Spot­light Kam­pala is a mul­ti-insti­tu­tion­al research col­lab­o­ra­tion of uni­ver­si­ties and com­mu­ni­ty advo­cates that aims to shed light on the inequities faced by infor­mal urban com­mu­ni­ties in access­ing and uti­liz­ing elec­tric­i­ty. […]

For the UC Berke­ley Cli­mate Jus­tice course, syl­labus, click here.

Meet the Laos Ener­gy Mod­el­ing and Pol­i­cy Analy­sis (Under­grad­u­ate!) Team: The focus of this inter-dis­ci­pli­nary and inter-uni­ver­si­ty research group is to devel­op sus­tain­able ener­gy, water, and land-use sce­nar­ios for Laos, and […]

RAEL has part­nered with both the Pon­tif­i­cal Acad­e­my of Sci­ences and a num­ber of oth­er groups world­wide that are engag­ing the Vat­i­can and inter­est­ed part­ners to uti­lize the dia­log around […]

Ener­gy stor­age deploy­ment and inno­va­tion for the clean ener­gy transition Noah Kit­tnera,b, Felix Lillb,c and Daniel M. Kam­men*a,b,d a Ener­gy and Resources Group, UC Berke­ley, Berke­ley, CA, USA b Renew­able and […]

The Plat­form for Ener­gy Access Knowl­edge (PEAK) is a project part­ner­ship between RAEL and Pow­er for All,  a glob­al cam­paign to accel­er­ate the mar­ket-​​based growth of decen­tral­ized renew­ables as the […]

Our lat­est Prop­er­ty Assessed Clean Ener­gy project fea­tures in Sci­ence: http://​sci​ence​.sci​encemag​.org/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​3​5​5​/​6​3​2​8​/​9​2​1.3

For the Human Needs Project full web­site, click on: http://​www​.human​need​spro​ject​.org   Pro­fes­sor Kam­men, serves as the CTO of the Human Needs Project, high­light­ed how the Kib­era Town Cen­ter Project pro­vides basic […]

Rapid eco­nom­ic growth sus­tained in South­east Asia through­out the new mil­len­ni­um has led to a surge in large-scale infra­struc­ture projects to facil­i­tate indus­tri­al pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and con­sump­tion. The state of Sarawak, […]

Tiny House Competition This event is open to all col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties in Cal­i­for­nia. Par­tic­i­pa­tion pro­motes an inter­est in ener­gy con­ser­va­tion, ener­gy effi­cien­cy and green build­ing and solar tech­nolo­gies. The […]

The impacts of climate change are already being felt across Africa, leading to greater natural resource scarcity, which has contributed to violent conflict in Darfur (Sudan), Mali, and Somalia, among others. This trend is likely to continue, as Africa is projected to be among geographies most severely impacted by climate change. Though the pathway from climate change to greater natural resource scarcity to violence is not a direct one, the risks of conflict will increase as livelihoods are threatened due to greater scarcity of food, water or arable land. With lower government capacities and limited funding to adapt to climate change impacts, and a relatively weak conflict prevention/resolution architecture in place, climate change is likely to have an increasingly important impact on future conflicts in Africa. This assessment necessitates new policy planning and development thinking. Despite the threats, the broader global interest in climate change also presents significant opportunities to mobilize new interest and momentum for promoting green development in Africa. This can contribute to an effective conflict prevention strategy, and can also drive increased investment and more diversified economies, improved governance and development outcomes, and greater political stability. This project aims to build the theoretical and practical case for a new model for green development, which can provide both political and economic returns, while delivering both climate sensitive and conflict sensitive development. Our 3-5 year goal is to seed and support a successful “green” pilot in a still to be selected geography in Africa. A successful pilot will require political buy-in and local political champions, as well as new external investment to support green development projects. This can serve as a model that helps demonstrate the political and economic potential of a green approach, the economic potential of a green framework to external investors, as well as effective conflict prevention. It is our hope that the model, once proven, will be scalable in other geographies.

