ERG Admissions FAQ Deadlines and Timeline Letters of Recommendation Standardized Tests Which Degree Admissions Assessment and Decisions Essays ERG Program Contacts with Faculty Advisors and ERG Students Fees and Funding International Applicants Deadlines and Timeline When does the application open? First week of September 2020 What is the application deadline? Tuesday, December […]
The Minor and Certificate in Sustainability provides a comprehensive understanding of the most pressing issues facing the world today. The program offers a practical and relevant interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of environmental, economic, social, political, and cultural issues. Students complete courses in: Global and local environmental change The science, engineering, economics, and policy […]
Seigi is really, really into drinking water access. He is particularly passionate about mulling over why and how drinking water disparities have emerged in California (hint: systemic racism and classism). He hopes these interests and beliefs will translate well into academic publications. The majority of his free time is spent climbing in Yosemite, throwing pottery, […]
Designing and Adapting Appropriate Socio-Technical Systems for the Renewable Energy Transition (PhD ’18) Nkiruka has expertise in solar grid integration and climate policy in California, and in electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. She draws from engineering and urban planning disciplines to envision how the renewable energy transition could lead to equitable socio-technical […]
A Survey of Utility Experience with Real Time Pricing: Trends and Implications (04 MA)
A Discrete-event Simulator to Determine if Public Transit Buses Go Battery Electric Today (MA ’20) A native of Utah, Nick holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. He has focused his career on real-time environmental monitoring, previous working at Oberlin College and Lucid on energy and resource monitoring. Prior […]
Michael Cohen puts the power and complexity of the grid into students' hands via a video game. We asked Michael about his innovative project and his unique experience at ERG. "In addition to developing the game itself, I am working with teachers at local high schools to develop curriculum around it and try it out with their students this year. I hope to not only create a solid educational product but also gain some insights into how technology can be used to support learning about complex systems in general."
Getting Electricity Prices Right: The Importance of Real-Time Pricing Tariff Design (03 MS)
Reshaping the relationships in Ungula’s electricity sector: the advent of the prepay meter (MS ’15) Presumptions and Precarity: Probing Electricity Infrastructure (PhD ’20) Veronica Jacome is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and holds a BS in Engineering Physics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At ERG, Veronica focuses on the […]
Continuous Demand Response: Using Loads to Manage Real-Time Energy Imbalance on the Electricity Grid (’11 MS)
Everyday Transformations of Food to Waste: What and Why Food is Discarded in U.S. Households (PhD ’19) From digging through trash to looking inside of people’s refrigerators, Laura researches household-level food waste in the United States with a focus on measurement and behavior. In addition to examining the questions of “what?” and “how much?,” her […]
Demand-side Knowledge for Sustainable Decarbonization in Resource Constrained Environments: Applied Research at the Intersection of Behavior, Data-mining, and Technology (PhD ’18) Links: Personal Website Life at ERG Blog Posts ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Ph.D. 2017 During his time as an ERG Ph.D. candidate, Diego worked on developing information and communication solutions and ubiquitous data products for reducing […]
Environmental, Economic, and Social Trade-Offs of Hydropower Relicensing (MS ’16) Joseph is interested in the social, environmental, and economic trade-offs in energy development, and in particular the social conflicts arising around utility-scale wind farm siting and hydropower relicensing. His master’s research focuses on the relicensing of the Yuba River Development Project, a large hydropower project […]
Jess studies the impact of and adaptation to climate change on Latin America’s coasts. Currently, she travels on her 39-foot sailboat, Oleada, down the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, and into the Caribbean to document local climate knowledge through GIS mapping and personal narratives. You can follow her journey […]
The Impacts of Real-Time Selling and Net Metering on Life-Cycle Costs for Residential Fuel Cell Systems (’01 MS)
M.S. 1986 – A Vehicular Power Plant Application of the Monolithic Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Ph.D. 1995 – Fan-Lizhi’s Big Bang: Science and Politics in Mao’s China ERG alumnus Jim Williams, now a professor at the University of San Francisco, is a global thought leader in the area of low-carbon energy systems. At USF his focus is on […]
ERG professor Dan Kammen recently co-authored and published a research article, "Near-real-time monitoring of global CO2 emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic", on Nature. The article was featured on various news sources, including AZO Cleantech, ScienceDaily, and StudyFinds. "The greatest reduction of emissions was observed in the ground transportation sector. Largely because of working from home restrictions, transport CO2 emissions decreased by 40% worldwide. In contrast, the power and industry sectors contributed less to the decline, with −22% and −17%, respectively, as did the aviation and shipping sectors," Kammen states in his research.
A recent article from UC Berkeley’s Blum Center considers the lessons learned from the trial run of Next drop, an application intended to help residents of Bangalore, India optimize their time dedicated towards collecting water. NextDrop was designed to alert households in Bangalore when they should expect to receive water, based off of real-time data […]
ERG graduate student advisor Kay Burns (pictured with ERG/CNR Undergraduate Advisor Ryann Madden and ERG Professor Emeritus Dick Norgaard) has been named a 2018 recipient of the the Mary Slakey Howell Excellence in Advising Award. The award is UC Berkeley’s highest advising honor, and it recognizes visionary leadership and exceptional contributions to the advising community. More […]
As the November 6, 2018 midterm elections approach, the Energy and Resources Group faculty, students, and alumni are taking action to increase voter participation. We encourage all voices to be heard in our democracy, and invite all to vote to support leaders and policies that lead to a sustainable environment and a just society. Voting […]
Costa Rica’s president-elect Carlos Alvarado announced his goal to remove gasoline and diesel from the country’s transportation plans by 2021, its 200 year anniversary of independence. This promise marks the first time a Costa Rican leader has backed such a move, though green organizations have previously urged it. While completely eliminating fossil fuels within three years may […]
ERG Professor Dan Kammen was quoted in CarbonBrief this week, reinforcing the International Energy Agency’s assertion that renewable energy is emerging as a cheaper and more socially responsible alternative to coal in providing electricity to the 1.1 billion people who still lack energy access. “Coal doesn’t even deliver the thing for which it’s really been touted for, […]
A controversial paper published two years ago that concluded there was no detectable slowdown in ocean warming over the previous 15 years — widely known as the “global warming hiatus” — has now been confirmed using independent data in research led by researchers from UC Berkeley and Berkeley Earth.
The Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) team won several categories in the 2016 Sacramento Municipal District Tiny House Competition.
The New York Times featured ERG PhD student Nate Aden in an article on Decoupling Economic Growth from Carbon Emissions.
Professor Daniel Kammen shares his thoughts on California's energy revolution with the New York Times.
Signer writes about the potential of urban foraging
“Folks realize we have now reached the limits of supply, so the focus is on demand.”
ERG team study showing how off-grid power can improve equality in energy access published in Nature Climate Change. Interview with lead author Peter Alstone.
"We wanted to help policymakers and members of the general public understand that household heating with biomass is a complicated issue," says ERG PhD candidate Zoë Chafe.
In Spring 2015, ERG offers an interdisciplinary, graduate-level survey of historical & current efforts to regulate GHG emissions in the US.
"When the two biggest emitters and two biggest economies jointly do it, it will ideally transform the entire debate..."
The New York Times calls the EPA's emission proposals "modest." Professor Dan Kammen points out the challenge.