A reminder that our webinar on "regulatory sandboxes" starts in 15 minutes. For members of NARUC and NASEO only. Register here: lbnl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Advanced technologies for transmission and distribution (T&D) can increase capacity and improve electricity reliability and affordability. But they don’t easily scale under traditional regulatory practices. “Sandboxes” reduce barriers to deploying these innovative technologies. <THREAD>

The recording of yesterday's policy forum on data centers and resource use, co-hosted with the MSU Institute of Public Policy & Social Research, is now online. Thanks to our panelists for sharing their expertise: Dr. Ryan Wiser (LBNL), Dr. Dong Zhao (MSU), and Mr. Douglas Jester (5 Lakes Energy).

Next Tuesday: join this free webinar on distributed energy resources from @berkeleylab.lbl.gov.

The Institute of Public Utilities is proud to be teaming up with the MSU Institute of Public Policy & Social Research on their 12/16 policy forum! The event will be recorded. Topic: Data centers and energy/water use Guests: Ryan Wiser (LBNL), Douglas Jester (5 Lakes Energy), and Dong Zhao (MSU).

Learn how to maintain a reliable and secure grid with distributed energy resources. Join @berkeleylab.lbl.gov and panelists from the Georgia PSC, @nreca.bsky.social Puget Sound Energy, and @nationalgrid.bsky.social for a free i2X webinar on Dec 16. Register: lbnl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Join @berkeleylab.lbl.gov and panelists from the Georgia PSC, @nreca.bsky.social, Puget Sound Energy, and @nationalgrid.bsky.social for a free i2X webinar on Dec 16. Learn solutions for maintaining a reliable and secure grid with distributed energy resources. Register: lbnl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🏅 Former Berkeley Lab senior scientist John Clarke has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. His research on quantum tunneling in electric circuits paved the way for today’s quantum computers and sensors. 🧠 This brings LBNL’s Nobel count to 17! @nobelprize.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

We are chuffed to have 6 postdocs representing #TeamBioSci in the 8th annual @berkeleylab.lbl.gov  Research SLAM tomorrow, Thurs Sept 18 @ 3 PM PDT! Lab staff can attend live on the Hill or tune in virtually and cast votes for the People's Choice Award. Everyone else, watch this space for updates!

💡 New Transmission Paper alert 💡 “Electric transmission value and its drivers in United States power markets” just went live in Nature Communications! Kudos especially to Julie Mulvaney Kemp for getting this work to the finish line. doi.org/10.1038/s414...

🔌 New Journal Article Alert 🔌 Backup power or bill savings? How electricity tariffs impact residential solar-plus-storage usage in the United States I'm happy to announce has recently been published, open-access, in Utilities Policy 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Join a free i2X webinar to discuss innovations in allocating interconnection-related costs for distribution upgrades among beneficiaries for economic efficiency. September 29. With panelists from @Mass_DPU, @NMPRC1, @New_Leaf_Energy, and @Current_Energy_. Register at lbnl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🧪 🥼 🥽 Looking for tools to answer questions related to energy and infrastructure security? Now's your chance to apply for an investigator role at Berkeley Lab's @jgi.doe.gov. Apply today! ⬇️ Deadline: September 9 Please share!

"Innovation is often limited by infrastructure, but the rapid growth of #AI data centers presents a unique opportunity to build next-gen energy systems from the ground up," says @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social's Arman Shehabi (via @financialtimes.com)

The huge new Eland solar + storage plant is now online, serving @ladwp.com. It is one of hundreds of “hybrid” clean power plants in the U.S., according to our research at emp.lbl.gov/hybrid. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Join us August 21 for an i2X webinar on how closer alignment between distributed energy interconnection and long-term grid planning can improve economic efficiency and reduce costs. Panelists include Eversource, NC Utilities Commission, and the NY PSC. Register here: lbnl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

“Regulatory sandboxes” allow utilities to test and scale innovations in a structured environment. Learn how they are being applied to advanced grid technologies on a free @BerkeleyLab webinar. August 13, 2pm Eastern/ 11 am Pacific. Register at naruc-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi....

Advanced grid technologies don’t easily scale under traditional regulatory approaches. “Regulatory sandboxes” allow utilities to test innovations in a structured environment and rapidly scale successful approaches. Our new report talks about how to do that. <THREAD> 💡🔌

One in four US households face energy insecurity. Research by Madeline Yozwiak, done in partnership with @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social suggests that rooftop solar panels could improve energy affordability. Yozwiak discusses the findings on Resources Radio. Listen now: on.soundcloud.com/4sGg1V2TZmAY...

This webinar on grid reslience planning for severe storms is starting NOW! Register and join.

From short blips to long blackouts, we're crunching the numbers on power outages. 🧮💡 Our researchers developed tools to estimate the cost of widespread outages. The goal? Help utilities invest smarter—so fewer people lose power. ⬇️ @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social

The Energy Innovator Fellowship is looking for recent grads to help advance solutions at critical energy organizations. Help us spread the word about this (paid!) opportunity. Learn more: bit.ly/3SVv2de #ExperienceORISE #Energy @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

The new supercomputer, which uses NVIDIA chips tailored for A.I. calculations, could be the Energy Department's biggest resource for tasks like training A.I. models, says @berkeleylab.lbl.gov's Jonathan Carter. @energygov.bsky.social

Grid Resilience Planning for Severe Storms in the East and Southeast: Join us on June 16, 2–5 pm ET, for an interactive webinar on grid resilience planning. Experts will discuss planning for severe storms and hurricanes and answer questions from participants. Register: lbnl.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The Energy Innovator Fellowship is looking for recent grads to help advance solutions at critical energy organizations. Help us spread the word about this (paid!) opportunity. Learn more: bit.ly/3SVv2de #ExperienceORISE #Energy @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Our @josephrand.bsky.social is quoted on how the interconnection process is going in the Pacific Northwest. www.fastcompany.com/91339696/ore...

