Pages (40 results)
TopThe Energy and Resources Group
ERG is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, over 150 affiliated faculty and researchers across the campus, and over 500 alumni across the globe. We award MA, MS, and ... Continue Reading »
THE ENERGY AND RESOURCES GROUP
Research and education for a sustainable environment and a just society. ERG is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, 150 affiliated faculty and researchers across the campus, and over ... Continue Reading »
Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL)
RAEL is engaged in projects to develop the science, technology, policy needs and to foster engagements that explore the future of energy, specifically the transition to a low-cabon, environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable energy system.
Analysis & Control (EMAC) Energy Modeling
The Energy Modeling, Analysis and Control (EMAC) group addresses the engineering and techno-economic challenges to decarbonizing electric power systems. Our work ranges from applied to theoretical. Much of our work focuses on building new control and optimization frameworks to facilitate the operation of low carbon grids.
Undergraduate Minor in Energy and Resources
The Minor in Energy and Resources offers undergraduates basic knowledge and skills to address issues arising from the interaction of social, economic, political, technical, and environmental factors shaping our world. ... Continue Reading »
About ERG
Our Mission The mission of the Energy and Resources Group is a sustainable environment and a just society. ERG is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, nearly 200 ... Continue Reading »
Who We Are
A Brief History of ERG For thirty years, the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at the University of California, Berkeley has provided its outstanding graduate students and exceptional faculty the ... Continue Reading »
Graduate Admissions
The Energy and Resources Group – graduate degrees that make a difference The Energy and Resources Group (ERG) trains interdisciplinary leaders and thinkers who are defining and solving the systemic, ... Continue Reading »
Home
WEBSITE NOTE: The home page collects its content from the child pages of this page. The content of this page does not manifest anywhere (as you can see this note ... Continue Reading »
Courses
All Course Offerings Please note: This is a full list of ERG course offerings; not all courses are offered each term. For current course offerings, please refer to the online ... Continue Reading »
Give to ERG
Your donation to ERG provides critical funding and academic opportunities for our graduate students. ERG has a 50-year history of outstanding research, teaching, policy advice and scholar-activism. ERG has researched ... Continue Reading »
Core Faculty
The faculty of ERG currently consists of 10 core professors of Energy and Resources and nearly 200 affiliated faculty and researchers holding appointments in a wide range of departments across ... Continue Reading »
Students
ERG’s sixty plus graduate students are geographically and ethnically diverse. About half are in the masters-degree program and half in the PhD program. The students come from a wide variety ... Continue Reading »
Alumni
The geographic range of ERGies is worldwide, and they occupy a remarkably high number of niches. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica, across a large elevational range, and in habitats ranging from dense urban areas to the countryside.
Staff
Energy and Resources Group Office345 GianniniMain Phone: 510-642-1640ergdeskb@berkeley.edu ChairProf. Duncan Callawaydcal@berkeley.edu Head Graduate AdvisorProf. Isha Rayisharay@berkeley.edu Equity AdvisorProf. Lara Kuepperslmkueppers@berkeley.edu Head Minor AdvisorProf. Lara Kuepperslmkueppers@berkeley.edu Undergraduate Minor Academic AdvisorEnergy and ... Continue Reading »
Programs
ERG Program Directory The information below is a directory of ERG programs. Please read through and contact us at erggrad@berkeley.edu for graduate program questions and ergdeskb@berkeley.edu for all other questions. ... Continue Reading »
Publications
Student Led Publications https://plinkogame.se/
Research at ERG
Through teaching, mentorship and research projects, ERG supports a diverse suite of basic and applied projects. The goal of this engagement is to understand, inform, and transform the knowledge and ... Continue Reading »
Climate & Carbon Sciences Program
The research mission of the Climate & Carbon Sciences Program is to advance the understanding and prediction of multiscale climate dynamics, abrupt and extreme climate events, terrestrial feedbacks to climate change, and their impacts on energy and water resources.
Faculty by Primary Interest
Areas of Interest Climate Change ERG COREDavid AnthoffDavid Anthoff is an environmental economist who studies climate change and environmental policy. He co-develops the integrated assessment model FUND that is used ... Continue Reading »
Concurrent Degree Program (MPP/MA or MPP/MS)
Public Policy & Energy Resources Group Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) offer a concurrent degree program that integrates the strengths of public policy ... Continue Reading »
Master’s Degree Curriculum Requirements (MA or MS)
The purpose of the ERG Master’s program is to educate the next generation of interdisciplinary leaders. Specifically, students are taught the range of methods and subjects they should be able ... Continue Reading »
Publications
ERG's newsletters featuring updates on faculty, commencement speakers, awards and ERG Ph.D., Master's and minor students.
ERG Economics Lab
The Society, Environment and Economics Lab works on the economics of a wide range of environmental, energy and resource issues. Our work spans theoretical, empirical and numerical modeling approaches. We engage in rigorous academic research and actively participate in current policy debates.
ERG Graduate Job Placement
Energy and Resources Group is an interdisciplinary program that attracts students with many different interests and backgrounds. Our Masters and PhD students find job positions in a variety of industries ... Continue Reading »
Sustainability Summer Minor and Certificate
Make sustainability your work, your future, and your world. The Energy and Resources Group’s Sustainability Minor/Certificate program offers a practical and relevant interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of environmental, economic, ... Continue Reading »
Summer Instructors 2024
The Energy and Resources Group summer instructors understand the complex and interdisciplinary nature of sustainability. All have significant experience teaching and/or professional experience in the subject areas of their courses. ... Continue Reading »
Equity Diversity
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at ERG Equity and inclusion are at the heart of our mission to provide education and research for a sustainable and just society. We aspire ... Continue Reading »
Sustainability Minor/Certificate FAQs
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Learning What is the difference between synchronous vs. asynchronous instruction, and online courses vs. remote instruction courses? Courses originally offered online (i.e. Energy and Society and Water ... Continue Reading »
Statement on Social Justice and Solidarity with Peaceful Protesters
ERG faculty and staff released the following statement May 31: “All of us at the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at the University of California, Berkeley, mourn the tragic loss ... Continue Reading »
Alumni Spotlight: Evan Hansen
Elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates, Evan Hansen now serves on the House Energy committee and leads his own environmental consulting company.
Affiliated Faculty
ERG has a small core faculty but a much larger group of affiliated faculty. Affiliated faculty are based in other departments on campus or at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ... Continue Reading »
Critical Ruralities Lab
Youjin Chung convenes the Critical Ruralities Lab, housed within the Departments of Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) at UC Berkeley. Members of the ... Continue Reading »
Open Positions
Join the ERG Team The Energy and Resources Group is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, nearly 200 affiliated faculty and researchers across the campus, and over 600 ... Continue Reading »
Minor/Certificate in Sustainability — Courses
Summer 2024 Curriculum ERG’s minor and certificate require a minimum of five courses and 15 total units of coursework, completed over one or two summers (or for a UC Berkeley ... Continue Reading »
ERG Annual Lecture 2024
The Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley has, from its inception a half century ago, educated many of today’s experts and policymakers about the truly interdisciplinary nature of global ... Continue Reading »
50 Years Of ERG
From Vision to Reality In 1969 a group of academics from different departments on the UC Berkeley campus started gathering on Wednesdays to discuss interdisciplinary problems and theorize new educational ... Continue Reading »
50 Years of ERG : History
From Vision to Reality In 1969 a group of academics from different departments on the UC Berkeley campus started gathering on Wednesdays to discuss interdisciplinary problems and theorize new educational ... Continue Reading »
ERG 50th Anniversary Oral History Project
Since accepting its first graduate students in 1975, the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley has inspired generations of physicists, economists, engineers, social scientists, and ecologists to reframe ecological ... Continue Reading »
Mira Shah receives ASHRAE’s 1st place undergraduate scholarship
Mira Shah, a 4th year Major in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Energy and Resources, received a 1st place undergraduate scholarship from The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and ... Continue Reading »
Faculty (10 results)
TopPaige Weber
Assistant Professor
Weber is an environmental economist who studies questions in energy, equity, and environmental policy. A primary goal of her research is to understand the determinants and solutions to environmental inequality, ... Continue Reading »
Meg Mills-Novoa
Assistant Professor
Meg Mills-Novoa is a human-environment geographer who researches the enduring impacts of climate change adaptation projects. She is jointly appointed to the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.
- climate change adaptation
- critical development studies
- Deforestation
- Latin America
- participatory mixed methods
- political ecology of global change
- water justice
Andrew D. Jones
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Dr. Jones is an Earth scientist who works at the interface of human and environmental systems. His research uses quantitative models and data analysis to understand climate change and human-Earth system interactions at decision-relevant scales. He also collaborates with social scientists and interacts closely with stakeholders to understand how science can effectively provide actionable insight into strategies for increasing resilience of energy water, food, and urban systems.
Youjin Chung
Assistant Professor
Youjin Chung is Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Equity with a joint appointment in the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.
Lara Kueppers
Associate Professor
Lara Kueppers is an Associate Professor in the Energy and Resources Group, with a Faculty Scientist appointment at Berkeley Lab. She is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, whose research focuses on ecological responses and feedbacks to climate change.
David Anthoff
Associate Professor
David Anthoff is an environmental economist who studies climate change and environmental policy. He co-develops the integrated assessment model FUND that is used widely in academic research and in policy analysis.
Margaret Torn
Adjunct Professor
The focus of my work is carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and trace-gas flux between soil and atmosphere. I conduct research on soil carbon, global change, and the impacts of human activities on ecosystem processes.
Isha Ray
Professor
Professor Ray’s research interests are water and development; technology and development; common property resources; and social science research methods. Her research projects focus on access to water and sanitation for the rural and urban poor, and on the role of technology in improving livelihoods.
Daniel M. Kammen
Professor
Daniel Kammen is the Distinguished Professor of Energy with appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, The Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Africa
- Asia
- Energy Access
- Energy for Community Development
- Energy Supply
- Energy Transmission
- Latin America
- Life-cycle Impacts of Transportation
- Low-carbon Energy Systems
- Smart Grid
Duncan Callaway
ERG Chair, Professor
Dr. Callaway’s teaching focuses on power systems and data science. His research can be categorized in three areas: modeling and control of aggregated storage devices; power management; and system analysis of energy technologies and their impact.
Students (62 results)
TopAlana Ballagh
MS
Alana Ballagh (she/her) is a first year Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Alana is interested in exploring the role of more participatory decision-making in renewable energy planning ... Continue Reading »
Lily Kirby
MS
Lily is a Master’s student in the Energy and Resources Group. Her research focuses on expanding utility access for medically vulnerable and low-income American communities. Lily’s work is also concerned ... Continue Reading »
Faraj Sungkar
MS
Faraj is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group (ERG). He is passionate about exploring how to address the complex challenges of balancing the energy trilemma (energy security, ... Continue Reading »
Dawson Verley
MS
Dawson is a Master’s student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. His interests lie at the intersection of data science and sustainable development, with a focus on ... Continue Reading »
Chris Hunter
MA, MPP
Chris is a M.A./M.P.P. student with the Energy & Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy, focused on advancing effective and equitable climate and energy policy at the ... Continue Reading »
Cora Cliburn
MA
Cora Cliburn (she/her) is a first year master’s student in the Energy and Resources Group. Her research interests include food sustainability, waste politics, and political ecology. At ERG, Cora hopes ... Continue Reading »
Sophie Pesek
PhD
Sophie Pesek is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley. She is interested in using causal inference and remote sensing techniques to support vulnerable ... Continue Reading »
Annika Luo
MS
Annika is an MS student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on sustainable systems, environmental justice, industrial pollution, and political ecology. She is particularly ... Continue Reading »
Alex Hall Rocha
MS
Alex Hall Rocha is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Her interests include community-based participatory research and how it can be used to address cases of environmental injustice. ... Continue Reading »
Alina Leticia Zárate
PhD
Alina Leticia Zárate is a first year PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group. Zárate’s research interests center around farmworker justice and farmworker vulnerability to climate changes in addition ... Continue Reading »
Simone Speizer
PhD
Simone Speizer is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. Her research interests center on air pollution and climate impacts, and especially their intersections with ... Continue Reading »
Aneesha Manocha
PhD
Aneesha Manocha (she/her) is a PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in the Energy Resources Group. She is particularly interested in developing optimization ... Continue Reading »
Emilia Chojkiewicz
PhD
Emilia is a PhD student at ERG and a Research Affiliate at both the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and UC Berkeley’s India Energy and Climate Center (IECC). Her research ... Continue Reading »
Sarah Sarfaty Epstein
MS
Sarah Sarfaty Epstein is an MS student in the Energy and Resources Group interested in on-farm climate adaptation, resilience and mitigation projects from both the ecological and social perspectives. While ... Continue Reading »
Dakota Pekerti
MS
Dakota Pekerti (he/him) is a first-year Master’s student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. Dakota is passionate about working in sustainable development in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- ecology / environmental science
- economics
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- transportation
Adriana Gonzales
PhD
Adriana Gonzales is a PhD student at the Energy and Resources Group. Gonzales’ interests includes examining how the responses of local Caribbean communities to energy inequities in the wake of ... Continue Reading »
Nathaniel “Nate” Dolton-Thornton
PhD
Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton is a first year PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group. Dolton-Thornton’s research interests center on China, the Belt and Road Initiative, Latin America, and the clean ... Continue Reading »
Ari Ball-Burack
PhD
Ari Ball-Burack is a first year PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Dr. Dan Kammen. He studies data and computational ... Continue Reading »
Xi Xi
MS
Xi Xi is a Master’s student for the Energy Resource group. Xi Xi uses interdisciplinary methods such as quantitative modeling techniques and policy analyses to assess impacts on emissions, energy ... Continue Reading »
Rachman Setiawan
MS
Rachman Setiawan is a Master’s student for the Energy Resource Group, focusing on energy sectors. He worked as an engineer in a Solar PV company where He conducted surveys, analysis, ... Continue Reading »
Kwabena Owusu Sarfo
MS
Kwabena Owusu Sarfo is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Kwabena interests includes, energy system modeling and analysis, decarbonizing electric power grids, and renewable energy integration research. ... Continue Reading »
Ana Santasheva
MS
Ana Santasheva is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Santasheva’s interests includes, exploring how to leverage new tools, technologies, policies, and consumer engagement to help us predict and ... Continue Reading »
Sara Murillo
MS
Sara (she/her) is a first-year MS student in the Energy and Resources Group with a passion for advancing solutions to domestic energy equity issues. Her research interests are centered around ... Continue Reading »
Edward Moses Mbewe
MS
Edward Moses Mbewe is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Mbewe interests includes identifying, critically reviewing, and publishing on sustainable and environmental developments in energy. Mbewe’s goal ... Continue Reading »
Anna Mazur
MS
Anna Mazur is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Mazur interests includes developing new facilities and strategic planning of generation portfolios, revising outdated policies like capital cost ... Continue Reading »
Megan LeBerth
MS
Megan LeBerth is a Master’s student at the Energy Resources Group. LeBerth interests includes, researching the equitable expansion of clean energy. Prior to joining ERG, LeBerth holds a BA from ... Continue Reading »
Clara Larson
MS
Clara Larson is a Master’s student at the Energy Resource Group. Larson’s interests includes exploring computational methods for earth and environmental science and using computational research to inform decision making ... Continue Reading »
Hasmik Djoulakian
MS
Hasmik Djoulakian (she/her) is a Master’s student in the Energy Resources Group. Her research interests involve applying frameworks of feminist political ecology, cultural geography, and environmental justice to examine the ... Continue Reading »
Minah Choi
MS
Minah Choi (she/hers) is a first year Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Her research interests include political ecology, community-based conservation, and STS. At ERG, Minah hopes to ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- climate change
- development
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- environmental justice
Elliot Carleton
MS
Elliot is an MS student in the Energy and Resources Group focusing on sustainable land management and conservation. His research interests are motivated by the time he spent working with ... Continue Reading »
Aline Abayo
MS
Aline is a master’s student at ERG focusing climate finance, critical minerals, the economics of renewable energy, and the relationship between climate and development goals. Prior to joining ERG, Aline ... Continue Reading »
Ryan Jones
PhD
Ryan has spent the last decade developing modeling tools to explore technology pathways for deep decarbonization with special focus on electricity systems. His current research works to incorporate additional dimensions ... Continue Reading »
Ben Haley
PhD
Ben has unique experience developing energy system models to support energy transformation decision making in his role as Co-Founder of Evolved Energy Research. His models have been utilized by parties ... Continue Reading »
Aaditee Kudrimoti
MS, PhD
Aaditee Kudrimoti is a M.S./Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group. She completed undergraduate degrees from UC Berkeley in Political Science and Public Policy (go bears!). Aaditee is interested ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- citizen science in environmental justice campaigns
- climate
- development
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- transportation
- water
Jasmine McAdams
MS, PhD
Jasmine is a MS/PhD student at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, with a passion for supporting robust and equitable decision-making in climate and energy. Her research interests include developing ... Continue Reading »
