled for November 3rd, 2015 at Berkeley Lab!Emerging energy storage technologies and effective state and federal policies have, and will continue to drive important changes to the nation’s transportation and electric grid infrastructure and ecosystems. However, uncertainty in technology choices and policy options may hinder the speed of adoption and... Read more

In the run-up to its annual supercomputing conference, SC15 organizers have released a video on the Electrolyte Genome, a project led by Kirstin Persson that uses computing to speed up the materials discovery process. Watch her and others on the team describe how it could lead to the next breakthrough battery. Read more on the official SC15 blog.... Read more

New Berkeley Lab study finds lower greenhouse gas emissions on per-mile basis for driverless cars deployed as taxis.Imagine a fleet of driverless taxis roaming your city, ready to pick you up and take you to your destination at a moment’s notice. While this may seem fantastical, it may be only a matter of time before it becomes reality. And according to a new study from Lawrence Berkeley... Read more

Berkeley Lab study finds EV batteries have a longer useful life than current standards suggest.In the first study of its kind, scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) quantitatively show that electric vehicles (EVs) will meet the daily travel needs of drivers longer than commonly assumed. Many drivers and much prior literature on the retirement... Read more

Berkeley Lab and UNC-Chapel Hill’s discovery of nonflammable electrolyte gets VC funding. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) battery scientist Nitash Balsara has worked for many years trying to find a way to improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries. Now he believes he has found the answer in a most unlikely material—a class of compounds that has mainly been used for... Read more

An excerpt from a U.S. Department of Energy blog:"...dramatic changes are occurring in our nation’s energy mix, many of which demand a more technologically advanced electric grid. Increasing use of renewable energy sources, risks of cyber and physical attacks, and aging infrastructure create uncertainty of the current grid’s long-term ability to provide the services demanded of it. These... Read more

One of eight mid-career women who received a Clean Energy and Empowerment award from DOE-MIT partnership.As part of the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) program, run by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), Sila Kiliccote, leader of the Grid Integration Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was recognized for her accomplishments... Read more

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) announces the signature of a collaboration license with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and IIT-Comillas University (Madrid) for its Utility of the Future Program. DER-CAM, software developed in the Microgrids Group at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), will play a key-role in this project, which is part of the MIT... Read more

A team of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Argonne National Laboratory was recognized by FMC Corporation, receiving its FMC Scientific Achievement Award. Aaron Reichl, Director of Technology for FMC Minerals, and Marina Yakovleva, Global Technical Programs Manager presented the award at a ceremony in April. The team performed fundamental research on FMC's... Read more

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are here, and more are coming. By 2013, 100,000 PEVs were sold in the United States, and the number is growing. One study forecasts that more than a million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) will be sold in California, New York, Washington, and Florida alone between 2013 and 2022. Electric vehicles (EVs) are also growing in range and sales. As the cost of... Read more

In February, Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) achieved another milestone toward becoming an international standard when the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a renowned standards development organization, released a profile of OpenADR 2.0 as a Publicly Available Specification (PAS). This action recognizes OpenADR as a standard that will enable our electricity systems to be... Read more

The White House has announced that Adam Weber has won a Presidential Early Career Award. Weber is a staff scientist at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). His current research involves understanding and optimizing fuel-cell performance and lifetime; understanding flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage; and analysis of... Read more

In Scientific American magazine’s December 2013 issue, “World-changing ideas,” the cover story, “How supercomputers will yield a golden age of materials science,” sets the scene for the issue’s focus on practical innovations emerging from the laboratory.In the article, MIT’s Gerbrand Ceder and Environmental Energy Technologies Division scientist Kristin Persson describe the Materials... Read more

September Special Focus: CalChargeIn preparation for its mid-October launch, CalCharge and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have completed work on their innovative Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) that is expected to become a national model for industry engagement with the national laboratories.Energy storage innovators need cost-effective and clear... Read more

September Special Focus: CalChargeAfter nearly two years of research and organizational development efforts, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), CalCEF, and other key partners are only weeks away from the full operational launch of CalCharge. By mid-October, they expect to announce the core group of institutional and major corporate members along with the first tranche of... Read more

From a General Electric press release:It's a little more complex than making instant oatmeal, but scientists from GE and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) may have just the recipe for next-generation electric vehicle (EV) batteries that achieve desired driving range and cost for consumers.The GE/Berkeley Lab team is developing a water-based, flow battery capable of more than... Read more

Berkeley Lab battery researcher Gao Liu and his team earned a coveted R&D 100 Award this year for their invention of an electrically conductive rubbery adhesive that can be mixed with particles of silicon to form a battery's negative (-) electrode, or anode. Lithium-ion batteries whose anodes are built with this "conducting polymer binder" can have 30 percent more energy storage capacity than... Read more

Jeffery Reimer is a scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, and UC Berkeley.Scientists would like to apply the same principles by which baking soda removes food odors from refrigerators or silica powder keeps moisture away from electronic devices to scrub carbon dioxide from the exhaust gases of fossil fuel power plants. An excellent candidate for this task is the class of... Read more

The energy density in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries enables them to store and provide considerable energy in a small package. Powering devices from pacemakers to smart phones, these small, lightweight, rechargeable batteries have become a ubiquitous part of modern electronics. Using materials such as tin and silicon give Li-ion even a higher energy density—enough for a battery to power an... Read more

For 30 years or so, researchers in the Laser Spectroscopy and Applied Materials Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been studying laser beams.Berkeley Lab's Rick Russo—a pioneer in the field—has been working with a technology called Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), refining and expanding the technology for many applications. Famous for its use on Mars... Read more