Our geothermal #energy experts are studying how to make the most of new tech to stimulate activity that exists in natural #geothermal systems-hoping to help advance affordable & readily available geothermal-electricity generation. newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/04/10/e... @eesaberkeleylab.bsky.social

Research by @berkeleylab.lbl.gov for @energygov.bsky.social shows that data centers' power consumption has tripled in the last ten years and may triple again by 2028.

Researcher @josephrand.bsky.social from @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social was named one of the Top 50 Data Changemakers in the Energy Sector for 2025 by Chief Data Officer Magazine! His report on U.S. interconnection queues earned him this honor. Congrats, Joe! 🌟 ⬇️ eta.lbl.gov/news/berkele...

Another Berkeley Lab report out, this time on electricity rate design + tariffs for large loads (read: data centers)! eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/defaul... #energysky The comprehensive breakdowns of all the different rate structures utilities are creating for large load data centers thus far:

#Energysky The congressionally mandated 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Data Center Energy Usage Report is out! eta.lbl.gov/publications... A thread of some of the results:

Great piece from @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social summarizing grid interconnection trends, costs and deployment barriers: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Some new insights and possible solutions to grid interconnection issues in this new (free, open access) journal article from our team at @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social We're also actively working on an update to the annual Queued Up report. Stay tuned! #energysky

We reported earlier on the massive backlog for grid interconnection. To better understand the dynamics and what solutions may be available, we just published “Grid connection barriers to renewable energy deployment in the United States,” in the journal Joule. THREAD! emp.lbl.gov/publications...

I was pleased to work on this new report with colleagues at NREL, for the DOE National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP+). For community solar to succeed, it has to be simple, transparent, and honest. And that starts with billing.

Community solar is growing, but customers can be confused when they get separate bills from a community solar company and from their utility. A new report by NREL and @berkeleylab.lbl.gov explores issues around consolidated billing for community solar. emp.lbl.gov/publications...

A couple good resources on drivers of rising rates across the country: Our piece @energyinnovation.bsky.social on drivers of rising electricity costs: energyinnovation.org/report/clean... Recent @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social overview of retail cost trends and drivers: emp.lbl.gov/publications...

Read our new report on electricity rates at emp.lbl.gov/news/new-ber...

I have been hanging out for this for quite some time - going to be v fun to read this through in all its glory. One of the most authoritative and deeply researched quantifications of data centre power consumption in the US -->>> eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/defaul...

An early Christmas present for all data center load growth nerds: The new LBNL report to congress is out today! Fully documents significant load growth in data centers to 2023, starting from the 2018 base of about 1% of US electricity use. More details soon! eta-publications.lbl.gov/publications...

Earlier this year @berkeleylab.bsky.social published a study on why wind and solar projects fail. One of the top categories is “community opposition.” Does anyone know what that means in practice? 🔌💡 emp.lbl.gov/publications...

Great thread on what’s happening in the UK on queue reform, for those who might have been closely following our work at @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social on US issues but would like to hear some of the parallels across the globe!

We are happy to be added to the "Energy Organizations" starter pack. If you know of any labs, R&D orgs, government agencies, etc. that are not on yet, please tell them to sign up.

Hello everyone! Come check out today's webinar featuring @BerkeleyLab scientists, entrepreneurs and tech commercialization specialists explaining how DOE and Nat'l Labs bring cutting-edge energy technology to real-world implementation! Starting in 30m... elements.lbl.gov/news/dec-16-... #energysky

Could we make a Berkley Fan Club Start Pack? Want one for NREL too…might be the same people.

The UK is not alone here. @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social have been doing great work on the US where there is now 2600GW stuck waiting in the queue. @wfgorman.bsky.social and @danielraimi.bsky.social also covered this in a recent podcast. We will see if the UK’s proposed fixes prove instructive. (9/20)

Follow our researchers on Bluesky! Joe Rand: @josephrand.bsky.social Will Gorman : @wfgorman.bsky.social Lisa Schwartz : @lisacsoregon.bsky.social Lin Jiang : @linenergy.bsky.social For a full list of @berkeleylab.bsky.social experts, see this starter pack. bsky.app/starter-pack...

The U.S. market for customer-owned solar has become wider and deeper, across regions and income levels. Our annual report on the demographics of solar adopters is covered by @dangearino.bsky.social at @insideclimatenews.org. insideclimatenews.org/news/1212202...

Solar and batteries on your home can provide backup power during outages. But how much is that worth? We calculated benefit/cost ratios that range from zero to 58% of system costs. More in Net Zero Insider.

FERC Order 1920 sets requirements on planning and cost allocation for new transmission. State officials can learn about 1920 at a free educational session offered by @ENERGY, @NARUC, @NASEO_Energy and national labs. Friday, December 6. Register today at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...