Alexandra Grayson
MS
Alexandra (she/her) is a second-year Master of Science candidate in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. She is particularly interested in furthering procedural environmental justice ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- Climate justice
- EEEJ
- Environmental Economics
- Ocean Technology and Policy
- renewable energy
- urban planning
Eleanor Adachi
MPP, MS
Eleanor Adachi (she/her) is a Master’s student in both the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a NSF Graduate Research Fellow. ... Continue Reading »
Cora Kingdon
MS, PhD
Cora Kingdon is a PhD candidate in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she draws from environmental economics, climate science, decision making under deep ... Continue Reading »
Nica Campbell
MS, PhD
Nica Campbell is an PhD candidate at the Energy and Resources Group. Her research interests include corporate sustainability, environmental justice and policy making mechanisms. At ERG, she explores ways to ... Continue Reading »
- Carbon markets
- Circular Economy
- climate
- economics
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- Net Positive
- sustainable communities
Colette Brown
MS, PhD
Colette Brown is a PhD student at the Energy and Resources Group. Brown previously graduated from the ERG Master’s program; where she used Landsat 7 imagery and machine learning to ... Continue Reading »
Aaryaman “Sunny” Singhal
MPP, MS
Aaryaman “Sunny” Singhal earned a dual-degree in 2024 from the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley. He is interested in water security in ... Continue Reading »
Jessica Lottman-Craigg
PhD
My research focuses on the social, spatial, and climate implications of energy transition in the Atlanta area. I draw on political ecology, energy geography, and political economy of development and ... Continue Reading »
- development
- energy
- energy transition
- gender
- political ecology
- Political economy
- racial capitalism
- social theory
Kate Cullen
PhD
Kate Altemus Cullen (she/her) is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Energy & Resources Group and Fulbright-Hays Fellow. Her dissertation research examines the role of climate change in exacerbating issues ... Continue Reading »
Jill Moraski
PhD
Jill is interested in addressing electric grid reliability and resilience challenges in a future characterized by economy-wide decarbonization, climate vulnerability, and deep risk uncertainty. Specifically, she’s interested in adapting best ... Continue Reading »
Samuel Miles
PhD
Samuel Miles is a Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Sam studies electrical and political power systems. He pairs frameworks from environmental ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- development
- economics
- energy
- Mini-grids
- Productive uses
- sanitation
- transportation
- Urbanization
- water
Liyang Wang
MS, PhD
Liyang is a PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group and a Senior Research Associate at Berkeley Lab. Her research interest is at the intersection of decision science, climate ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- decision-making
- economics
- energy
- Energy System Modeling
- environmental justice
- technology adoption
- uncertainties
Annelise Gill-Wiehl
MS, PhD
Annelise Gill-Wiehl is currently an NSF Graduate Student Researcher and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, co-advised by Dr. Dan Kammen ... Continue Reading »
Julia Longmate
MS, PhD
Julia’s research focuses on the performance and usability of climate model outputs at decision-relevant scales. She received her S.B. in Environmental Engineering from MIT in 2016 where she studied the ... Continue Reading »
Cristina Crespo Montanes
MS, PhD
I am an Industrial Engineer, a PhD Candidate at the Energy and Resources Group (UC Berkeley), and a researcher in the Energy Markets and Policy Department at the Lawrence Berkeley ... Continue Reading »
Gbemisola Akinsipe
MS, PhD
Gbemi is a MS/PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group. Her primary research revolves around electricity systems planning and markets in Nigeria and West Africa with a focus on ... Continue Reading »
Hikari Murayama
PhD
Hikari’s research largely focuses on combining remote sensing and machine learning methods to study human impacts on large spatial scales. She was selected to be a Data Science Fellow at ... Continue Reading »
Jess Kersey
MS, PhD
Jess Kersey is a fourth-year PhD student broadly interested in technology, regulation, and policy to improve energy access and climate adaptation efforts across multiple geographies including East Africa, Latin America, ... Continue Reading »
Jessica Katz
MS, PhD
Siting Renewable Energy in a Changing Climate: A Reimagining of BLM’s Solar Energy Zones (MS ’20) At ERG, Jessica is focusing on learning advanced methods to comprehensively evaluate the ecological, ... Continue Reading »
Nancy Freitas
MS, PhD
Arctic Lake Emissions in a Warming World (MS ’20) At ERG, Nancy research focuses on identifying existing gaps in climate science and decision-making. In her master’s research, she used a ... Continue Reading »
Taryn Fransen
PhD
Taryn Fransen is a PhD student with the Energy and Resources Group and a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute. Her research interests center on the design and implementation ... Continue Reading »
Tzipora Wagner
MS
The Role of Stakeholder Networks in Urban Water System Innovation (MS ’20) Tzipora’s is interested in water resources and the role of technology in promoting sustainability, especially in the developing ... Continue Reading »
Kelsey Alford-Jones
MA
Kelsey is a PhD candidate, focusing on qualitative research spanning the fields of global climate and environmental politics, political ecology, critical development studies, human and Indigenous rights, and environmental conflict. ... Continue Reading »
Jesse Griffin-Carney
MS, PhD
Jesse is a PhD candidate at ERG conducting research which utilizes optimization and techno-economic modeling to evaluate the feasibility of energy system decarbonization strategies. She earned her undergraduate degree at ... Continue Reading »
Anaya Hall
MS, PhD
Modeling Organic Waste Management for Soil Carbon Sequestration in California (MS ’19) Anaya (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley. She is ... Continue Reading »
Jesse Strecker
MA, MPP
Jesse Strecker is a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, and an interdisciplinary political economist. They hold an MPP ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- democracy
- development
- ecological economics
- ecology
- economics
- energy
- environmental justice
- governance
- Heterodox Economics
Hilary Yu
MS, PhD
Mining Data on Reclaimed Coal Mines: a Machine Learning Approach to Assessing Habitat Suitability (MS ’18) Hilary received her B.A. in Government and Biological Sciences, with a concentration in Ecology ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- ecology
- economics
- energy
- environmental justice
- Science and Law
- sustainable development
- water
Dennis Best
MS, PhD
Dennis has focused his career on technology and sustainability policy in emerging and developing economies. His research interests include technology and innovation policy and impacts to resource and rural development, ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- China
- climate
- economics
- energy
- energy policy
- environmental markets and design
- geospatial analysis
- industrial ecology
- Innovation systems
- rural development
- South East Asia and Latin America
- technology policy
Alumni (218 results)
TopNicole Lau
MS
As a M.S. graduate in 2024 from UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, Nicole is interested in researching how climate change is affecting the way disturbances (wildfires, bark beetles…) interact ... Continue Reading »
Stephen Stack
MA
Stephen graduated 2024 with his Master’s from the Energy and Resources Group. His work focuses on the social, economic, and political dimensions of the clean energy transition. He is currently ... Continue Reading »
Zora Ott
MA
Zora is a MA graduate in 2024 from the Energy and Resources Group. She is interested in political ecology, climate-resilient development, deliberative processes, energy and climate justice, rural development and ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- Climate justice
- development
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- gender
- governance
- participation
- rural areas
- transition pathways
- transportation
Javiera Canales Valenzuela
MS
My principal interests are the development of sustainable urban systems that improve quality of life for people and work in harmony with the natural environment through the utilization of clean ... Continue Reading »
Chelsi Sparti
MS
Chelsi belongs to the Winnemem, Nomtipom, and Nomsus bands of the Northern Wintu people, and is of European settler descent. She carries out collaborative research with Puerto Rican residents to ... Continue Reading »
- climate resilience
- decarbonization
- Disaster Recovery
- energy
- environmental justice
- governance
- policy
- Risk Mitigation
Lynn Shiyayo
MS
Lynn is a MS student and researcher in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research lies at the intersection of transportation, climate, and equity ... Continue Reading »
- Air Pollution Modelling
- climate
- development
- ecology / environmental science
- economics
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- transportation
- transportation and land use planning
- urban planning
Portia Awuah
MS
Portia is a MS student in the Energy and Resources Group. She is interested in extending energy access to areas without electricity. As an Electrical and Electronics engineering bachelor’s degree ... Continue Reading »
Victor Reyes
MS
Hola! I’m Victor Reyes, a Mexican MS candidate. I have a BS/BA in Engineering with a concentration on Sustainability from the University of San Diego. My main interests are electric ... Continue Reading »
Joyceline Marealle
MS
Business strategy for Micro-Grid Providers in California (MS ’22) Joyceline is a Tanzanian who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester. Her research interest lies ... Continue Reading »
Veronica Jacome
MS, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
- critical geographies
- electric power systems
- EMAC
- energy
- RAEL
- resource greography
- rural energy access
- STS
- Sustainable energy integration
- Tanzania
- Water Group
Evan Hansen
MS
Cultivating Partnerships: Pest Control and The Use of Integrated Pest Management on Small Farms in San Joaquin County, California (MS ’97) Contact: ehansen@downstreamstrategies.com ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: What have you been working ... Continue Reading »
- antidegradation
- Clean Water Act
- coal mining and the environment
- landfill gas-to-energy projects
- Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
- total maximum daily loads
Nia Jones
MS
Dear White People: Recommendations to Successfully Attract, Recruit, and Retain Minoritized Students in Green Energy (MS ’22) A native of the nation’s Capitol, Washington, D.C., Nia was born into the ... Continue Reading »
Priyanka Mohanty
MS
What are the Best Practices for Rapid and Just Energy Transition? (MS ’22) Priyanka earned her Masters of Science with the Energy and Resources Group. At ERG, she works on ... Continue Reading »
- China
- climate
- development
- economics
- environmental justice
- Green New Deal
- India
- Indonesia
- Low-Carbon Transport
Luke Sherman
MPP, MS
Increasing the spatial resolution of the Human Development Index using satellite imagery (MS ’22) Luke’s research aims to encourage the use of innovative technology and management systems in order to ... Continue Reading »
Dipti Bhatnagar
MS
Dipti got her Masters at ERG in 2008. Since then, she went back to India working with communities displaced by dams. She also fought for water justice in California, working ... Continue Reading »
- Africa
- climate
- Climate justice
- common property resource management
- development
- ecology
- energy
- Gender justice dismantling patriarchy
- International climate negotiations
- System change
- water
Arthur Mallet Dias
MS
Promoting Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development: A Review and Evaluation of Enterprise Facilitation (MS ’22) Arthur is interested in using sustainable innovation as a framework for designing new businesses, services, and ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- energy
- Entrepreneurship
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- Impact Investing
- local economic development
- sustainable communities
- Sustainable Innovation
Reem Rayef
MA, MPP
Reem is a concurrent MPP/ERG student at UC Berkeley. She is broadly interested in leveraging energy policy toward the decarbonization of transportation and transit systems in urban settings. Previously, Reem ... Continue Reading »
Edem Yevoo
MS
Edem received his B.S in Environmental Science and Technology, with a concentration in Ecological Technology Design and minor in Geographic Information Science (GIS) from the University of Maryland, College Park ... Continue Reading »
Alana Siegner
MA, PhD
Alana Siegner received her B.A. from Tufts University in Environmental Science and International Relations, and served as an AmeriCorps National Teaching Fellow in Boston for two years after graduating from ... Continue Reading »
- climate change education
- environmental education
- Food Justice
- Sustainable food systems
- urban agroecology
Nick Clarke
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 ... Continue Reading »
Margaret McCall
MPP, MS
Margaret is pursuing an MS/MPP with ERG and the Goldman Policy School. At Berkeley, she hopes to focus on demand flexibility (a key aspect of greening the power grid) and ... Continue Reading »
Christian Miller
MPP, MS
Measuring California’s Energy Service Affordability (MS ’19) Christian is fascinated by energy end-uses’ effect on communities’ economic and political well-being. While his formal scientific background is in biorenewable resources, his ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- economics
- energy
- energy policy
- equitable energy access
- rural electrification
- transportation
Sara Mulhauser
MPP, MS
Battery Energy Storage Technology Adoption & Electric Utility Structure (MS ’19) Sara is an architect who delved into distributed generation while developing fuel cell projects for Bloom Energy. She became ... Continue Reading »
Michelle Levinson
MA, MPP
Harnessing Financial Motivation to Drive Transportation Electrification: a Resource for Electric Utility Regulators (MA ’19) Michelle is a concurrent degree student at the Goldman School of Public Policy and the ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- economics
- energy
- Policy analysis
- project development and project finance
- transportation
- utility regulation and finance
Samira Siddique
MS, PhD
Development for the Stateless: the Displacement-Development Nexus and Implications for the Future (MS ’19) Samira Siddique is a PhD candidate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the Energy ... Continue Reading »
- Climate change justice
- critical development studies
- Cultural memory
- Displacement infrastructure
- Forced migration and refugee studies
- Postcolonial theory
Catherine Ledna
MS, PhD
Modeling Adaption to Sea Level Rise Under Uncertainty (MS ’19) Catherine received a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College, with a minor in Environmental Studies. Prior to coming to ERG, ... Continue Reading »
Peter Worley
MS
Ohio Industrial Electricity Rates: Is the Price Right? (MS ’19) Peter is interested in investigating the market and regulatory barriers to technological solutions to renewable energy generation, net-zero buildings, and ... Continue Reading »
Will Gorman
MS, PhD
Effects of Electricity Consumption and Rate Design on Solar Plus Storage-enabled Grid Defection (MS ’19) “Sunsetting the Grid? Opportunities for Customer-Sited Solar and Storage in Modern Electricity Systems (PhD ’22) ... Continue Reading »
- Demand Side Management
- Distributed energy resources
- economics
- electricity storage
- energy policy
- renewable energy
- transportation
Salma Elmallah
MS, PhD
Characterizing Fairness, Transparency, and Openness in US Wind Project Planning (MS ’19) Salma’s dissertation studies the equity and distributional impacts of residential heating electrification policy and planning, focusing on cities ... Continue Reading »
Bodie Cabiyo
MA, PhD
Bodie uses interdisciplinary approaches to investigate nature-based solutions to climate change. He currently studies how policy and innovative technology can enable carbon-beneficial forest management. This work bridges industrial ecology, forest ... Continue Reading »
Emma Tome
MS
Who Governs a Sustainable Neighborhood? Planning a Community-scale Retrofit in Oakland, California (MS ’18) Emma’s interests are at the intersection of climate change adaptation, environmental justice, and science and technology ... Continue Reading »
Isa Ferrall
MS, PhD
Decentralized solar energy systems for electricity access: historical context and comparisons of reliability (MS ’18); Quantitative approaches to energy justice: examining fair access to reliable electricity (PhD ’22) Isa earned ... Continue Reading »
- data sharing
- decentralized energy systems
- development
- energy
- RAEL
- rural electrification
- solar innovation
- sustainable development
Jonathan Lee
MS, PhD
The Cost of Reliability in Decentralized Solar Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (MS ’18); Energy Management in Community Microgrids (PhD ’22) Jonathan studies transitions in electric power systems and electricity markets, ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- energy
- RAEL
- renewable energy integration
- rural electrification
- solar energy
- sustainable energy development
Phillippe Phanivong
MS
Managed Workplace Charging of Electric Vehicles as a Grid Asset (MS ’18) Phillippe is an MS student at ERG. His research interests are in the integration of distributed energy resources ... Continue Reading »
Esther Shears
MPP, MS, PhD
Dr. Esther Shears recently started a position as the Deputy Chief Economist at the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight in the California Energy Commission. She earned her PhD from the ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- economics
- environmental justice
- integrated assessment modeling
- international political economy
- SEEL Lab
- sustainable finance
Adam Hanbury-Brown
MS, PhD
Predicting the future of forests under global change: the critical role of the regeneration process (PhD ’22) Adam is a PhD focused on ecosystem modeling and remote sensing. His research ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- Earth System Models
- ecology
- Forest Regeneration
- Movement Ecology
- remote sensing
- Vegetation Dynamics
- Wildlife Ecology
Gordon Bauer
MS, PhD
Operation, Cost, and Environmental Impact of Self-Driving Electric Taxi Fleets (MS ’18) Transportation has long been dominated by the personal gasoline-powered automobile, but breakthroughs in electric vehicles, shared mobility, and ... Continue Reading »
Joseph Rand
MS
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 ... Continue Reading »
Felipe Castro
PhD
On Rate Regulation in Modern Electricity Sectors (PhD ’17) Felipe was a Ph.D. Candidate with ERG. His research seeks to improve the understanding and organization of energy systems, leveraging methods, ... Continue Reading »
- computational optimization
- EMAC
- energy policy
- industrial organizations
- mathematical programming
- microeconomics
- operations research
- Power Systems
Arne Jacobson
PhD
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: ARNE JACOBSON Ph.D. 2004 Professor in the Department of Environmental Resources Engineering at Humboldt State University From his post at Humboldt State University, Arne Jacobson passionately extends ... Continue Reading »
- energy use and environmental impacts
- international development
- regional energy planning
- renewable energy
- renewable energy on Native American Reservation lands
- social and economic costs and benefits of energy use
Laura Moreno
MS, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
Zeke Hausfather
PhD
Understanding and Reconciling Global Temperature Records (PhD ’19) Zeke is an energy systems analyst and data scientist with a strong interest in climate science and policy. He is currently the ... Continue Reading »
Rebecca Coates-Maldoon
MA, MPP
Assessing Instream Flow Standards Under Climate Change Implications for State-Level Policy in the U.S. (MS/MPP ’17) Rebecca completed a Master’s degree in both the Energy and Resources Group and the ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- climate change adaptation
- ecology
- environmental justice
- Environmental Policy
- riparian and aquatic ecosystems
- water
- water quality
- water resources management
- water use efficiency
- water-energy nexus
Anna Brockway
MS, PhD
New challenges facing electric power systems: Integrating technical realities and policy goals (PhD ’22) Anna Brockway is a PhD from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. She holds ... Continue Reading »
- climate adaptation
- economics
- electricity grid
- electricity markets
- energy
- Energy System Modeling
- renewable energy integration
- renewable energy policy
- solar energy
- utility business models
Stephen Jarvis
MS, PhD
Stephen is a PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley’s Energy & Resources Group and a Researcher at the Energy Institute at Haas. His work lies at the intersection of economics, public ... Continue Reading »
Britt Shaw
MS
At ERG, I am exploring the barriers to renewable projects that are stalled or abandoned in emerging markets and potential solutions. By striving to answer that question, I hope to help move electricity sector development forward — especially in East Africa.
