ETA 2021 Strategic Plan - Flipbook - Page 53
Low Global
Warming Potential
Refrigerants
Testing
Air-conditioning and
refrigeration appliance
innovation is integral to
tackling climate change.
Berkeley Lab is now
leading the way with the
formation of ETA’s Global
Cooling Efficiency Program
(GCEP). The Appliance Test
Chambers offer important
capabilities to GCEP’s efforts
to develop high-efficiency,
low global warming
potential refrigerant cooling
equipment that is accessible
and affordable globally.
By combining theory,
computer modeling, and
experimental research,
GCEP works to mitigate the
negative impacts of the large
expected growth in cooling
demand while expanding
access to cooling.
Appliance Test Chambers
Materials Project
CalSEED
Air-conditioning and refrigeration appliances account
for almost one-quarter of total residential annual
U.S. energy consumption, and coolants from these
appliances are a major source of GHG emissions. Airconditioning is also a significant contributor to peak
electricity demand. Researching and developing new
air-conditioning and refrigeration technologies, and
developing new methods to better evaluate them, is
important for further reducing the energy use and
demand of these appliances. The ETA’s Refrigerator Test
Chamber, Balanced Ambient Calorimeter Test Chamber,
and v enable Berkeley Lab researchers to assess the
performance of existing and new air-conditioning and
refrigeration appliances and equipment, and to develop
new test procedures that can better evaluate their
efficiency and performance.
Harnessing the power of
supercomputing and state-of-the-art
electronic structure methods, the
Materials Project -- led by Berkeley
Lab Senior Scientist and UC Berkeley
Professor Kristin Persson -- aims
to remove the guesswork from
materials design.
The California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur
Development (CalSEED) program supports California’s
clean-energy goals by identifying and funding early stage
and emerging clean-energy technologies developed by
entrepreneurs.
The Refrigerator Test Chamber supports DOE
standards and test-procedure development for
refrigerators, freezers, wine chillers, ice makers, and
other refrigeration products. The Balanced Ambient
Calorimeter Test Chamber and the Psychrometric
Test Chamber support DOE standards, test-procedure
development, and advanced research for a variety
of residential and light commercial air-conditioning
products. The Balanced Ambient Calorimeter Test
Chamber is used to test room air conditioners and
packaged terminal air conditioners. The Psychrometric
Test Chamber is typically used to test residential and
light-commercial split and single-package systems.
The Project computes the properties
of all known materials in a powerful
database with easy website access,
aiming to accelerate materials
design for applications ranging from
powerful batteries for electric cars
to semiconductors that could make
artificial photosynthesis a reality.
The open-access online project
is free to all and available to the
public, and harnesses the power
of supercomputers at Berkeley
Lab’s National Energy Research
Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
and customized machine-learning
algorithms. Launched in 2011,
the Materials Project is now the
largest materials data provider in
the world, serving millions of data
records every day to more than
170,000 users, and it’s been cited by
thousands of papers.
In partnership with CalSEED, Berkeley Lab has
developed:
• A breakthrough technologies analysis report that
summarizes significant early-stage technologies
that can help the state meet its goals, while
lowering costs and promoting greater reliability
• An assessment of Berkeley Lab’s patents to provide
a pipeline of early, low-technology readiness level,
and commercially potential technologies to be
developed further by entrepreneurs for meeting
California’s energy goals
• A curated database of testing resources and
capabilities across the national labs, public and
private universities, and utilities in California
accessible to clean-energy entrepreneurs
to develop, test, and validate clean energy
technologies
CalTestBed
CalTestBed is a California Energy Commission funded
five-year $8.8 million program designed to connect
entrepreneurs with the unique laboratory space and
testing facilities in the University of California System,
including Berkeley Lab.
Early-stage clean energy entrepreneurs face challenges
in accessing testing facilities as they progress toward
commercialization. The CalTestBed Initiative is a voucher
program that assists clean energy entrepreneurs in
gaining access to critical testing facilities. CalTestBed
provides testing vouchers worth up to $300,000 to clean
energy entrepreneurs based in California and expedites
their pathway to commercialization through connection
to a network of next-level partners. Entrepreneurs can
apply to receive vouchers to partner with principal
investigators to test their technologies at one the 21
facilities at Berkeley Lab that include testbeds, user
facilities, and labs.
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