ETA 2021 Strategic Plan - Flipbook - Page 5
Building researchers in ETA partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building
Technologies Office to architect the Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) Roadmap and served
as their strategic partner to facilitate Connected Communities at scale, moving us closer to that 50%
goal. The Smart Energy Analytics Campaign implemented more than 40 different energy management
information system (EMIS) products across more than 6,500 buildings owned by 104 organizations,
representing more than 567 million square feet and saving upwards of $95 million annually while
creating the largest-ever database of building analytics. We also partnered with the California Energy
Commission (CEC) to architect California Load Flexibility Research and Deployment Hub (CalFlexHub),
a game-changing effort to design and demonstrate a standard electric price and GHG signal and
demonstrate its ability to reach 99% of California’s households and businesses. This award was made
as the refresh was being released, and we are excited for the program to bring the GEB vision and the
goal of connected communities closer to reality.
With the work of the Materials Project bridging
the gap between discovery and prototypical
design and testing, and the techno-economic
analysis driving our understanding of the scaleup process we achieved significant success in
understanding the synthesis, processing, and
manufacturing science of batteries based on a rollto-roll process. This understanding led to linking
particles to performance in an expedited manner,
which resulted in Berkeley Lab being a part of a
multinational lab consortium funded by the DOE’s
Advanced Manufacturing Office.
Our transportation research has developed enabling technologies and analysis tools, and applied
high-performance computing methods to co-optimize the performance of transportation and electric
grid networks. We have applied system-level mobility simulation models to understand emerging
megatrends in the transportation system, including shared, electric, and autonomous vehicles.
Moreover, we are leading the mobility decision science research to understand and accelerate the
adoption of new mobility technologies. We conduct innovative research to understand the basic
science of energy storage processes and devices and have managed to overcome technological
barriers to next-generation high-energy-density lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries and relevant limitations
in critical materials supply chains. We also have expanded our research into newer, promising battery
chemistries like sodium, sulfur, and zinc-based systems. Our active involvement in DOE research
consortia helps to deliver technology solutions to the challenge of large-scale renewable hydrogen
production and its widespread application in the
transportation sector.
These recent successes build upon a unique legacy.
Led by the innovations of Charles
Tobias, a legendary researcher
at the University of California
(UC) Berkeley, and in partnership
with Berkeley Lab, scientists have
made battery technologies more
efficient and safer, fueling market
share of energy storage devices
and hastening the use of largescale energy storage to ensure grid
reliability and resiliency.
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ETA’s work to reinvent the grid has been persistent
and impactful. From full-scale deployment
of automated demand response to market
characterization studies that benchmark wind and
solar prices and their adoption trends, we have
defined the metrics that will enable more diverse
and distributed sources of power on the grid. We
have leveraged the emergence of inexpensive
sensing technology, the development of modern
data analytics methods, the widespread use of
controllable load, and energy storage such as
building heating, ventilation and air-conditioning
(HVAC) systems and electric vehicles to advance the
ball on reliability, resiliency, and decarbonization of
the grid.
In partnership with the Earth and Environmental
Sciences Area (EESA) at Berkeley Lab, and with
support from more than 100 industry partners and
stakeholders, in 2019 Berkeley Lab was awarded
the National Alliance for Water Innovation Hub.
Since then, we have been driving toward developing
cost effective desalination technologies and greater
access to affordable potable water.
A Legacy of Impact
During the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, Art Rosenfeld,
who introduced the new field of energy-efficiency
research into the scientific arena, led our scientists
from basic science to practical applications, and
established the field of energy efficiency research.
Since then, ETA’s energy-efficiency innovations
have created a legacy of impact that has benefitted
people worldwide:
• The development and early market
introduction of advanced window coatings and
electronic fluorescent ballasts for lighting has
directly resulted in $32 billion of energy cost
savings to consumers.1
• EnergyPlus, a building energy simulation tool,
yields 20% improvement in energy savings for
each building modeled.2
• Open Automated Demand Response
(OpenADR) is the most successful global
communication standard to integrate flexible
demand-side loads with the electric grid,
achieving up to 30% peak load savings in
commercial buildings.3
Art Rosenfeld
A legend in the field
of energy efficiency
Art Rosenfeld is known for
developing the scientific field
of Energy Efficiency; he was
Enrico Fermi’s last graduate
student and trained as a particle
physicist. When the energy crisis
hit in the 1970s, Art pivoted to
developing practical applications.
He founded Berkeley Lab’s
Center for Building Science, the
precursor to ETA, and pioneered
the field of energy efficiency
research. Rosenfeld was awarded
the National Medal of Science in
2013 by President Obama, won
the Tang Prize in 2016, and is the
only scientist at Berkeley Lab to
have a unit of energy named after
him. A “Rosenfeld” is an electricity
savings of 3 billion kilowatt-hours
per year, which is the amount
needed to replace the annual
generation of a 500-megawatt
coal-fired power plant.
1 National Research Council. 2001. Energy Research at DOE: Was It Worth It? Energy Efficiency and Fossil Energy Research 1978 to 2000.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2001. ISBN: 0-309-07448-7. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10165.html; savings estimates
adjusted to current year.
2 U.S. Department of Energy. 2017. R&D to Market Success: BTO-Supported Technologies Commercialized from 2010-2015.
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/06/f34/BTO_Commercial_Technology_Report_April%202017.pdf.
3 Ibid.
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