- Africa
- development
- economics
- Emerging Markets
- energy
- Energy Access
- Off-Grid Power
- renewable energy integration
- water
- water-energy nexus
Daniel Aas
MA, MPP
Greater than the Sum of Their Parts? Political Impacts of State Climate Policies in the Face of Partisan Polarization (MA/MPP ’17) Dan completed concurrent degrees at the Goldman School of ... Continue Reading »
- "Utility Regulation Distributed Energy Resources Electricity Markets Climate Policy "
- economics
- energy
Adam Orford
MA, MPP, PhD
Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Assessment in California’s Electric Power Sector (MA ’18) Adam Orford is a Ph.D. candidate at U.C. Berkeley’s Energy & Resources Group (ERG). He is currently ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- energy
- Institutions
- law
- Political Science
- Politics
- Public Administration
- public policy
- regulation
- transportation
José Daniel Lara
MS, PhD
Modeling and Simulation of Electric Power Systems with Large Shares of Renewable Energy (PhD ’22) Jose Daniel was born in San José Costa Rica, received his B.Sc. and Licentiate in ... Continue Reading »
- development
- economics
- energy
- energy policy
- Energy System Modeling
- Optimization
- power systems operation
- power systems planning
- RAEL
- transportation
- water
John Dees
MS, PhD
John’s research is primarily concerned with macro-energy systems analysis. He is interested in the life cycle characteristics of renewable energy systems, with a current focus on the carbon drawdown potential ... Continue Reading »
Jessie Knapstein
MPP, MS
Energy policy wonk trying to craft and institute economically efficient policy to promote the use of renewable energy technologies and reduce our emissions.
Maryam Mozafari
MS
Sustainable Energy Options for Kosovo – An Analysis of resource availability and cost (MS ’13)
Váleri Vásquez
MS, PhD
Váleri Vásquez is a PhD candidate in the Energy and Resources Group with a Designated Emphasis in Computational Data Science and Engineering. Váleri conducts most of her work in the ... Continue Reading »
Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez
MS, PhD
Learning and Control Systems for the Integration of Renewable Energy into Grids of the Future (PhD ’20) Patricia is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley co-advised by Daniel Kammen and ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- EMAC
- energy
- Energy economics
- energy policy
- High integration of renewable energy in the system
- Hybrid Systems Laboratory at EECS
- long-term power systems planning
- RAEL
Jason MacDonald
PhD
Jason is interested in optimization and control of distributed energy resources to support renewable energy integration into the electricity grid. He works at Lawrence Berkeley National lab researching wholesale electricity ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- demand response
- Distributed energy resources
- electric vehicles
- Electricity Grid and Markets
- EMAC
- energy
- renewable energy integration
Emily Woods
MS
Impacts of Student-Led Service Learning Water Project in Rural Cameroon (MS’16) A graduate of Georgia Tech with a B.S in mechanical engineering. A selection of her work includes drilling water ... Continue Reading »
Ian Bolliger
MS, PhD
Monitoring and Projecting the Impacts of Climate Change with Emerging Environmental Datasets and Machine Learning (PhD ’20) Ian works to provide decision-makers with quantitative, high-resolution projections of the socioeconomic impacts ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- economics
- energy
- Global Policy Laboratory
- health impacts of climate change
- machine learning
- remote sensing
- spatial statistics
- tropical cyclones
- water
Monkgogi Otlhogile
MA
Monkgogi (who goes by MK) was born and raised in Botswana and recently graduated cum laude with her BA from Scripps College in Environment, Economics, and Politics. Personally, MK has ... Continue Reading »
Julia Szinai
MPP, MS, PhD
Julia studied economics and Spanish at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate, and realized her interest in energy and environmental issues while a research assistant at the UC Energy Institute. After ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- demand response
- electric system planning
- electric vehicles
- energy policy
- energy water nexus
- renewable integration
Cecilia Han Springer
MS, PhD
Policies for an Ecological Civilization: China, Carbon, and Economic Reform (PhD ’19) Cecilia is a PhD candidate at ERG. Her dissertation uses economic modeling and social science to critically analyze ... Continue Reading »
Rachel Golden
MPP, MS
Achieving Long-term Climate Goals in the US: Unlocking the Potential of High-Efficiency Electric Technology in Our Homes and Buildings (MS/MPP ’16) Rachel is interested in advancing policies that can help ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- development
- economics
- energy
- environmental justice
- Equity and Access
- Grid flexibility
- renewable integration
Alana Siegner
MA, PhD
Growing Environmental Literacy: On Small-Scale Farms, in the Urban Agroecosystem, and in School Garden Classrooms (PhD ’20) Alana Siegner graduated from Tufts University in 2012 with a double major in ... Continue Reading »
Craig Conley
MS
Comparison of the Capabilities of the ORNL and CEC Residential Energy Consumption Forecasting Models (81 MS)
- analytical techniques to support environmental decision making
- conflict over environmental issues
- ecological economics
- restoration ecology
John Stanley
MS
Data Center Energy Efficiency: Granular Monitoring and Organizational Communication (’08 MS)
- economic principle/investments
- engineering principles/physical systems
- social science principles/stakeholders decision making
- whole systems engineering and/or energy efficiency
Sam Arons
MS
Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles, Climate Change, and Energy Security: The Cost-Effectiveness of an Emerging Technology (’07 MS)
- climate change and climate policy
- plug-in hybrid vehicles
- renewable energy
- Sustainable transportation
- the instructionalization of sustainability
Nina Zheng
MS
Urbanizing China: Residential Energy Implications and the Role for Energy Efficiency Standards (MS, ’09)
- energy and economic development in china
- global climate change
- renewable energy and energy efficiency policymaking and implementation
- technology transfer and adoption in developing countries
Deborah Wilson
MS
Government Policies and Programs for the Promotion of Residential Energy Conservation, An International Perspective (87 MS)
- climate change: emphasis on CDM/mitigation/adaptation
- environment and development: emphasis on alternative energy options (renewables and efficiency)
Christopher Williams
MA
The Hands that will Build our Energy Future: Administrative and Labor Capacity for Building Energy Efficiency Policies In China and India (MA ’11)
Jim Williams
MS, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
- acid rain
- Arctic haze
- China
- comparative religion
- cosmology
- dissidents and outlaws
- economic globalization and cultural survival
- fuel-cell powered vehicles
- global change
- over the last ten years: speech synthesizers
- science and politics
- the theory and practice of Utopia
Robert Watson
MS
Case Study of Energy Efficient Building Retrofit: 40 West 20th Street–Headquarters of the Natural Resources Defense Council (’90 M.S.)
- green buildings
- lighting and other building system efficiency
- multilateral development bank energy sector lending reform
- promoting integrated resource planning in developing countries
- renewable energy
- transportation efficiency
Xiaodong Wang
PhD
Comparison of Constraints on Coal and Biomass Fuels Development in China’s Energy Future (’97 Ph.D.)
- air pollution from energy use
- energy and environmental policy issues in China
- Environmental Economics
- renewable energy and energy conservation
Erika Walther
MA
The Zuni Sustainable Energy Project: Implementing a Photovoltaics Credit Program in a Traditional Economy (’01 M.A.)
- California energy efficiency programs and policy
- electricity production
- international development
- rural electrification
- social context and implications for both
Cyrus Wadia
MS, PhD
"In a sense, we’re going through a transition here. The industry is going through a transition that we’re only seeing the beginning of,” says Dr. Cyrus Wadia (PhD’08). Cyrus knows about transitions. He has been a policy advocate, business entrepreneur and scientific innovator for clean energy and human welfare prior, throughout and since his time at ERG. He has not only observed but has been part of the change in the world’s switch to solar. His multiple hats and his work on the frontline edge of policy, economics and science made him a perfect fit for the interdisciplinary program at ERG.
- investigating the resource economics of new material systems for photovoltaics
- nanocomposite photovoltaics
- novel PV device fabrication using aqueous chemistry of nanoparticles
Adriana Valencia
MS, PhD
Improved Cookstoves in Michoacán, México: A Search for an Integrated Perspective that Promotes Local Culture, Health, and Sustainability (’04 MS) Missing Links: Demystifying Alternative Energy Use and Improving Decision Making ... Continue Reading »
- Environmental Policy
- preservation of fresh water
- reduction and management of waste
- transnational issues such as global warming
- use and spread of alternative clean technologies to make wise use of natural resources and to conserve non-renewable ones such as oil
Derrick Tucker
MA
Appropriate Technology and Soft Energy as Perspectives on Technology – Society Interactions (’86 MA)
Zachary Subin
MS, PhD
Greenhouse Gas Abatement Supply Curves for California’s Transportation Sector (MS ’08) Interactions of Water and Energy Mediate Responses of High Latitude Terrestrial Ecosystems to Climate Change (PhD ’12)
Thomas Starrs
MA, PhD
Legislative Incentives and Energy Technologies: Government’s Role in the Development of the California Wind Energy Industry (’87 M.A.) Regulating Innovation and Competition in Emerging Technology Markets: The Effects of Utility ... Continue Reading »
- impact of legislation and regulation on energy technology development
- renewable energy - particularly wind and photovoltaics
Matthew St. Clair
MA
The Renewable Robin Hood: How Taking from Natural Gas Producers and Giving to Energy Consumers Softens the Economic Impact of a Renewable Portfolio Standard (03 MA)
Anna Sommer
MS
The Water and Energy Nexus: Estimating Consumptive Water Use from Carbon Capture at Pulverized Coal Plants with a Case Study of the Upper Colorado River Basin (’10 MS)
Jonathan Sinton
MS, PhD
Indoor Air Pollution in China (Compilation of a Database of Results of Research 1982-1991; with an Application to Residential Energy Supply Options in Shenyang, Liaoning Province) (’92 M.S.) Energy Efficiency ... Continue Reading »
- China
- energy efficiency policy
- energy-related urban and indoor air pollution
- response of developing countries to climate change
Suzie Shin
MS
An Empirical Assessment of the California Utilities’ Energy Efficiency Programs (’09 MS)
Deborah Schechter
MS
Predicting the Impact of Transportation Control Measures on Pollutant Emissions and Energy Consumption (’93 M.S.)
John Ross
MS
Creating a Smooth Pathway From Innovation to Commercialization within the California Public Interest Energy Research Program (’01 M.S.) Research Interests: Performance of policy and technical analyses to increase awareness of ... Continue Reading »
Jesse Ribot
MS, PhD
Disincentives for Energy Conservation in the Electric Energy Sector of Djibouti, East Africa (85 MS) Markets, States and Environmental Policy: The Political Economy of Charcoal in Senegal (’90 Ph.D.)
Malini Ranganathan
MS, PhD
Can Co-ops become Energy Producers too? Challenges and Prospects for Efficient Co-Generation in India’s Co-Operative Sugar Sector (’05 MS) Fluid Hegemony: A Political Ecology of Water, Market Rule, and Insurgence ... Continue Reading »
- climate change and energy policy in developing countries
- energy and resource efficiency
- equity
- governance
- politics of development and International aid
- reforms
- urban sustainability
Jessica Radolf
MA
Berkeley Energy Market Analysis Phase I: The Demand for Energy Conservation and Renewables (’81 M.A.)
Nancy Rader
MA
The Role of Renewable Energy in Global Warming Mitigation: A Critique of Trusted Assessments (’92 M.A.)
- California RPS implementation
- renewable energy policy
- Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)
- wind energy system integration
Amol Phadke
MS, PhD
Feasibility of Competition in a Developing Country Electricity Market: A Case Study of Maharashtra State (India) (’03 MS) Competition, regulation, and Energy Efficiency Options in the Electricy Sector: Opportunities and ... Continue Reading »
Gregory Nemet
MA, PhD
Can Policy Stimulate Innovation in Low–Carbon Energy Technologies? The Case of Wind Power in California, 1975 through 2001 (04 MA) Policy and Innovation in Low-Carbon Energy Technologies (07 PhD)
- carbon/hydrogen transition
- climate change
- Distributed Generation
- energy R&D
- G.I.S.
- scenario planning
- technology policy
Gregory Morris
PhD
Biomass as an Energy Resource: An Economic and Environmental Investigation (’82 PhD)
- biomass and renewable energy systems
- energy in LDCs
- energy planning models and applications
- energy project development
- energy system risk analysis
Jennifer Mitchell-Jackson
MS
Energy Needs in an Internet Economy: A Closer Look at Data Centers (’01 MS)
Casey McCullough
MS
En La Tierra de Los Gigantes: The Mexican Energy Monopolies and Their Impact on Electricity Privatization (’97 M.S.)
