EETD Communications

A report just released by the National Academies of Science estimates the “hidden” costs of energy production and use. These costs, which include human health effects, physical damages to buildings and other structures, and reduction in grain crop harvests caused by air pollution are not reflected in market prices of coal, oil, other energy sources, or the electricity and gasoline produced from them.

Known to economists as external costs, the report estimated these costs at $120 billion in the U.S. in 2005,  Health damage from air pollution associated with electricity generation and motor vehicle transportation is the largest single item.

Thomas McKone, a senior scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), and Adjunct Professor in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, was one of 18 distinguished experts in public health, economics, and energy science who wrote the report. The report was released by the National Research Council (NRC) at the request of Congress. As a branch of the National Academies of Science NRC organizes studies using the best available science by drawing on NAS membership and carefully selected experts.

Read the rest here:

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2009/10/21/hidden-costs-of-energy/

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) released a new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S., showing that the average cost of these systems declined by more than 30 percent from 1998 to 2008. Within the last year of this period, costs fell by more than 4 percent.

The number of solar PV systems in the U.S. has been growing at a rapid rate in recent years, as governments at the national, state, and local levels have offered various incentives to expand the solar market. With this growth comes a greater need to track and understand trends in the installed cost of PV.

“A goal of government incentive programs is to help drive the cost of PV systems lower. One purpose of this study is to provide reliable information about the costs of installed systems over time,” says report co-author Ryan Wiser.

Read the rest here:

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/press-releases/2009/10/21/new-berkeley-lab-report-shows-that-the-installed-cost-of-solar-photovoltaic-systems-in-the-us-fell-in-2008/

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are working with Silicon Valley companies to demonstrate energy-efficient data center technologies.

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) in partnership with the California Energy Commission has encouraged SVLG member companies to demonstrate new or underused energy efficiency strategies for data centers. Intel, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Netapp, Oracle, and many others, have answered the call, demonstrating a variety of new technologies in the facilities of Silicon Valley companies.

Read the rest here:

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/press-releases/2009/10/12/energy-efficient-data-centers/