Success Stories

EnergyPlus Saves Federal Building $9 Million in Energy Costs By Robin Johnston, June 2002 EnergyPlus software — a building energy simulation program distributed by Berkeley Lab — has been integral to the design of a new federal office building to be built in San Francisco. EnergyPlus contributed to nearly $9 million in energy costs savings projected over 20 years, according … [Read more...] about Licensed Technologies – EnergyPlus Software

If every home in the United States sealed its leaky HVAC ducts, the nation would save $5 billion annually in energy costs. Typical ductwork systems, both residential and commercial, lose 25-40 percent of heating and cooling energy; even newly installed systems experience 10-30 percent leakage. Solving this energy-wasting problem, once a costly, labor-intensive process, can … [Read more...] about Sealing in Energy Savings

Until Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Peter Schultz thought of a better way, materials discovery was a costly, slow, and laborious process.  In the early 1990s Dr. Schultz and colleagues invented a super efficient materials research process that combined minaturizing with parallel processing.  In 1994 the start-up company Symyx Technologies, Inc. licensed the … [Read more...] about Materials Discovery

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, recording sound for the first time when he spoke the words “Mary had a little lamb” onto a vertically embossed tinfoil cylinder.  In the following years, sound was recorded on diverse media – tin foil, wax and plastic cylinders, shellac and vinyl discs, acetate sheets, and plastic dictation belts.  The problem with restoring audio … [Read more...] about Berkeley Lab’s Sound Restoration System Gets in the Groove with Optics

The high cost of producing photovoltaic cells has been cited as the main obstacle in expanding solar energy’s reach. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Nanocrystal Solar Cell technology, funded by the DOE Office of Science, has the potential to bring solar energy to the marketplace at fossil fuel prices. In 2010, Solexant, the San Jose start-up with exclusive rights to the … [Read more...] about Rolling Out Affordable Solar Energy