J. Andrew McAllister
MS, PhD
Electricity Load Management in Bolivia: Background and Prospects (’92 MS) Solar Adoption and Energy Consumption in the Residential Sector (’12 PhD)
- decentralization
- industrial processes
- renewable energy systems and applications
- rural integrated energy planning in developing countries
- technology transfer
Omar Masera
MS, PhD
Sustainable Energy Scenarios for Rural Mexico: An Integrated Evaluation Framework for Cooking Stoves (’90 M.S.) Socioeconomic and Environmental Implications of Fuelwood Use Dynamics and Fuel Switching in Rural Mexico (’95 ... Continue Reading »
- biomass and bioenergy technological change in rural areas
- efficient use of energy in the residential sector
- energy and agriculture
- global climate change
- rural integrated energy systems in the third world
Carl Mas
MS
Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier: Modeling of Electrolytic Hydrogen Production Systems (’04 MS)
Eric Martinot
MA, PhD
Wind-Generated Electric Power in the Soviet Union: Geographical and Technical Prospects (’91 MA) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in Russia: Perspectives and Problems of International Technology Transfer and Investment (’95 ... Continue Reading »
- global renewable energy markets/investments/policies/future pathways
- renewable energy policy in China
- solar (sustainable) cities
David Marcus
MA
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT This ERG alumni spotlight features one of the first ERG graduate students, David Marcus (MA’77), and is written by ERG alumna, Sarita Sarvate (MS’78). The piece is the first ... Continue Reading »
Fernando Manibog
PhD
A Rural Energy Survey and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Renewable Energy Technologies for a Philippine Island Community (’82 Ph.D.)
- reforms and private sector development in developing country electricity sectors
- rural and renewable energy in developing countries
Michael Maniates
MA, PhD
Local Governments and Solar Energy: The San Francisco Example (’83 M.A.) Organizing for Rural Energy Development: Improved Cookstoves, Local Organizations, and the State in Gujarat, India (’90 Ph.D.)
- community energy organizing
- consumption and overconsumption
- education
- global environmental politics and civic engagement
- innovative undergraduate environmental-studies initiatives
- rust-belt economics
Feng Liu
MA
Energy Use and Conservation in China’s Residential and Commercial Sectors: Patterns, Problems, and Prospects (’92 M.A.)
Susan Kulakowski
MS
Large Commercial Firm Investment in Energy-Efficient Buildings Retrofits (’97 M.S.)
- energy efficiency and its relationship to human culture and behavior
- policy and practice of energy-efficient building design/construction/operation
Peter Kuhn
MS
Preliminary Report on an Inventory of Energy Conservation Potential in California: The Cement Industry (MS ’79)
Jonathan Koomey
MS, PhD
A Simplified Spreadsheet Model for Assessing the Load and Energy Impacts of Demand-Side Programs for Selected Residential Appliances (’86 MS) Energy Efficiency Choices in New Office Buildings: An Investigation of ... Continue Reading »
- cost benefit analysis
- costs of reducing carbon emissions
- Energy Efficiency
- history of technology
- market imperfections
- marketing and program design
- policy impact analysis
- the effect of information technology on resource use
Charles Kirubi
MS, PhD
How Important is Modern Energy for Micro-Enterprises? Evidence from Rural Kenya (’06 MS) Expanding Access to Off-grid Rural Electrification in Africa: An Analysis of Community-based Micro-grids in Kenya (’09 PhD)
Ann Kinzig
PhD
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Ann Kinzig Ph.D. ’94 Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University Perhaps more than most alumni, Ann Kinzig’s intellectual path has traversed ERG’s interdisciplinary ... Continue Reading »
Amber Kerr
PhD
Drought resilience of maize-legume agroforestry systems in Malawi (PhD ’12) Amber Kerr is an agricultural ecologist focusing on climate change impacts and adaptation. She has studied nutrient cycling in California ... Continue Reading »
Taylor Keep
MS
Continuous Demand Response: Using Loads to Manage Real-Time Energy Imbalance on the Electricity Grid (’11 MS)
Joshua Kay
MS
Analysis of the Performance and Cost Effectiveness of Nine Small Wind Energy Conversion Systems Funded by the DOE Small Grants Program (’82 M.S.)
Kamal Kapadia
MA, PhD
Can Energy Markets Work for Rural Development? An Analysis of World Bank/GEF Rural Electriciation Projects in Sri Lanka (’03 MA) Developments after a Disaster: The Tsunami, Poverty, Conflict and Reconstruction ... Continue Reading »
- energy planning
- multilateral aid programs in energy finance and development
- renewable energy and development
Fredrich Kahrl
MS, PhD
China’s Carbon Challenge (MS ’07) Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in China: Growth, Transition, and Institutional Change (PhD ’11)
- bioenergy in East and Southeast Asia
- climate policy economics
- energy implications of economic transition
- rural energy economics and technologies in China
Kathryn Janda
MS, PhD
Worldwide Status of Energy Standards for Buildings (’93 M.S.) Building Change: Effects of Professional Culture and Organizational Context on Energy Efficiency Adoption in Buildings (’98 Ph.D.)
- adoptation of environmental technologies - particularly in the building environment
- green building design & implementation
- sociotechnical factors in energy consumption & production
Donna Green
MA, PhD
Renewable Energy Technology Systems for Remote Area Electrification in Indonesia: A Critical Review of Technology Transfer (’00 M.A.) Power Games: The Political Use of Solar Technology in Northern Thailand (04 PhD)
- climate change and equity concerns
- gender and technology issues
- globalization
- regional hierarchies and power structures
- renewable energy technology transfer especially of photovoltaic systems in Thailand
- sustainable energy use - focused in rural areas of Southeast Asia
Kathleen Greely
MS
Energy Conservation Retrofits in Public Housing: An Analysis of Their Energy Savings and Cost-Effectiveness (85 MS)
Anand Gopal
PhD
Life of Sugar: Developing Lifecycle Methods to Evaluate the Energy and Environmental Impacts of Sugarcane Biofuels (PhD ’11)
William Golove
MA, PhD
Measuring Energy Efficiency: A Critique of the Energy-GNP Ratio (95 MA) Avant Le Deluge: An Investigation on Some Neglected Dimensions of Electricity Restructuring in California (’06 PhD)
- business
- electricity industry restructuring
- environment interactions
- government
- renewable energy/green power
- role of language in public policy
Brandon Glenn
MS
Renewable Energy Certificates and Project Development: A Case Study of the Rosebud Wind Turbine’s Success (’09 MS)
- atmospheric science
- coal development
- hydrogeology
- nuclear waste
- renewable energy with a focus on wind turbines
Rebecca Ghanadan
MA, PhD
Questioning Inevitability of Energy Pathways: Alternate Energy Scenarios for California (’02 MA) Public Service or Commodity Goods? Electricity Reforms, Access, and the Politics of Development in Tanzania (’08 PhD)
- energy and development pathways
- geographic interest in sub-Saharan Africa
- local-regional-international linkages of energy policy and technology choices
- political economy of globalization
- renewable energy
Merrian Fuller
MA
Enabling Investments in Energy Efficiency: A study of energy efficiency programs that reduce first-cost barriers in the residential sector (’09 MA)
- adoption of energy efficiency & renewable energy technologies
- behavior change
- energy policy
- innovative financing & new business models
Maria Figueroa
MS
Transportation Energy Use in Bolivia: Environmental Implications, Policy Perspectives (MS ’96)
- intermediate means of transport/appropriate levels of transport/energy services under environmental/energy constraints for developing energy conservation strategies for organized communities and NGOs
- proper role of gender and development issues on the energy and environment debate
Michael Ferry
MS
A Renewable Energy in Vehicles (REV) Mandate: Establishing a Zero Carbon Energy Standard for California Automobiles (MS ’08)
- biodiversity threats
- ecological conservation and restoration
- water resouces management
- watershed protections
John Elliott
MA
Lowering Energy Bills in American Indian Households: A Case Study of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (’98 M.A.)
- climate change
- endocrine disruptors
- Energy Efficiency
- energy issues for American Indian tribes
- renewable energy
- web-based software for managing energy use
Kristen Durham
MS
Planning a Bioenergy Future: Understanding uncertainty in biomass resource assessment in China (MS ’08)
- International development and trade policy
- ways of analyzing economics and the potential impacts of policy decisions
Reuben Deumling
MA, PhD
The Industrial Ecology of Household Refrigerators: Product Life and the Demand for Materials and Energy (’99 MA) Public Policies, Private Choices: Consumer Desire and the Practice of Energy Efficiency (’08 ... Continue Reading »
- appliance standards
- climate change
- consumption studies
- energy conservation and efficiency
- greening of urban transport
- history and philosophy of technology
- inter-household variability in energy and water consumption
- social structuring of demand
- the rebound effect
- utility meters
Kostas Despotakis
PhD
A Computable General Equilibrium Model of Energy in the California Economy (’84 Ph.D.)
Elisabeth Derby
MA
Appliance Standards Transplantation: Applicability of a United States-based Energy Efficiency Standards Model in Costa Rica (’01 M.A.)
- energy
- Energy Efficiency
- health and development
- household energy and health
- renewables
- water disinfection
Anne Crawley
MS
Implementing Building Standards for Energy Efficiency: An Inter-Organizational View with Examples from Jamaica (91 MS)
- climate responsive building design
- energy efficiency in buildings
- greening projects
- renewable energy
- strategies to encourage use of energy efficiency in building design and retrofitting
- utility interaction in energy use in buildings
Craig Conner
MS
The Effect of Exterior Surface Absorptivity and Emissivity on Energy Use in Residential Buildings (81 MS)
Jeffrey Cole
MS
Sustainable Finance for Sustainable Energy: Private Sector Solar Rural Electrification (MA 01)
Sam Cohen
MA
Measured Energy Savings and Economics of Retrofitting Existing Single-Family Homes: An Update of the Beca-B Database (91 MA)
- city planning
- end use of energy in buildings
- fish habitat improvement
- local economic development
- market based solutions to environmental and social problems
- materials reprocessing in recycling
- water policy
- watershed restoration
Yanxia Chen
MS
Economic Assessment for the Donghan Village-scale Biomass Gasification Energy Supply System in China (03 MS)
- energy issues in developing or developed countries - especially China
- Geography Information System and its application to energy
- renewable energy
Christian Casillas
MS, PhD
Wind generation: A step towards energy independence on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (MS ’08) Exploring the role of information in development policy and practice in the fields of rural ... Continue Reading »
Frank Carroll
PhD
Farm-level Agricultural Energy Technologies in an Egyptian Village: Engineering and Socio-Economic Characteristics and Consequences in the Context of the Political Economy of Food Security (94 PhD)
Douglas Bushey
MA, PhD
Renewable Energy Systems in Rural Eritrea – Concepts for Three Wind-Powered, Village-Scale, Clean Development Mechanism Projects (MA ’05) Building an International Administrative Law of Expertise: Law and Science in the ... Continue Reading »
Burnet Brown
MS
The Health and Safety Implications of Increased Coal Production and Utilization Under the 1978 National Energy Act: An Assessment Two Years After Passage (80 MS)
Barbara Barkovich
PhD
Changing Strategies in Utility Regulation: The Case of Energy Conservation in California (87 PhD)
Joachim Seel
MPP, MS, PhD
Landing on the Sun! How to Make Residential PV Price-Competitive in the U.S. with Lessons Learned in Germany (MS/MPP ’12) Socio-Economic and Engineering Assessments of Renewable Energy cost Reduction Potential (PhD ... Continue Reading »
- electricity market design
- market integration of intermittent renewable electricity
- Renewable energy markets and policy
- technology learning
Erica Newman
MS, PhD
Erica’s niche is fire, particularly in the ecologically sensitive region of French Polynesia. She has already been trained as a physicist, but her curiosity draws her to ecology. ERG has become a unique place for Erica to explore her aspirations in the biological sciences alongside those who have successfully trekked through similar transitions. Read in her own words how Erica has fine-tuned her fascinations while at ERG.
- anthropogenic impacts on fire regimes
- California chaparral
- climate change and biodiversity interactions
- Fire ecology and natural disturbance
- French Polynesia cloud forests and wet montane forests
- macroecology
Kent Anderson
MS, PhD
Energy and Materials Implications of Passive Solar Heating Technologies (77 M.S.) Conservation vs. Energy Supply: An Economic and Environmental Comparison of Alternatives for Space Conditioning of New Residences (87 Ph. ... Continue Reading »
Grace Wu
MS, PhD
Land Use in Renewable Energy Planning (PhD ’18) Inspired by the possibility of ecologically-bounded growth, Grace is interested in water and land use impacts of energy technologies; water management that ... Continue Reading »
- ecological economics
- GIS
- land use impacts of energy systems
- renewable resource assessment
- spatial statistics
- water-energy nexus
Maggie Witt
MS
Maggie’s research focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of transportation by decreasing both the amount that people drive and the per-mile emissions of personal vehicles. Her work focuses on California’s ... Continue Reading »
Michaelangelo Tabone
MS, PhD
Michaelangelo Tabone (MS 2012) is a PhD student in ERG advised by Dr. Duncan Callaway. His research focuses on applying novel statistical methods to topics in energy analysis. Most recently, ... Continue Reading »
- data inference
- Integration of renewable electricity into power systems
- pollution from electricity generation
- residential energy efficiency
Monica Testa
MA
Monica obtained her Masters in 2015 from the Energy and Resources Group. She is interested in electric vehicle adoption, alternative energy policy, and sustainable energy development. Her research involves modeling ... Continue Reading »
Ida Sognnaes
MA
Ida Sognnaes is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group. She is originally from Norway and came to Berkeley for the first time as part of her five ... Continue Reading »
- Dynamical systems of energy and resources
- ecological economics
- Human-Natural Complex Networks
- Science and Technology Studies
Froy Sifuentes
MS, PhD
The world is witnessing a rapid advance in renewable energy with China as one in the forefront. However, adding enough renewable energy to satisfy China's growing power needs is quite complex. ERG Ph.D. candidate, Froy Sifuentes, focuses on the challenges of integrating wind power to help make China's grid cleaner. Read on and learn more about Froy and his work (and fun) at ERG.
Rebekah Shirley
MS, PhD
Rebekah Shirley believes that there is more than one path to a bright, energy secure future. Developing nations strive to connect more and more of their communities to energy. Many have emulated the fossil fuel intensive model of developed nations, but Rebekah believes that this is not necessarily the only way.
Imran Sheikh
MS, PhD
Decarbonizing Residential Space and Water Heating in California (PhD ’17) Imran Sheikh is interested in creating business-led solutions to environmental problems, with a particular focus on energy efficiency. His current research ... Continue Reading »
Chayaporn Sangchote
MS
Exploring the Impacts of ASEAN Energy Cooperation on the Renewable Energy Development and Policy Implementation of the ASEAN Members (MS ’14)
Daniel Sanchez
MS, PhD
Daniel L. Sanchez holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Energy and Resources. He is interested in quantitative analysis to inform public policy, focusing on bioenergy and climate policy. His past research focused on design, deployment, and commercialization of bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) technologies. Daniel has previously held positions with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Green for All, and the California Public Utilities Commission.
