Featured events- 03/10/2012 - Ton Koopman & The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
- 02/27/2012 - Classical at the Freight: Rossini Birthday Celebration
- 02/23/2012 - Michio Kaku: Physics of the Future, How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
- 02/23/2012 - 2012: a Turning Point? And If So, Which Way?: A Talk by Robert Reich
- 02/19/2012 - Takacs Quartet
Tag Archives: Steve Chu
Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source gets a “cool” roof
While much of the coverage of energy issues faces on big geopolitical or technological challenges (Reduce dependency on foreign oil! Make solar as cheap as coal!), some of the biggest gains in energy efficiency can come from seemingly innocent actions.
Three years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama inspired ridicule from some quarters by suggesting that checking for proper tire pressure would save as much oil as new offshore drilling could produce (turns out Obama was wrong: properly inflated tires probably save three times as much oil as new offshore drilling could produce).
Another strikingly simple approach is to encourage so-called “cool roofs”. White or reflecting roofs replacing dark roofs, can offset large amounts of carbon dioxide (a recent LBL study suggested that two years of global carbon emissions could be mitigated). The idea was pioneered by LBL’s Art Rosenfeld and Hashem Akbari, and last year Energy Secretary Steven Chu (a former director of LBL) announced new policies to implement cool roof technologies on Department of Energy facilities. … Continue reading »
Tagged Art Rosenfeld, Hashem Akbari, Steve Chu
Helios West to go before UC Regents next week
New plans for the Helios Energy Research Facility will be presented to the UC Board of Regents next week. The project calls for a new five-story, 112,800 sq ft building across the street from the UC Berkeley campus, on the site bounded by Oxford, Berkeley Way, Shattuck and Hearst.
The Helios project was originally conceived by Steve Chu, then director of Lawrence Berkeley Lab, now US Secretary of Energy. It is designed to bring together LBL and UC … Continue reading »
Chu returns to Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Steve Chu, energy secretary in the Obama administration, returned to Berkeley today to speak to his former colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL). If you’re reading Berkeleyside before the 10:30 finish to Chu’s presentation, you can watch a live webcast.
Chu won the Nobel prize for physics in 1997 for his work on trapping atoms with laser light. When he became director of LBL, he turned much of his attention to energy and climate issues, … Continue reading »
by Email