Lighting

Researchers from the Indian government on private sector are to collaborate with the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) on energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

As well as developing new technologies, the Berkeley-India Joint Leadership on Energy and the Environment (BIJLEE) will work on policies to help translate these innovations into the marketplace.

“The goal of BIJLEE is both timely and visionary: to accommodate rising demands for energy with a richer mix of sustainable alternatives,” says S. Shankar Sastry, dean of UCB’s College of Engineering.

BIJLEE will focus research efforts on energy-efficient buildings, electricity systems, energy conversion and storage devices including photovoltaics and waste heat recovery, renewable energy and energy analysis. Building-related R&D will exploit LBNL’s expertise in lighting, windows, cool roofs, HVAC systems and design software.

As part of the collaboration, Purnendu Chatterjee, chairman of investment company The Chatterjee Group, is donating $2 million to establish two chairs at UCB – one of which will focus on energy technologies, particularly energy efficiency, renewables and carbon sequestration.

India is currently the sixth largest emitter of greenhouse gases and has a rapidly growing economy.

“For the foreseeable future, it will have one of the fastest rising rates of greenhouse gas emissions, along with China,” says Arun Majumdar, director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at LBNL, who will be participating in the programme.

“There is considerable interest in India now in developing the technological capacity and institutional expertise to reduce their GHG emissions while maintaining economic growth.”

For further information:
india.lbl.gov/
www.lbl.gov/
berkeley.edu/