Jalel Sager
MA, PhD
Formerly a freelance writer and founding director of the Vietnam Green Building Council (2007-2009), Jalel remains a board member and international coordinator for Green Cities Fund (its NGO parent). In ... Continue Reading »
John Romankiewicz
MPP, MS
John Romankiewicz is an MS/MPP candidate in the Energy & Resources Group and Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He is the VP of Membership for the Berkeley ... Continue Reading »
Fermin Reygadas
MS, PhD
Point-of-Use Ultraviolet Water Disinfection: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Safe Water for Rural Households of Baja California Sur, Mexico (MS ’07) From Efficacy to Sustained Use. A Comprehensive Evaluation of an Ultraviolet ... Continue Reading »
Jessica Reilly
MS, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
- climate adaptation
- coastal resilience
- GIS
- international development
- narratives as science
- renewable energy mapping
- rural resources
- Science communication
- visual media
Emily Quesada
MS
An Evaluation of the Triple Bottom Line Business Case For Reshoring Manufacturing (MS ’14) Emily Quesada received her B.A. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. She subsequently served ... Continue Reading »
- appropriate technology
- international development
- local manufacturing
- product development
- sustainable manufacturing
Diego Ponce de Leon Barido
MS, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
Autumn Preskill
MS, PhD
Autumn Petros-Good received her B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College in 2009, and her M.S. from ERG in 2011 and her PhD from ERG in 2015. She worked on ... Continue Reading »
- energy distribution & management policy
- mathematical programming approaches to energy problems
- Renewable energy usage
Carla Peterman
PhD
State-Level Regulations Effectiveness in Addressing Global Climate Change and Promoting Solar Energy Deployment (PhD ’17)
James Nelson
PhD
Scenarios for Deep Carbon Emission Reductions from Electricity by 2050 in Western North America Using the SWITCH Electric Power Sector Planning Model (PhD ’14) Jimmy Nelson is a graduating Ph.D. ... Continue Reading »
Ana Mileva
MPP, MS, PhD
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions, System Flexibility Requirements, and Drivers of Storage Deployment in the Western North American Power System through 2050 (PhD ’14) Ana’s PhD research is in modeling electricity ... Continue Reading »
Andrea Mercado
MS
Andrea graduated from UC Merced with a BS in Applied Mathematics on Engineering Mechanics and a minor in Writing. During her time at UCM, Andrea interned for UCM Facilities as ... Continue Reading »
Peter Marsters
MA
Peter Marsters is a Master’s candidate at ERG focusing on the environmental impacts of unconventional fossil fuel developments. He came to ERG from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, ... Continue Reading »
Benjamin Mandel
MPP, MS
Minding Electron Leakage: How Utility Regulation Can Improve Upstream Energy Efficiency (MS ’14) Ben is a concurrent MS-MPP degree student in ERG and the Goldman School of Public Policy. His ... Continue Reading »
Hongyou Lu
MPP, MS
Hongyou is a concurrent MS-MPP student in ERG and the Goldman School of Public Policy. She also works at the China Energy Group of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her ... Continue Reading »
Morgan Levy
MS, PhD
Morgan’s research focuses on hydrology and water resources, the effects of land use and climate change on human health and the environment, human-environmental system dynamics, and environmental data science. Her ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- climate change
- climate change adaptation
- eco-hydrology
- environmental data science
- environmental health science
- geographic information systems
- hydroclimatology
- hydrology
- irrigation
- water
- water resources management
Alison Koppe
JD, MS
Reduce, Reuse, Regulate: Repurposing the Clean Air Act to Limit Power Plants’ Carbon Emissions (MS ’14) Alison will graduate in Spring 2014 with an ERG M.S. and a J.D. from ... Continue Reading »
- administrative law
- Distributed Generation
- PURPA
- Renewable energy law and policy
- residential PV permitting
- shared solar
- the Clean Air Act
Noah Kittner
MS, PhD
Energy Systems Integration and Innovation for a Clean Energy Transition (PhD ’18) Noah is an MS/PhD student at ERG. After graduating with a BS in Environmental Science from UNC-Chapel Hill, ... Continue Reading »
- land-use change
- life-cycle assessment
- renewable energy policy
- solar energy
- sustainability
- Thailand
- urban planning
Joseph Kantenbacher
MS, PhD
Joe’s broad research interests include sustainable consumption and pro-environmental behavior change. His dissertation explores the linkages between psychological well-being and the environment, arguing that happiness and sustainability are synergistic concepts ... Continue Reading »
Christopher Jones
MS, PhD
Chris Jones is Director of the CoolClimate Network, a university-government-industry partnership at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lecturer at the Haas School of Business. His primary research interests are ... Continue Reading »
- behavioral psychology
- Carbon footprint analysis
- economics
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- Environmental Policy
- Environmental Psychology
- RAEL
- transportation
- urban planning
Lindsay Holiday
MS
Renewable Energy Landscape of Indigenous Nations in the United States, Canada, and Australia (MS ’12) Lindsay is from Teec Nos Pos, Arizona located on the Navajo Nation. She’s interested in ... Continue Reading »
- Appropriate renewable energy technologies for sustainable development
- climate change policy
- Distributed Generation
- energy policy
- quantifying cultural and social impacts of energy projects
- Regional Electricity Planning in the West
- self-suffiency for Tribal Nations in the US
- Tribal governance
- Tribal Utilities
Christopher Hyun
MA, PhD
With 10+ years of international field experience, 5+ in water and sanitation, as well as project management and professional development in higher ed, I aim to create a better society and environment for all.
Gang He
PhD
Gang’s research work focuses on energy modeling, energy economics, energy and climate policy, coal and power sectors and their key role in both the global energy supply and in international ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- climate change
- coal and power
- economics
- energy
- energy and water
- Energy economics
- Energy modeling
- RAEL
- renewable integration
Sasha Harris-Lovett
MS, PhD
Decision Support for Multi-benefit Urban Water Infrastructure (PhD ’18) Sasha Harris-Lovett received a PhD from the Energy and Resources Group in 2018. Her dissertation research focused on urban water and ... Continue Reading »
Pierce Gordon
MS, PhD
Investigating Innovation Practice: Cross-disciplinary Studies in International Development (PhD ’18) As a NSF, Chancellor’s, and InFEWS Fellow in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), Pierce investigates frameworks, methodologies, and contexts ... Continue Reading »
- Actors/History in International Development
- Berkeley Expert System Technologies (BEST) Laboratory
- Design
- Design Thinking
- development
- Development Engineering
- Evaluation
- Impact Evaluation
- Marginalization
- Sub-Saharan Africa
Dimitry Gershenson
MS
Dimitry currently works as a Program Manager on Facebook’s Global Impact Partnerships Team. Prior to Facebook, Dimitry was a graduate student at ERG where he worked on market assessment for ... Continue Reading »
Julian Fulton
PhD
Julian’s interests lie in the relationships between water use and economic development, focusing on modeling and governance. Mr. Fulton’s previous research includes water use in the transportation sector, conservation strategies ... Continue Reading »
- California
- cotton
- Delta
- environmental history
- footprint
- water management
- water systems
- water use
- water-energy-food nexus
Mark Dyson
MS
Economic, technological, and policy aspects of integrating renewable energy into existing electricity systems using innovative demand response strategies.
Luke Dodds
MA
Climate and energy policies; the science of climate change and the relationship between happiness and consumption.
Tanya Dimitrova
MS
REDD Hot: How One Community Defends its Forest One Carbon Credit at a Time (MS ’14) Tanya was born and grew up in Bulgaria. She came to ERG after a ... Continue Reading »
Ranjit Deshmukh
PhD
India’s Low Carbon Electricity Futures (PhD ’17) Ranjit’s research efforts largely focus on addressing the clean energy and energy access challenges in developing nations. As part of both the International ... Continue Reading »
- demand response
- energy access and micro-grids in developing countries
- energy markets
- Energy modeling
- Power Systems
- renewables integration
Zubair Dar
MA
Zubair is a Master’s student who researches water policy and management of international river basins, and is particularly focused on hydro-politics of the Indus basin. He has researched the relationship ... Continue Reading »
- Energy Efficiency
- Hydroelectric Power Projects
- International Conflicts
- River Basin Management
- sustainability
- Water and Renewable Energy
- Water Resource Management
Michael Cohen
MS, PhD
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."
- EMAC
- energy
- Energy System Modeling
- Integration of renewable electricity into power systems
- Video Gaming for Education
Zoë Chafe
MPH, MS, PhD
Dr. Chafe works at the intersections of public health, air pollution, climate change, and energy use. She holds a PhD from the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), as well as ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- climate change and public health
- co-benefits (ancillary benefits) of climate change mitigation
- development
- energy
- energy transitions and impacts on air pollution
- heating and cooking with solid fuels
- household energy policy options
- Household energy use trends
- short-lived greenhouse pollutants
Juan Pablo Carvallo Bodelon
MS, PhD
Mind the Gap: Bridging Strategies for Universal Energy Access (PhD ’19) Since graduating as an electronics engineer in 2004, JP Carvallo has been working, studying, and researching different aspects of ... Continue Reading »
- electricity and energy markets
- Latin America
- national systems of innovation
- Renewable energy policy and institutions
- sustainability in less industrialized economies
Sam Borgeson
MA, PhD
Targeted Efficiency: Using Customer Meter Data to Improve Efficiency Program Outcomes (PhD ’14) Sam’s works focuses on tools to scale up and improve the performance of energy efficiency programs in ... Continue Reading »
Anne-Perrine Avrin
MS, PhD
Designing and Adapting Appropriate Socio-technical Systems for the Renewable Energy Transition (PhD ’18) Anne-Perrine is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group and a research fellow within the ... Continue Reading »
- Energy economics
- Energy modeling
- Nuclear desalination
- Nuclear energy
- Planning electric power systems in developing and emerging countries
- RAEL
- water-energy nexus
Nkiruka Avila
MS, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
Peter Alstone
PhD
Peter’s research focus areas are information technology approaches to energy development, understanding markets for demand-side energy technology, and energy technology policy. Outside of academics, he contributes to the Lighting Global ... Continue Reading »
Nate Aden
MS, PhD
Taking the Man Out of Manufacturing: Drivers and Components of Industrial Sector Low-Carbon Transformation (PhD ’17) Nate Aden completed his PhD at the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley and is ... Continue Reading »
News (228 results)
Tophere’s how we solve it Climate change is an energy problem
July 20, 2023
ERG Professors Duncan Callaway, Dan Kammen, and John Harte offer some good news in the California Magazine Optimism Issue on how the use of solar, EV, mini-grids, and carbon sinks ... Continue Reading »
Can railways provide a solution for energy reliability?
June 22, 2023
ERG’s Jill Moraski recently published a paper in Nature Energy examining the potential to use the US rail system as a nationwide backup transmission grid over which containerized batteries, or ... Continue Reading »
Energy Access in Informal Settlements: ERG’s Jess Kersey and Dan Kammen Convene a Conference for the Spotlight Kampala Collaboration
May 23, 2023
Colleagues from Uganda, Washington, Arizona and West Virginia travel to Berkeley to progress joint work with ERG’s Jess Kersey and Dan Kammen on the Spotlight Kampala initiative.
ERG’s Crespo Montañés and Kammen on Centering Equity In the Clean Energy Transition
March 13, 2023
A commentary with authorship by ERG PhD student Cristina Crespo Montañés and ERG professor Dan Kammen has recently been published in Science Direct on how we can center principles of ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Dan Kammen on How Recent Fusion Breakthroughs Could Pave the Way for Clean Energy
December 14, 2022
A recent breakthrough in fusion energy technology is a landmark achievement in the development of clean energy.
Building Inclusive Research Practices: ERG’s Dan Kammen in Nature Energy Paper
October 28, 2022
ERG’s Dan Kammen is an author of a recent publication in Nature Energy about the potential for inclusive research practices to help facilitate a more equitable energy transition. Read the ... Continue Reading »
Pro-Health Fuels Agenda Could Advance Energy Justice: ERG’s Dan Kammen and Annelise Gill-Wiehl in Nature Energy
September 19, 2022
ERG’s Dan Kammen and Annelise Gill-Wiehl have recently been published in Nature Energy with a paper exploring a pro-health cookstove strategy that would help further energy justice. Read the full ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Esther Shears Co-Author of New Study Examining Government Investment in Energy Innovation
September 12, 2022
ERG PhD candidate Esther Shears is a co-author of a paper recently published in Nature Energy, which offers insight into the trajectory of energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) that ... Continue Reading »
ERG Researchers on Furthering Energy Equity in Africa Using Data Methods
August 15, 2022
ERG researchers Daniel Kammen, Sam Miles, Annelise Gill-Wiehl, and Hilary Yu at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab (RAEL) published a piece in Clean Technica about the Congo Power initiative, ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Salma Elmallah on Justice Implications of Solar and Wind Energy Projects
July 26, 2022
ERG PhD student Salma Elmallah has recently been published in the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning with an article that explores the drivers of solar and wind project siting ... Continue Reading »
ERG Researchers Predict Clean Energy Will Require Extensive Electrification Upgrades
July 14, 2022
ERG professor Duncan Callaway and graduate students Anna Brockway and Salma Elmallah have published a Haas Energy Institute working paper identifying the necessity of upgrading California's electric distribution system in anticipation for a clean energy future.
Report ERG Researchers Data-Focused Partnerships Will Play Essential Role in Facilitating a Just Energy Transition
July 12, 2022
ERG PhD students Sam Miles and Annelise Gill-Wiehl and ERG’s Dan Kammen were recently published in GreenBiz with a piece about the importance of fostering data-focused research partnerships in order ... Continue Reading »
Now is the Time to Start a Community Microgrid: ERG’s Dan Kammen on the Growing Accessibility of Renewable Energy
April 13, 2022
ERG’s Dan Kammen was featured in a recent Popular Science article discussing how more communities are beginning to generate their own power using renewable energy from microgrids. With the increased accessibility ... Continue Reading »
ERG Annual Lecture Returns in 2022: Damilola Ogunbiyi Speaks on Driving an Equitable Energy Transition
April 6, 2022
After going on hiatus for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ERG Annual Lecture on Energy and the Environment returned as a fully in-person event this year, with Damilola Ogunbiyi speaking at Sibley Auditorium about how to drive a more just and equitable global energy transition.
ERG’s Dan Kammen on How Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Underscores the Urgency of Shifting to Renewable Energy
March 7, 2022
ERG's Dan Kammen was featured in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times proposing that Russian aggression has hastened the need for America and other nations to transition away from relying on fossil fuels. (Photo by Karsten Würth)
Dan Kammen to Advise USAID on Sustainable Energy Development
October 28, 2021
ERG's Dan Kammen has been selected to serve as senior adviser for energy, climate and innovation for the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Photo by Elena Zhukova)
ERG’s Brockway and Callaway Reveal Link Between California Grid Limits and Energy Poverty
September 23, 2021
A new research paper published in Nature Energy authored by Anna Brockway, an ERG PhD student and ERG professor Duncan Callaway highlights how existing social inequities are exacerbated by California's grid limits. (Photo by Jeremy Bezanger)
Transforming Africa’s Energy Sector
August 10, 2021
Dan Kammen and co-authors argue in the journal Science that a major transformation is needed to meet the needs of Africa's growing population.
Carbon Pricing ERG’s Dan Kammen Interviewed in MCJ Podcast On Nuclear Energy
October 14, 2020
ERG professor Dan Kammen was featured in the latest episode of the My Climate Journey (MCJ) Podcast. Kammen discussed numerous topics, including the feasibility of carbon pricing in the US, the implications of switching a fossil fuel economy to a renewable economy, and much more. "There's no question that 100% renewables is possible. I've done a lot of research, my lab works on scenarios to get the U.S., China, Mexico, Kenya, Bangladesh, Morocco to 100% renewables. And in many cases where the technology mix is improving enough, the climate favors that you can do that. It's also a case that we are not today ready to think about a solar and wind only world, but solar and wind plus storage, plus geothermal, plus potentially nuclear," Kammen states.
‘Cheaper to save the climate’— ERG Professor Lara Kueppers Comments on Clean Energy Study
July 1, 2020
Following a recent UC Berkeley study showing how the United States can achieve 90% clean electricity by 2035, ERG Professor Lara Kuepper commented on the importance of reducing harmful emissions. This report, featured on The Daily Californian, found that by "prioritizing energy generated from wind, solar and battery storage, decarbonizing electricity at a rapid rate is possible."
Data Dan Kammen Leads Global Minima Podcast on Energy
April 14, 2020
ERG Professor Dan Kammen was recently featured on Global Minima, a podcast by Sustainabilist, in an episode titled "Dan Kammen on Energy, Data, and Canned Air (GM101)".
Challenges ERGies Contribute to IEEE “Electricity for All: Issues
September 9, 2019
Several ERGies recently contributed articles to an IEEE Special Issue on "Electricity for All: Issues, Challenges, and Solutions for Energy-Disadvantaged Communities."
ERG’s Isa Ferrall and Haas Teammates Win “Energy in Emerging Markets” Case Competition
December 10, 2018
The case competition, hosted Nov. 6 by the MBA Energy Club at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, required a team of three to five graduate students to compare the electrical ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Isa Ferrall and Haas Teammates Win “Energy in Emerging Markets” Case Competition
December 10, 2018
The case competition, hosted Nov. 6 by the MBA Energy Club at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, required a team of three to five graduate students to compare the electrical ... Continue Reading »
Energy by Whom? With ERG Alumna Nikky Avila
November 26, 2018
Nikky Avila (PhD ’18) was recently featured on the podcast “Somebody Call a Doctor.” Avila discusses how distributed energy technologies are disrupting conventional electricity planning paradigms and enabling social innovation. She ... Continue Reading »
US: Kammen SF Chronicle Op-ed Green Energy is Gold for California
August 21, 2018
Energy and Resources Group Professor and Chair, Daniel Kammen advocates for passage of the “100 Percent Clean Energy Act” (Senate Bill 100) and the green energy economic opportunities that California and US should not miss.