Man­age­ment team: Har­ri­son Frak­er (Co-PI), Daniel Kam­men (PI), Antho­ny Nahas (Project Consultant) Research Moti­va­tion How to make mil­lions of old, inef­fi­cient homes part of a clean-air, low-car­bon & low resource-use […]

Many U.S. cities are taking steps to grow urban centers in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But a challenge is the significant carbon footprint of spacious suburban living, which in many areas, may be cancelling out these efforts. The report, appearing in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, found that about half of the country’s household carbon footprint come from people living in the suburbs, essentially cancelling out the benefits of low carbon footprint central cities. Christopher Jones and Daniel Kammen point out that U.S. households though they only comprise 4.3 percent of the global population, are responsible for about 20 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, which are driving climate change. In response, many governors and mayors across the country have pledged to reduce their states' and cities' emissions. But more information on the size and composition of household carbon footprint is needed to inform policies to make these reductions happen. A few studies have helped fill in some gaps, but they're mostly small in scale and not broadly applicable. Kammen and Jones set out to paint a bigger picture. The authors built an analytic model using national survey data to estimate average household carbon footprints for over 30,000 zip codes and 10,000 cities and towns in all fifty U.S. states. Their technique integrates a wide range of sectors, including transportation, household energy use and consumption of food, goods and services. The researchers found a number of surprising nuances in their analysis. For example, some studies have shown that more population-dense areas have lower emissions. But Jones and Kammen found that population-dense suburbs have significantly higher carbon footprints on average than lower density suburbs, and there is a huge range across cities. As a result of large spatial differences in household carbon footprints they conclude that “an entirely new approach of highly tailored, community-scale carbon management is urgently needed.” One approach is to develop communication and estimation tools for widespread use, which the authors have developed and implemented for public use at http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/maps and http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/carbon calculator The authors acknowledge funding from the California Air Resources Board and the National Science Foundation (grants to D. Kammen). Professor Kammen founded and directs the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory where this work was conducted. Christopher Jones is a doctoral student advised by Professor Kammen.

Abstract: With 1.4 billion people lacking electricity to light their homes or conduct business, and all of humanity (but particularly the poor) vulnerable to climate change, decarbonizing the global energy system while closing the energy access gap demands global focus and effort. Motivated by addressing the needs of the underserved, we present an analytical framework informed by historical trends and contemporary technological, social, and institutional conditions that clarifies the heterogeneous continuum of centralized on-grid electricity, autonomous mini- or community grids, and distributed, individual energy services. We find the current day is a unique moment for decentralized energy networks based on super-efficient end-use technology and low-cost photovoltaics, supported by rapidly spreading information technology, particularly mobile phones. Collectively these disruptive technology systems could rapidly increase energy access, contributing to meeting the Millennium Development Goals for quality of life, while simultaneously driving action towards low-carbon, Earth-sustaining, energy systems.

SWITCH (Solar and wind ener­gy inte­grat­ed with trans­mis­sion and con­ven­tion­al sources) is a lin­ear pro­gram­ming mod­el­ing plat­form used to exam­ine least cost ener­gy sys­tems designed to meet spe­cif­ic reli­a­bil­i­ty, per­for­mance […]

The US green jobs project mod­els the job cre­ation capac­i­ty of the ener­gy indus­try across the Unit­ed States in the next decades. This mod­el is based on an empir­i­cal approach, bas­ing esti­mates […]

From our most recent report on energy options for Kosovo (Kittner, et. al., 2015): We have developed an analytic platform to analyze the energy options, costs, and impacts for Kosovo, a nation at the forefront of the global debates over energy access and the role of fossil fuels versus cleaner energy options to meet growing demands for power. We find that a range of alternatives exists to meet present supply constraints all at a lower cost than constructing a proposed 600 MW coal plant. The options include energy efficiency measures, combinations of solar PV, wind, hydropower, and biomass, and the introduction of natural gas. A $30/ton carbon price increases costs of coal generation by at least $330 million USD. The results indicate that financing a 600 MW coal plant is the most expensive pathway to meet future electricity demand.