Vol. 6 | Issue 2 | March 2023 | | |
Women in Energy Research, Leading the Way
March is Women’s History Month, and I am honored to work with so many tremendous women at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) who are dedicated to a just, equitable transition to a clean energy future. Just this last quarter, under the leadership of Reshma Singh, the Cradle to Commerce program has been launched, the Department of Energy's (DOE) latest initiative to support clean energy entrepreneurs by accelerating intellectual property (IP) from our national labs into scalable commercialization to fight climate change. Nan Zhou and Carolyn Szum work with a dedicated team to provide technical assistance to a number of emerging countries interested in improving their energy performance through the Net Zero World Initiative. This year as part of that initiative, Berkeley Lab will provide mentorship to emerging women leaders through its Climate Smart Women’s Energy Leadership program providing them with technical training, peer learning, and information sharing. In addition, Rengie Chan and I have been leading the Efficient and Healthy Schools Campaign, a program that provides technical assistance and recognition for K-12 schools, including those in underserved communities, in planning and implementing energy and indoor air quality (IAQ) upgrades.
All of this work, and more, is supported by countless other women in Building Technology & Urban Systems (BTUS) through their efforts on research and development (R&D), project management, procurement, and administration. While there is more to do to improve representation and equality throughout the energy industry, we’re grateful to have a supportive community at Berkeley Lab, and pay it forward through our inclusion, diversity, equity and accountability (IDEA) activities, and by providing leadership and mentorship opportunities for the next generation of emerging leaders.
-Cindy Regnier, P.E., Department Head, Whole Building Systems, FLEXLAB® Executive Director, BTUS Division
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Largest Inventory of U.S. Motors Goes Live, Points Up Large Decarb Potential
Keeping the nation humming takes tens of millions of motors and the mechanical systems that they drive. Until recently, no one knew how many motor systems are at work — and what potential they hold for decarbonization. Funded by what is now DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, a team led by Prakash Rao and Paul Sheaffer of BTUS’s Building and Industrial Applications Department and Yuting Chen of the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division launched a five-year survey.
The team assembled the largest known public database of U.S. industrial and commercial motor systems. The motors inventory is searchable at motors.lbl.gov. The team found that motor systems consume a staggering 29% of all U.S. electricity. “I didn’t expect it to be so large,” Rao said. Commercial motor systems also outnumber those in industry yet in aggregate use about the same electricity. “It’s almost 50/50. It shows the importance of considering both smaller and larger motors.”
What does it mean for decarbonization? Roughly half of motors are running at less than 75% of full load. Right-sizing those motors or adding variable frequency drives would save 82 million tonnes of CO2, equal to taking one in nine homes off fossil fuels.
Learn more about the public database of U.S. industrial commercial motor systems here.
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First Annual CalFlexHub Symposium
The CalFlexHub project capped off 2022 with the first annual CalFlexHub Symposium. Hosted December 6 and 7 of 2022, the Symposium brought together industry, utility representatives, researchers, manufacturers, and nonprofits to hear updates on CalFlexHub’s portfolio of projects while sharing and gathering information on the latest policies, research, and developments in load flexibility.
To revisit the Symposium or enjoy it for the first time, all sessions were recorded and are available here.
To learn more about the project, visit calflexhub.lbl.gov
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Occupant Aspects of Building Energy Codes and Standards
Occupants are recipients of building services, and they have direct influence on building operation and performance. However, they are often addressed in simplified ways in building energy codes and standards that do not reflect the latest knowledge and scientific literature. This article describes an international review the authors performed on 23 regions’ building energy codes and standards. It took two approaches: one quantitative focused on comparing occupant-related schedules, densities and other values and one qualitative that analyzed written requirements.
Read the full article here.
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Modelica IBPSA Library
On January 25, 2023 the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) approved the formation of the IBPSA Modelica Working Group. The IBPSA Modelica Working Group will further develop the Modelica IBPSA Library. This library originated from the International Energy Agency (IEA) Annex 60 and the subsequent IBPSA Project 1.
This group is led by Michael Wetter from Berkeley Lab. Continuous Berkeley Lab-led work of the past 10 years resulted in software that is used by industry and academia worldwide to develop energy and control systems for decarbonized buildings and districts. The software developed by the group is used as the core of the following Modelica library:
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AixLib, from North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University (RWTH), of Aachen University, Germany
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Buildings, from Berkeley Lab, Berkeley, CA, USA
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BuildingSystems, from Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) Berlin, Germany
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IDEAS, from Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven, Belgium.
These libraries extend the Modelica IBPSA Library and user support is typically provided through the distributions of the above libraries. A further purpose of the group is to coordinate the needs of the IBPSA community with the Modelica Association and with Modelica modeling and simulation environment developers.
Learn more about the Modelica IBPSA Library here.
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Recent Publications
Sujit, D., Fuchs, H., Philip, R., & Rao, P. (2023): „A review of Water Valuation Metrics: Supporting sustainable water use in manufacturing." 100199. DOI
buildings.lbl.gov/publications/review-water-valuation-metrics
Mathew, P., Shackelford, J., Regnier, C., Lee, S., & Walter, T. (2023) Energy efficiency package for rooftop unit replacement: Laboratory testing and validation of Energy Savings, Science and Technology for the Built Environment. DOI
buildings.lbl.gov/publications/energy-efficiency-package-rooftop
Gerke, B.F, Stübs, M., Murthy, S., Khandekar, A., Cappers, P., Brown, R.E & Piette, M.A. (2022) Potential bill impacts of dynamic electricity pricing on California utility customers.
Casquero-Modrego, N, W.R. Chan, B.D. Less, and I.S. Walker (2022) Getting to Scale for Decarbonizing Homes in the US: An Industry Survey. 1085 012036.DOI
buildings.lbl.gov/publications/getting-scale-decarbonizing-homes-us
Above is a sample of our recent publications. To find more, please visit buildings.lbl.gov/publications.
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Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) is located in the Berkeley Hills near University of California (UC) Berkeley and conducts scientific research on behalf of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The Laboratory overlooks the UC Berkeley.
Berkeley Lab addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 14 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more information, visit www.lbl.gov.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, see science.energy.gov.
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