Energy New ERG Courses Focus on Data
June 26, 2018
The Energy and Resources Group has announced two new courses this fall addressing current, timely topics in energy and environment. Registration is open.
A Battery of Choices – Energy Storage in the 21st Century
March 1, 2018
As the world moves away from using traditional fossil fuels and towards sources of renewable energy like wind and solar, securing cost-effective ways to store this electricity is essential. ERG ... Continue Reading »
EU Renewable Energy Plan for 2030 Allows Countries to Cut Down and Burn Additional Trees for Energy
December 14, 2017
The European Union has set ambitious goals for its renewable energy portfolio in order to drastically reduce emissions by 2030. However, the current version of its plan essentially allows for ... Continue Reading »
Carbon Footprints CNR’s Breakthroughs Magazine Highlights ERG Students and Faculty for Research on Energy Storage
December 2, 2017
The College of Natural Resources has issued its Fall 2017 Breakthroughs magazine, featuring research from many ERG students and faculty. From Chris Jones and Dan Kammen’s comprehensive carbon footprint calculator ... Continue Reading »
Kammen on Energy in Africa: Why Renewables Will Give More People Access to Energy than Coal
October 19, 2017
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 ... Continue Reading »
Ponce de Leon Lessons from Fracking in the USA and Mexico – ERG’s Kammen
October 10, 2017
Last week, Dan Kammen, Diego Ponce de Leon, and Peter Marsters published their analysis of the environmental, social, economic, and community impacts of the shale industry on Mexico. The team ... Continue Reading »
Wind and Solar Energy Potential in The Democratic Republic of Congo – New ERG Study
October 2, 2017
Image: Renewable Riches: How Wind and Solar Could Power DRC and South Africa (2017) Ana Mileva, Ranjit Deshmukh, and Grace Wu discuss The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) position to harness ... Continue Reading »
the Effects of Climate Change on Tropical Storms Dan Kammen: Renewable Energy
September 11, 2017
Photo: Lizette Kabré After a few hectic weeks in the news, Energy and Resources Professor Dan Kammen reflects on his resignation as State Department Science Envoy and highlights the continued importance ... Continue Reading »
Paper Authored by PhD Candidate Noah Kittner and Professor Dan Kammen Published in Nature Energy
August 16, 2017
Noah Kittner and Dan Kammen's new paper, "Energy storage deployment and innovation for the clean energy transition," was published in Nature Energy on July 31, 2017
ERG Ph.D. Candidate Grace Wu – New Tool Helps African Countries Find the Best Sites for Renewable Energy Projects
April 14, 2017
ERG Ph.D. candidate Grace Wu is featured in this IEEE Spectrum article on a tool called Multicriteria Analysis for Planning Renewable Energy (MapRE)
ERG PhD’s Deshmukh and Wu – The Economic Case for Wind and Solar Energy in Africa
April 3, 2017
ERG PhD students Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu discuss their research on cost-efficient renewable energy solutions to meet Africa's energy demands with Berkeley Lab.
Friend of ERG and Pioneer of Energy Efficiency Art Rosenfeld
February 2, 2017
Arthur Hinton Rosenfeld, a close friend to many in the ERG community, passed away Friday, January 27, 2017. He was 90 years old. “Art Rosenfeld helped make California the world ... Continue Reading »
Kammen Comments on What’s at Stake as Trump Takes Aim at Clean Energy Research
February 1, 2017
ERG professor Dan Kammen commented in this MIT Technology Review article on reports that the Trump administration intends to shut down or slash resources for select Department of Energy programs.
ERG Alumni Gleick and Cooley: Water Experts to Watch on Climate and Energy
September 14, 2016
ERG alumni Peter Gleick (M.S. '80, Ph.D. '86) and Heather Cooley (M.S. '04) are featured on NewsDeeply's roundup of CA leaders at the nexus of water, energy and climate.
ERG’s Energy Research Featured in Multiple News Outlets
May 25, 2016
“Research at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory [ERG Professor Daniel Kammen’s lab] at the University of California Berkeley highlights that while cities currently contribute to global climate change by ... Continue Reading »
BBC interviews ERG PhD Lara on Costa Rica Energy Policy
February 23, 2016
ERG PhD student José Lara was interviewed for BBC on Costa Rica and its green energy policy.
Shirley & Kammen: Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution Shaw
February 18, 2016
ERG grad student Britt Shaw, along with ERG alumna Rebekah Shirley and Professor Dan Kammen, spoke on clean energy earlier this month at the Commonwealth Club's event "Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution Worldwide."
Energy and Environment- Understanding China’s non-fossil energy targets.
November 28, 2015
ERG student John Romankiewicz and ERG alumni Joanna Lewis share their research on China's energy targets and the transparency in international negotiations with Science.
Energy and Resource Group research finds that well-placed PV is yielding big savings on PG&E’s distribution grid
June 27, 2015
ERG Professor Duncan Callaway and and ERG student Michael Cohen's (MS '12) release report on Economic Effects of Distributed PV Generation on California's Distribution System.
China’s Energy Choices To Pave The Way For The World
June 26, 2015
ERG students Anne-Perrine Avrin (MS'15) will be presenting her research at the Our Common Future Under Climate Change conference held in Paris, France from 7-10 July 2015.
A unique moment in history for “sustainable energy for all”
March 26, 2015
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.
Data: Big disparities in energy use across desert
February 13, 2015
ERG PhD candidate Chris Jones explains household electricity consumption.
Why people use less energy on Super Bowl Sunday
January 28, 2015
Data provided by Joseph Kantenbacher, ERG PhD candidate, underpins an analysis showing how it is that significantly less energy is used by Americans on Super Bowl Sunday.
How will ambitious energy goals transform CA?
January 15, 2015
Listen to the discussion on Governor Browns ambitions energy plan with Dan Kammen and Peter Miller.
How Happiness Saves You Energy
December 20, 2014
ERG PhD candidate, Joseph Kantenbacher (MS'09), reveals how we can lower carbon emissions by doing things we enjoy.
Upcoming Certificate Course on Economic Impact of Climate and Energy Policy
August 13, 2014
3-day certificate course Oct 3-5, offering a practical perspective on the economic effects of climate and energy policy.
Rethinking Energy on Islands
April 25, 2014
Rebekah Shirley (ERG PhD) and Professor Dan Kammen show how small-scale energy can work in the Pacific Islands.
Holdren Sets New Course for US Energy
March 20, 2014
President Obama's top science advisor and ERG Co-founder, John Holdren, is confident that America's next energy plan "will make a difference."
Clean energy future: Kammen and Wolfram talk it out on NPR
November 30, 2013
ERG's Kammen and Haas' Wolfram don't exactly see eye-to-eye on energy in NPR interview.
Mira Shah receives 1st Place Undergraduate Scholarship
November 7, 2024
Mira Shah, a 4th year Major in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Energy and Resources, received a 1st place undergraduate scholarship from The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and ... Continue Reading »
Aline Abayo named participant in the Future Nobel Laureates Scholarship Program
November 7, 2024
Aline Abayo. Photo by Kwabena Owusu Sarfo. Aline Abayo, a graduate student in the Energy and Resource Group (ERG), has been selected as one of eleven participants in the prestigious ... Continue Reading »
Advanced conductors provide path for grid expansion
October 1, 2024
A new study led by Duncan Callaway, professor and chair of the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), and Amol Phadke, an affiliate and senior scientist at the Goldman School of Public Policy, shows ... Continue Reading »
Students return from KTH Royal Institute of Technology exchange
August 22, 2024
The eight-week exchange program offered participants the opportunity to study energy research abroad.
Africa’s path to green growth
August 20, 2024
New analysis by ERG researchers explores whether Africa’s economic growth could impact efforts to reduce global warming.
Partnership with KTH Royal Institute of Technology creates opportunities for students
June 19, 2024
A dozen students from Sweden and California swapped places last week for summer research internships focused on digital transformation, kicking off a new exchange program between UC Berkeley and KTH ... Continue Reading »
Daniel Kammen and Berkeley Researchers finds that China is the only Nation on track to triple its Renewable Capacity by 2030
April 11, 2024
Amid continuing geopolitical tensions, climate change remains a key area of collaboration between the United States and China. Ahead of last November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28, Presidents Biden ... Continue Reading »
Rachel Schurman In Memoriam
April 4, 2024
(June 9, 1958 – March 17, 2024) Rachel Schurman was the first woman to serve on the core faculty of the Energy and Resources Group. She came to Berkeley as ... Continue Reading »
Berkeley will launch new Masters of Climate Solutions degree in 2025
December 22, 2023
Organizations, cities, and states around the world are charting paths to quantify and curtail their carbon emissions and uncovering business avenues within climate solutions. In addition to focusing on reducing ... Continue Reading »
Climate Action Seed and Matching Grants to fuel the work of ERG Alumni and Faculty
August 31, 2023
The University of California awarded more than $80 million in state-funded grants to spur climate action this August through the Climate Action Seed and Matching Grant program. ERG alum Patricia ... Continue Reading »
Advocating for Women on World Water Day
March 22, 2023
New commentary published in the Lancet on World Water Day (March 22) calls on researchers, policy makers, and professionals to strengthen their commitment to addressing gender inequities in global water delivery systems. Co-authored ... Continue Reading »
New Study by Coalition of ERG Researchers Reveals True Social Cost of Carbon
September 1, 2022
Researchers from Rausser College’s Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Resources for the Future (RFF) have released a new estimate that the social cost of carbon (SCC), a key metric ... Continue Reading »
ERG Alum Jamil Farbes Discusses Inflation Reduction Act in NPR Interview
August 23, 2022
ERG alumnus Jamil Farbes (MS ’10), now principal at Evolved Energy Research, was recently featured in an NPR interview explaining climate capture technology. View the full transcript or listen to ... Continue Reading »
Argues ERG’s Dan Kammen California Must Accelerate Carbon Neutrality Goal
June 17, 2022
In an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, ERG’s Dan Kammen pushes for California to set a more ambitious carbon neutrality goal, and suggests that this plan should mobilize ... Continue Reading »
New Climate Equity and Environmental Justice Cluster Brings Faculty Mills-Novoa to ERG
September 15, 2021
Meg Mills-Novoa has joined the Energy and Resources Group as part of a group of new faculty members recruited through Rausser College's Climate Equity and Environmental Justice cluster initiative to further climate justice research.
Berkeley Lab and ERG’s Kammen Agree Electrifying Trucking Proves More Cost-Efficient
April 8, 2021
Electrified vehicles are just simply much cheaper to own and operate
Phadke and Professor Callaway Suggest India Double Down on Renewables ERG Alumni Deshmukh
April 6, 2021
ERG alumni Ranjit Deshmukh, Amol Phadke and associate professor Duncan Callaway recently had their research, "Least-cost targets and avoided fossil fuel capacity in India’s pursuit of renewable energy" published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their analysis on India’s power usage, weather patterns and energy infrastructure was featured in the The Current, and suggests that the country is "well positioned to take advantage of green energy sources".
ERG Dan Kammen Presents “Climate Justice and Global Decarbonization”
March 30, 2021
ERG professor Dan Kammen presents his talk, "Climate Justice and Global Decarbonization", featured on the Mines Global Energy Future Initiative. Watch his full presentation with the link here.
ERG Dan Kammen Addresses Texas’ Recent Electric Grid Failure
March 23, 2021
In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, titled "Why the massive power outages in Texas are so much worse than California's summer blackouts," features ERG professor Dan Kammen discussing how such energy outages have highlighted a similarity between California and Texas. “What is so interesting here is that like in California — extreme weather (for us, fires) — has stressed an old, outdated and ‘not smart’ grid,” Kammen stated. “Without well-integrated solar, wind, AND energy storage our grids are vulnerable.”
Earthweek Features ERG Professor Margaret Torn’s Lead Research on Net-Zero Emissions
March 23, 2021
ERG adjunct professor Margaret Torn was recently featured in Earthweek for her leading research in how the U.S can reach zero net emissions of carbon dioxide in 2050 by shifting energy infrastructure to operate mainly on renewable energy. “It means that by 2050 we need to build many gigawatts of wind and solar power plants, new transmission lines, a fleet of electric cars and light trucks, millions of heat pumps to replace conventional furnaces and water heaters, and more energy-efficient buildings,” Torn states.
Adaptation for Climate Change Impacts Researched by ERG Student Szinai and Professor Jones
February 16, 2021
ERG PhD student Julia Szinai and assistant adjunct professor Andrew Jones were recently featured in AGU news for their research on evaluating cross-sectoral impacts of climate change and adaptations on the energy-water nexus. “How we adapt to climate change in the water sector can exacerbate or offset impacts on the grid,” Szinai states. “And so those interactions shouldn’t be ignored in planning.”
Farbes ERG Alums Williams
February 3, 2021
A new article, "Carbon-neutral pathways for the United States," published in the open-access journal AGU Advances by ERG alums Jim Williams, Jamil Farbes, ERG alum and adjunct professor Margaret Torn, and others found that "reaching zero net emissions of carbon dioxide from energy and industry by 2050 can be accomplished.
Alumni ERG Students
January 21, 2021
Current ERG PhD student Julia Szinai, alumnus Ranjit Deshmukh, ERG professor Dan Kammen, and assistant adjunct professor Andrew Jones were recently featured by UCSB for their leading research in "Power, Water and Climate". Working with researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, they developed "a framework evaluating the impacts of climate change on California’s water and energy systems".
ERG’s Dan Kammen Enthusiastic for Berkeley Scholars to Join Biden Administration
January 4, 2021
Recently, President-elect Joe Biden has nominated UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) faculty member Jennifer Granholm to lead the U.S. Department of Energy and Haas School of Business Professor Emeritus Janet Yellen to serve as secretary of treasury. Two campus alumni are also expected to serve within the administration, with Alejandro Mayorkas selected to lead the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, and Adewale Adeyemo picked for deputy treasury secretary. ERG professor Dan Kammen expressed enthusiasm for the candidates in multiple news sources, stating that “The Department of Energy is going to be central to almost everything in the Biden-Harris plan, from energy transformation to re-entering the Paris Climate Accords. We’re also going to need a huge infusion of attention and effort to be put into creating jobs. That fits Jennifer Granholm to a T. I’m just so impressed that they made this choice. I think she’s ideal for the job at this time.” Read the Berkeley News article on Jennifer Granholm here, the San Francisco Chronicle article here, and the Daily Californian article on all four Berkeley scholars here.
ERG’s Dan Kammen on How Decreased CO2 Emissions Shape the Future of Electric Vehicles
November 19, 2020
In a recent Sustainability Times article, ERG professor Dan Kammen explains how pandemic lockdowns resulted in historic drops in our CO2 emissions. Additionally, Kammen's previous study on how exactly COVID-19 lowered said Co2 emissions was featured in a Berkeley News article, arguing that a move towards greater usage of electric-powered vehicles would "reduce the major greenhouse gas responsible for climate change and global warming". "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,” Kammen stated. Read how the pandemic lockdowns decreased Co2 emissions here, and what this means for the future usage of electric vehicles here.
ERG Dan Kammen on What the Biden-Harris Victory Means For COVID-19 & Climate Change
November 16, 2020
ERG professor Dan Kammen recently published an op-ed on the Daily Californian, discussing the powerful impact the Biden-Harris victory has on addressing the issues of COVID-19 and climate change. Kammen further states that the new leadership's energy and climate platform can be a game-changer for achieving social and climate justice. "Science, social justice and both domestic and global partnerships to address climate change are now back on the agenda in the United States," Kammen writes. "More than any one specific action, the commitment Biden has already shown to a science-driven administration is critically important domestically and worldwide."
ERG Kammen on New Berkeley Study — “90% carbon-free electricity achievable by 2035”
September 15, 2020
In a new Berkeley study “2035 – The Report: Plummeting Solar, Wind, and Battery Costs Can Accelerate Our Clean Energy Future,” ERG professor Dan Kammen comments that its findings of the U.S. being able to achieve 90% carbon-free, “clean” electricity could become a reality. "That goal – 90% carbon-free electricity by 2035 – can be achieved without increasing consumer electricity costs 'at all,'" Kammen states. "Solar, wind, and storage costs have fallen so significantly that even conservative leaders, conservative states, districts, countries can legitimately look at renewables, and actually economically need to look at renewables, as their next purchases.”
Kammen Responds to California’s Canceled Rolling Blackouts in AP News
September 1, 2020
ERG professor Dan Kammen was recently quoted in AP News regarding California's power grid operator cancelling rolling blackouts. These scheduled widespread blackouts were averted after regulators warned that the electric grid would not have enough power to meet demands in the midst of a heat wave. Kammen commented that the state needs to do more to store and sell clean energy sources, and he hopes this week’s blackouts will prompt officials to act. “This is kind of a stress test on the system,” he said. “We have not built up enough of a smart enough system to take advantage of all the renewables we have in place.”
ERG Professor Kammen on How California’s Power Outages Pose New Challenges
August 26, 2020
ERG Professor Dan Kammen was recently featured on U.S. News explaining the severity of California's energy shortages. Despite pandemic restrictions that have somewhat reduced overall electricity demand in California, Kammen points out the rising demand for electricity due to heat waves. "Investments in electricity storage and distribution would [allow California avoid future rolling blackouts]. But those could be expensive, and even harder to budget for at a time when the state faces huge deficits amid the pandemic-related slowdown," Kammen stated.
ERG Professor Dan Kammen on the Importance of Political Policies Against Climate Change
August 6, 2020
ERG Professor Dan Kammen was featured on a recent Al Jazeera article, discussing America's progress towards building a greener economy. "The 2020 election in the United States is absolutely critical, because we know on the climate side that we have very few years left to get on an innovative green energy path," Kammen stated.
ERG Alumnus Christopher Jones Featured on the New York Times Linking Heat Waves and COVID-19 Risks
July 23, 2020
ERG Alumnus Christopher Jones was recently featured on a New York Times article depicting communities facing a "double spikes of risk" from the Coronavirus and heat waves.
Collaborative Book “Health of People”— Kammen Contributes Chapter in Open-Access
May 22, 2020
"Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility" is a recently published, fully open-access book that came out of discussions at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences with the Pope and members of the joint Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Science. ERG Professor Dan Kammen contributed his own chapter, "Defeating energy poverty", which is included in a section on taking action from a scientific basis.
Berkeley Graduate Division Honors ERG PhD Student Jess Carney “Outstanding GSI Award”
May 6, 2020
ERG PhD Jess Carney has recently been awarded by the Berkeley Graduate Division an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) Award for her work in Dan Kammen's Energy & Society. Carney not only acted as Head GSI, but she also worked with Kammen to develop and improve the course. She also took charge of steering the summer Energy & Society online course, which presented its own unique challenges.
COVID-19 Shifting the Paradigm— ERG Kammen and Student Vasquez Speak at Live Broadcast
May 1, 2020
ERG professor Dan Kammen and ERG PhD student Valeri Vasquez have recently spoken alongside a live panel of UC Berkeley experts in the live broadcast "Climate Change and COVID-19: Can this crisis shift the paradigm?".
CNN Interviews Kammen on COVID-19 and Pollution Levels
April 16, 2020
ERG professor Dan Kammen was recently featured in a CNN interview discussing the effects of COVID-19 on pollution levels around the world.
ERG Student Anushah Hossain Awarded Peter Lyman and Subir Chowdhury Fellowships
April 7, 2020
Anushah Hossain, a Ph.D. student in the Energy & Resource Group, has recently been awarded two different fellowships. Hossain was awarded the Peter Lyman Graduate Fellowship for "her dissertation on a multi-lingual internet", as well as the Subir Chowdhury Fellowship on Quality of Life in Bangladesh to "support her research on open access software communities in South Asia".
Creating a Green Solution— Kammen Contributes to Proposed Coronavirus Bill
March 25, 2020
ERG professor Dan Kammen has recently joined a group of progressive policymakers to create green policy proposals that includes an economic stimulus package. The bill aims to help the nation recover from the coronavirus pandemic while simultaneously combating climate change.
ERG PhD Student Szinai and Alumnus Gopal Link Grid Costs to Electric Vehicle Charge Management
March 9, 2020
ERG PhD student Julia Szinai, ERG Alumnus Anand Gopal, and two other co-authors from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab have recently published a collaborative research paper on ScienceDirect.
Dan Kammen Critics Trump Administration’s Appointment for EPA Position
February 24, 2020
ERG Dan Kammen was recently quoted on KQED criticing the Trump Administration's decision to appoint "former PG&E attorney to head the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in San Francisco."
ERG Alum Evan Mills Cited for Xbox Emissions Research
February 11, 2020
ERG Alumnus Evan Mills' research on the carbon emissions of gaming systems was recently cited on Grist. The article, titled "How the Xbox stands between Microsoft and its climate goals", uses Mills' research to display how gaming consoles like the Xbox have a significant impact on annual emissions.
The Beam features Kammen on the Critical Lack of Clean Cooking
February 5, 2020
ERG professor Dan Kammen recently published a collaborative article on the Beam discussing the challenge of not only providing clean cooking energy services as a basic necessity, but how new technological improvements like the biomass improved cookstove can be more efficiently implemented.
ERG’s Lara and Kammen on Potential for Biomass Feedstock from Drought
January 23, 2020
ERG student José Daniel Lara and ERG professor Daniel Kammen, in collaboration with forest researchers in UC Berkeley's department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, recently published "Characterization of the woody biomass feedstock potential resulting from California’s drought" in Nature, Scientific Reports.
Valeri Vasquez Returns with the All-Women Expedition from Antarctic Voyage
December 19, 2019
Valeri Vasquez, an ERG graduate student, has recently returned with the largest-ever delegation of 100 women from a month long expedition in Antarctica. Their journey to the frozen continent was part of an initiative to bring more women into STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math and medical fields), fighting climate change and women empowerment.
Dan Kammen and Researchers Urge More Aggressive Action Against Climate Change
December 12, 2019
In a new study done by ERG's Dan Kammen and a team of researchers, analysis shows that global warming crisis is worse than previously thought. However, their research also shows how it is completely possible for countries to achieve an increased and sustainable rate of decarbonisation through more aggressive policies against climate change.
Distinguished Scientist and ERG Emeritus Remembering Jack Hollander
December 3, 2019
ERG emeritus professor Jack M. Hollander passed away on November 10, 2019 at age 92.
Kammen and RAEL Address the Racial Inequalities in Solar Deployment on The Beam
November 25, 2019
ERG’s Dan Kammen and RAEL investigate how the benefits of solar energy is not distributed equally among individuals, and how there are racial disparities especially in rooftop solar PV deployment ... Continue Reading »
Kammen on the Increasing Normalization of Power Shutoffs on KCBS Radio
November 4, 2019
Daniel Kammen discusses how power shutoffs and evacuations may become the the new normal as climate change continues to spark deadlier wildfires year after year.
Alumna Alexandra von Meier on Multi-Customer Microgrids to Combat Wildfires
October 16, 2019
Alexandra von Meier, an ERG Alumna and director in the California Institute for Energy and Environment’s Electric Grid program area, discusses how locally sourced power, compared to shutting off power, can better prevent wildfires.
Kammen to Speak at Climate of Action in Napa Valley
September 30, 2019
Climate of Change is an event dedicated to empowering action on climate change; twelve experts, including Daniel Kammen, were invited to speak on the behalf of such a pressing issue. ... Continue Reading »
On Science— Kammen Explores the Industrial Drivers of a Low-carbon Economy
September 24, 2019
In an recent article on Science, Kammen contributes insight on the possibilities of harnessing renewable energy through various techniques.
ERG Alumnus Patrick Gonzalez Speaks to Congress on Climate Change
June 27, 2019
ERG alum, Dr. Patrick Gonzalez presents scientific findings to Representative Mike Quigley and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Members in the U.S. Capitol
Dan Kammen and Tom Steyer Comment on the Adverse Effects of Climate Change on Biodiversity
June 6, 2019
A recent report released from the United Nations details the threat that climate change and human activities pose to hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species and their biodiversity. ... Continue Reading »
Noah Kittner and Dan Kammen Argue for Solar and Wind Over Hydropower in Nature Article
May 16, 2019
Recent ERG alum Noah Kittner (MS ’15, PhD ’18) and professor Dan Kammen, along with Stanford postdoc Rafael Schmitt and UC Berkeley professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Matt ... Continue Reading »
Environment and Society New ERG Course: Data
May 2, 2019
Data, Environment and Society (ENERES 131) Professor Duncan Callaway Lecture (#33105) TT 9:30 – 11am Labs (#33106) M 10am – 12pm or (#33276) W 10am – 12pm This course will teach ... Continue Reading »
Alum Chris Jones Featured on Berkeley Talks Podcast
April 10, 2019
As part of April’s Cool Campus Challenge, ERG alumnus Chris Jones (MS ’05, PhD ’14), now director of the CoolClimate Network, sat down with student reporters from the Goldman School ... Continue Reading »
Two ERG Alumni Named Top 50 Green Innovators and Influencers by Grist Magazine
March 12, 2019
Sam Arons (MS ’07) and Joshua Apte (PhD ’13) were named as the 2019 “Grist 50” — a list of the most innovative and influential leaders in sustainability. Grist is ... Continue Reading »
Governor Newsom Appoints ERG Alum Carla Peterman to New Wildfire Recovery Commission
January 31, 2019
Governor Gavin Newsom’s office has released three appointments to the new Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery, which includes ERG alumna Carla Peterman (PhD ’17). Peterman served as a ... Continue Reading »
ERG student Hausfather in Science: Oceans are warming even faster than previously thought
January 16, 2019
“If you want to see where global warming is happening, look in our oceans,” said Zeke Hausfather, a graduate student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley and co-author of the paper. “Ocean heating is a very important indicator of climate change, and we have robust evidence that it is warming more rapidly than we thought.”
Study finds racial inequality in the deployment of rooftop solar
January 10, 2019
A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley and Tufts University shows fewer rooftop solar photovoltaics installations exist in African-American and Hispanic-dominant neighborhoods than in white-dominant neighborhoods, even when controlling ... Continue Reading »
NPR Interviews Dan Kammen On U.N. Climate Convention
January 2, 2019
NPR’s Michel Martin interviewed ERG Professor Dan Kammen on the U.N. climate talks December, 2018 in Poland. “Unfortunately, because the U.S. backed out, that’s left a number of holes. Essentially, ... Continue Reading »
ERG Student Chris Hyun Highlighted as InFEWS Fellow
December 26, 2018
InFEWS fellowships are granted to students whose PhD research aims to provide lasting environmental solutions and alleviate poverty in the world’s poorest regions. The Blum Center for Developing Economies recently ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Kammen Comments on ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests in New York Times
December 7, 2018
“So while President Macron has highlighted the need for funds to invest in clean energy, that is not actually what was planned,” Mr. Kammen said.
Campus and Alumni Mourn the Passing of ERG Professor Gene Rochlin
November 28, 2018
It is with a very heavy heart that I have to pass on the news that University of California Berkeley Energy and Resources Group (ERG) core faculty emeritus Gene Rochlin passed away this weekend.
ERG Research Shows Reliability of Independent Solar Power in Sub-Saharan Africa
October 18, 2018
Nature Energy recently published research by ERG PhD Student Jonathan Lee and Professor Duncan Callaway quantifying the cost of reliability for decentralized solar and battery systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their ... Continue Reading »
Faculty and Alumni Encourage You to Vote! ERG Students
October 10, 2018
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 ... Continue Reading »
Mileva ERG Alumni Deshmukh
September 12, 2018
ERG alumni Ranjit Deshmukh, Ana Mileva, and Grace Wu recently published their research on alternatives to the hydroelectric power Inga III Dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ... Continue Reading »
What Does Development Mean for the Stateless?
August 31, 2018
For over one million Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, water and sanitation, health, and shelter are crucial issues. ERG PhD student Samira Siddique examines the importance of ... Continue Reading »
ERG Alum Steve Fetter Named UMD Assoc Provost and Dean
May 29, 2018
The University of Maryland has named ERG alumnus Steve Fetter as Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School.
Lyft Commits to Cancelling Out its Carbon Emissions – Will it Make a Difference?
May 23, 2018
Lyft announced its plans last month to purchase carbon offsets to cancel out the carbon emissions created by its drivers. It’s also part of a larger strategy to lessen Lyft’s ... Continue Reading »
2018’s Greenest States — John Harte Weighs In
April 19, 2018
Have you ever wondered which states in the U.S. are the most environmentally conscious? The least? “In order to highlight the greenest states and call out those doing a poor ... Continue Reading »
Cost Efficiency
April 11, 2018
“What would it look like if all Yellow Cabs in Manhattan were replaced with self-driving electric taxis? How much battery range would they need, and where would you put charging ... Continue Reading »
How Does Building a New Suburb Affect the Atmosphere?
March 15, 2018
A team of scientists at the University of Utah as well as several other universities decided to take a closer look at the effects of expanding suburban communities near Salt ... Continue Reading »
Misplaced Praise – How Kosovo Took a Step in the Wrong Direction
March 13, 2018
The U.S. government recently congratulated the government of Kosovo for signing a contract with American multi-national corporation Contour Global to build a new 500 MW coal-fired power plant. Kosovo highlights ... Continue Reading »
Transportation Emissions in Mexico City – How Big Data is Driving Change
March 8, 2018
Mexico City is one of the most congested cities in the world, and it’s taking a toll on the health of its citizens and the environment. Sergio Castellanos, a postdoctoral ... Continue Reading »
WA Solar Powered “Net-Zero Community” on Lopez Island
March 6, 2018
ERG alumni Chris and Chom Greacen explain the vision and execution that brought to life the Common Ground community on Lopez Island, WA. Read about the project’s origins and objectives, efficiency ... Continue Reading »
Emission-Free Neighborhoods? The Oakland EcoBlock Project Pioneers Residential Sustainability
February 14, 2018
The College of Environmental Design (CED) at UC Berkeley spotlighted the innovative Oakland EcoBlock project this week, lead by CED professor Harrison Fraker and ERG chair Dan Kammen. The project, ... Continue Reading »
Zeke Hausfather Cited by the Washington Post on 2017’s Concerning Temperatures
January 25, 2018
Recently, scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that 2017 was among the warmest years in history. While the two agencies approach global temperature measurements differently, both ... Continue Reading »
What Environmental Policy Options Does the U.S. Have in 2018?
January 16, 2018
In a Knowledge @ Wharton public policy podcast, Dan Kammen joins Eric Orts, legal studies and business ethics professor, and director of the school’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Kammen and ... Continue Reading »
Climate Change Slowing Down Wind Turbines? Kammen Weighs In
December 12, 2017
With global temperatures increasing, researchers analyze the effects of temperature differences on wind patterns. Multiple studies confirm the possibility of wind resources declining across the Northern Hemisphere, reducing the energy ... Continue Reading »
Dan Kammen Featured in Fall 2017 Breakthroughs Magazine
November 30, 2017
In the Fall 2017 issue of the College of Natural Resources’ Breakthroughs magazine, Dan Kammen is spotlighted for the innovative ways in which he has merged science with environmental policy. ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s EcoBlock Project Selected by Scientific American as a World Changing Idea for 2017
November 28, 2017
The Oakland EcoBlock Project is an urban sustainability experiment that focuses on reducing the footprint of a typical neighborhood block. As a mini-grid system for shared energy and water in ... Continue Reading »
UC Wins Excellence in Green Power Use Award from EPA
October 30, 2017
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the University of California system with the Excellence in Green Power Use Award for its investments in renewable energy, and continued progress ... Continue Reading »
New ERG Chair Daniel M. Kammen
July 25, 2017
We are pleased to announce the appointment of the new Energy and Resources Group Chair, Professor Daniel M. Kammen. His appointment began July 1, 2017. Daniel Kammen is a Professor of Energy with ... Continue Reading »
New Study by ERG Postdoc James Rising Finds Northern States Might Profit as the Planet Warms
July 6, 2017
If you live in the South, climate change could kill your economy.
including ERG International Team
July 5, 2017
“The fossil-free economy is already profitable.”
Sustainable Design of Communities: Kammen and Fraker in Scientific American
July 5, 2017
Neighborhood efforts to reduce fossil fuel and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, could go beyond serving as a model for sustainability by providing local construction jobs and revitalizing entire communities.
Kammen and Hausfather of ERG Respond to Withdrawal from Paris Agreement
June 22, 2017
ERG Professor Dan Kammen and graduate student Zeke Hausfather respond to President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement
Renewable Dis-integration?
April 12, 2017
ERG associate professor Duncan Callaway co-authored this post with ARE associate professor Meredith Fowlie for the Energy Institute at Haas blog on grid dis-integration and the potential economic effects of grid defection.
ERG Professor Callaway – Solar Power in Africa
April 3, 2017
ERG Professor Duncan Callaway comments on renewable energy in Africa, noting the advancements in solar technology in Crescent Vale News.
ERG PhD Lara Speaks at TEDx Pura Vida 2017
March 6, 2017
Last week, ERG PhD student José Daniel Lara spoke in Costa Rica at the TEDx Pura Vida 2017 event. Lara’s talk focused on the urgency for Costa Rica to integrate solar energy ... Continue Reading »
ERG Professor Emeritus John Holdren on Trump Administration Climate Policy
February 5, 2017
ERG Professor Emeritus John Holdren is featured in the Cape Cod Wave.
Introducing New ERG Faculty Lara Kueppers
January 11, 2017
The Energy and Resources Group is delighted to announce the arrival of new core faculty member Lara Kueppers.
Kammen highlighted in Scientific American
December 22, 2016
Daniel Kammen comments for Scientific American on the opportunities scientists think they can seize with the appointment of Trump's climate skeptics.
Emily Woods – Kenyan Startup Uses the Sun to Turn Human Waste into Cooking Fuel
November 28, 2016
ERG student Emily Woods, CTO and Co-founder of Sanivation, discusses her start-up which converts uses human waste to an affordable and environmentally friendly fuel source.
Despite Trump Scientific American: Kammen Discusses Climate Action
November 23, 2016
ERG professor Daniel Kammen is quoted in two Scientific American articles on the COP22 and his reactions Trump's victory.
Professor Kammen: What Scientists Should Focus on Under Trump
November 18, 2016
Nine experts, including ERG Professor Daniel Kammen, reflect on where researchers should direct their efforts during the next US administration.
ERG Graduate Students Deshmukh and Wu: Can Wind and Solar Fuel Africa’s Future?
November 4, 2016
ERG Graduate Students Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu's research on renewable energy in Africa was highlighted in a news article in Nature.
ERG Professor Kammen: Coal Makes Global Poverty Worse
October 29, 2016
ERG Professor Daniel Kammen discusses how renewable energy offers a road out of poverty, while coal condemns people to it.
ERG Alumna: Disrupting the Social-Change Industry Scholz
October 26, 2016
Alumna Astrid Scholz (PhD 2001, Energy and Resources Group) seeks to disrupt the social-change industry with Sphaera Solutions.
ERG-led THIMBY Wins Categories in Tiny House Competition
October 25, 2016
The Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) team won several categories in the 2016 Sacramento Municipal District Tiny House Competition.
ERG Professors Daniel Kammen and Isha Ray Involved in Development Engineering Program
October 20, 2016
ERG professor Dan Kammen and associate professor Isha Ray are highlighted in a UC Berkeley News article on a new NSF grant towards a STEM Training for Actionable Research and Global Impact program with a focus on Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems.
ERG Professor Kammen: We’re Placing Far too much Hope in Pulling Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air
October 20, 2016
ERG professor Dan Kammen commented for the Washington Post on the uncertainty of negative emissions as a viable fix for the planet's warming.
ERG Student Avila Receives Rosenfeld Fellowship
September 12, 2016
Congratulations to ERG postdoctoral fellow Nikky Avila, who was recently awarded the 2016 Rosenfeld Fellowship.
ERG PhD Jalel Sager: What Obama Should Do in Laos
September 7, 2016
ERG PhD candidate Jalel Sager, coauthored an article on President Obama's visit to Laos this week.
RAEL and GRID Alternatives Partner for Off-Grid Solar
August 1, 2016
Solar Industry Magazine has announced a partnership between the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) and nonprofit solar installer GRID Alternatives. RAEL is a unique new research, development, project implementation, and community ... Continue Reading »
Daniel Kammen Supports Tesla-SolarCity Merge
June 30, 2016
Elon Musk described the rationale for Tesla to acquire SolarCity and create the “world’s only vertically integrated energy company.’’ - New York Times
ERG Alumni: Leaders at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
June 30, 2016
Two articles on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory website featured the current work of ERG alumni Ryan Wiser (M.S. '96, Ph.D. '02) and Andrew Jones (M.S. '07, Ph.D. '12).
THIMBY House Project Is Well Underway!
June 28, 2016
The Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) is an interdisciplinary team of UC Berkeley graduate and undergraduate students working together to design and build an affordable, off-grid, 100% solar-powered “tiny” ... Continue Reading »
ERG Alum Receives Microsoft Grant for Ugandan Micro-grid Systems
June 27, 2016
New Sun Road is a California technology company directed by ERGie Jalel Sager (MS’11 , PhD’15). They are committed to implementing solutions to climate change and global energy poverty, provide ... Continue Reading »
ERGie Wins Big Ideas Contest
May 24, 2016
"ERG grad student Emily Woods took 2nd place in the 'Scaling up Big Ideas' category with her project 'Feces to Fuel.'"
Kammen: Panelists Consider Potential of Nuclear Power As Climate Change Solution
May 6, 2016
ERG professor Dan Kammen spoke on a Cornell University panel on the potential of nuclear power to address global climate change.
It Can Work ERG PhD Student Aden in New York Times: Economies Rise as Emissions Fall? Yes
April 6, 2016
The New York Times featured ERG PhD student Nate Aden in an article on Decoupling Economic Growth from Carbon Emissions.
Two ERG Projects Included in White House Plans for Sustainable Water Future
March 31, 2016
Commitments by two groups within ERG were included in the White House Summit on Water last week
ERG Professor Daniel Kammen Appointed as U.S. Science Envoy
March 31, 2016
ERG Professor Daniel Kammen has been appointed as one of five U.S. Science Envoys by the US State Department.
Kammen on Utah Governor Signing Bill to Advance Oakland Coal Plan
March 29, 2016
ERG professor Dan Kammen discusses the new construction of an Oakland cargo terminal that could be used to export Utah coal with KQED News.
ERG Alumnus Reports Suburban Living Less ‘Green’ than it Appears
March 15, 2016
ERG alum Christopher Jones comments on suburban sprawl and carbon footprints.
ERG PhDs in National Geographic: SWITCHing to a Low-Carbon Future
March 3, 2016
ERG PhD students Diego Ponce de Leon Barido and Josiah Johnston published a blog post in National Geographic on renewable energy investments in Nicaragua.
ERG Summer Courses Available
February 28, 2016
ERG is offering four of its most popular courses this summer! Enroll Today!
ERG PhD Student on Methane Threat to Clean Power Plan Targets
February 16, 2016
ERG PhD student Zeke Hausfather examines threats to the Clean Power Plan that the EPA might have overlooked.
ERG PhDs: Making Powering Africa a Reality
January 28, 2016
ERG PhD students Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu share their research on Africa's leap toward clean and affordable energy with World Policy.
ERG Alumna: Helping Agribusiness Shaw
January 22, 2016
Rebecca Shaw, MA 1992 Energy Resources Group, Ph.D. 1997 ERG, is featured in Berkeley's College of Natural Resources Breakthroughs magazine.
ERG PhD on Forbes 30 Under 30 list Woods
January 11, 2016
Emily Woods makes Forbes 30 Under 30 list for her leadership as co-founder of Sanivation, converting human waste into a sustainable fuel source. See the full story and the rest ... Continue Reading »
Jones & Kammen compare neighborhood footprints
January 7, 2016
The first-of-its-kind interactive map was produced by the University of California, Berkeley’s CoolClimate Network and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and covers census block groups –neighborhoods of several ... Continue Reading »
ERG at the Paris Climate Talks
December 1, 2015
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris has begun and will continue until December 11th. Energy and Resources Group faculty, students and alumni will be playing an active role at the conference and the many peripheral activities.
The magic number: Holding warming under 2°C is the goal. It may already be too late.
December 1, 2015
Dan Kammen comments for the Washington Past on negative emission technology as a key to keep warming to two degrees, without major emissions cuts before the year 2020.
How to Build a Low-Carbon Future in Developing Nations
November 7, 2015
ERG Ph.D. scholars Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu discuss their report on “Designing Low Carbon Electricity Futures for African and Other Developing Economies”
Beyond emissions: The promise of products from captured carbon
November 6, 2015
ERG Ph.D candidate, Daniel Sanchez, shares his research on capturing, sequestering and burning carbon with GreenBiz.
2015 ITRI-Rosenfeld Fellowship Winners Announced
November 4, 2015
Congratulations to ERG postdoctoral fellow Peter Alstone, who was recently announced a winner of the 2015 ITRI-Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Proposed state fee would end solar savings
November 1, 2015
ERG professor Dan Kammen looks at impacts of proposed new CPUC rules.
Solar Power Expansion Could Pose Ecological Risks
October 22, 2015
Postdoctoral scholar, Rebecca Hernandez, discusses her study on the ecological footprint of solar power development with Scientific American.
Only 15% of California’s Big Solar Projects are on the Right Kind of Land
October 19, 2015
Postdoctoral scholar, Rebecca Hernandez, comments on California's utility-scale solar projects.
California Leads a Quiet Revolution
October 6, 2015
Professor Daniel Kammen shares his thoughts on California's energy revolution with the New York Times.
Go Small and Go Home: UC Berkeley Team Working to Create an Affordable Housing Fix
August 26, 2015
ERG grad student Ian Bolliger talks about Cal team's tiny house project in Richmond.
Feeding people on our stressed planet will require a “revolution”
August 7, 2015
ERG Professor John Harte was featured on Environmental Health News speaking of how the implementation of sustainable energy will play an important role in future food security.
but scientists say the work’s just begun. Obama’s Clean Power Plan is finally out
August 5, 2015
ERG Professor Daniel Kammen was featured in two magazine publications regarding Obama's Clean Power Plan and the impacts it might have on the U.S. population.
CFCC15: ERG Students Present at Paris Conference
July 11, 2015
ERG & RAEL students present and engage at scientific conference “Our Common Future under Climate Change” ahead of COP21
Sarawak May See the End of Mega Dams
July 1, 2015
As an alternative to the current Baram Dam project, Professor Daniel Kammen presented the benefits of using renewable energy instead of mega hydro-dams at a press conference held at Kuching, Sarawak, East Malaysia.
Rand Receives DOE Award for Wind Advocacy
May 19, 2015
DOE's Wind Program honors ERG graduate student for impact on wind power advocacy
NSF & More ERG Awards: Switzer Fellowships
May 14, 2015
3 current Switzer fellows, 2 more NSF fellows, and more. See the list of awards ERG students have received.
CAL-RAE to pilot solar solar microgrid design in rural Uganda
May 2, 2015
PhD candidate Jalel Sager, Austin Cappon (ERG minor) and Jonathon Lee to pilot solar microgrid design this spring
California daring others to follow ScienceMag: In boosting climate goals
May 2, 2015
Dr. Dan Kammen on how CA's new GHG reduction targets are not only good for the state but also international talks
Sea Change Radio: Electricity For All with Dan Kammen
April 23, 2015
Dr. Dan Kammen speaks with Sea Change Radio on getting energy sustainably to those without access.
The Road from CalCAP: Can the University of California Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2025?
April 22, 2015
How Zimmerman (MS'08), ERGies and colleagues started to "save the planet" by getting Cal capped
Holdren: What Works at ERG Works
April 13, 2015
John Holdren's "tricks of the trade" presentation plus photos during the ERG Big Event.
BOOK: Applying Anthropology and Physics to Sustainability
March 30, 2015
New book by Dove and Kammen released this week.
California’s Cleaner Fuel Comes at Cost to Water: Report
March 18, 2015
Heather Cooley (MS'04) and PhD candidate Julian Fulton release California water footprint report from Pacific Institute.
California could power itself three to five times over with solar
March 17, 2015
ERG postdoctoral fellow Hernandez with Hoffacker and Field from Stanford publish in Nature Climate Change.
Zoë Chafe leads new WHO Report
March 12, 2015
"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.
First Direct Observation of Carbon Dioxide’s Increasing Greenhouse Effect at the Earth’s Surface
February 28, 2015
Paper published in Nature by Daniel Feldman and other LBL scientists, including ERG core faculty Margaret Torn.
Jessica Reilly Sails Around Latin America with International Fellowship
February 13, 2015
ERG PhD candidate studies the impact of rising sea levels on coastal life.
Biomass with carbon capture could make western U.S. carbon-negative
February 10, 2015
Paper by ERG team published in Nature Climate Change this month.
Time to implement the U.S.-China climate accord
February 3, 2015
Dr. Dan Kammen in Al Jazeera reminds us not to forget US and China's strategic climate partnership.
A Better Way to Look at Building Efficiency
December 2, 2014
Dr. Kammen interviewed in FuturArc about seeing buildings as systems.
Apte & Team Find Alarming Pollution Levels
November 26, 2014
ERG alum measures air quality while riding rickshaws in Delhi.
New Climate Policy Course at ERG
November 17, 2014
In Spring 2015, ERG offers an interdisciplinary, graduate-level survey of historical & current efforts to regulate GHG emissions in the US.
Dr. Kammen on US-China Climate Deal
November 14, 2014
"When the two biggest emitters and two biggest economies jointly do it, it will ideally transform the entire debate..."
Profs. Leach & Ray Launch UN Gender Equality Report
October 24, 2014
Dr. Isha Ray at UN Headquarters discussing report on gender equality.
What if it’s not that “green”?
October 22, 2014
NBC interview of Dr. Kammen on new technology not meeting green expectations.
RAEL at UN Climate Summit
September 26, 2014
SWITCH model selected as a "Project to Watch" by the UN's Big Data Climate Challenge.
Dr. Holdren Handles House Climate Deniers
September 18, 2014
"If the United States does not [limit carbon emissions], it is unlikely that other major emitters in the world — China, India, Russia, Europe, Japan — will do so either."
Brown Schwarzenegger
September 10, 2014
Kammen speaks at Schwarzenegger's climate pep rally where both parties agree that it's time to fight the dark side.
Professor Harte Featured in DOE’s Symmetry
August 20, 2014
He transitioned from physics to ecology. And at ERG, he's not the only one.
Grist Features ERG Climate Change Solutions
July 2, 2014
Professor John Harte and three ERG students are "Hacking the Climate" with featured articles in the popular online publication.
Kammen on UC Climate Advisory Group
June 9, 2014
UC President forms Global Climate Leadership Council including UC professors and climate experts.
Are Obama’s Carbon Rules Enough?
June 3, 2014
The New York Times calls the EPA's emission proposals "modest." Professor Dan Kammen points out the challenge.
ERG Alum on the Executive Mansion’s Solar Installation
May 28, 2014
Watch White House scientists, including Dr. Cyrus Wadia (ERG MS'06, PhD'08), talk about the White House's shift toward renewables.
Microgrid Report by ERG scholars in Nature
March 30, 2014
Scholars from ERG and Carnegie Mellon report on the "vicious cycles" of rural microgrids.
Brandt (PhD’08) publishes in Science on Methane Leaks
February 14, 2014
“People who go out and actually measure methane pretty consistently find more emissions than we expect," claims Adam Brandt, ERG Alum and assistant professor at Stanford.
ERG Alum Greacen’s book on small power
January 18, 2014
From the bottom up : how small power producers and mini-grids can deliver electrification and renewable energy in Africa
50% of U.S. household carbon footprint Suburban sprawl
January 8, 2014
Chris Jones (ERG PhD) and Prof. Dan Kammen point out that U.S. households are responsible for about 20% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, which are driving climate change.
ERG chair named top architecture educator
December 17, 2013
Harrison Fraker receives 2014 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education.
ERG students win United Nations award
November 13, 2013
Jalel Sager (PhD candidate) and Austin Cappon (Minor) head to Nairobi, Kenya to pick up UN prize for a sustainable energy development project in Vietnam.
ERG PhD student in New Yorker
October 14, 2013
ERG Ph.D. student and co-founder of StreetLight Data, Laura Schewel, talks about startups in the Bay Area in the October 14, 2013 issue of the New Yorker.