Energy Production
Since the advent of genetic engineering and the recent emergence of synthetic biology, UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab have lead the way in applying biotechnology to the development of new drugs and the engineering of plants. Now these scientists are eager to use these biotech tools to develop clean-burning alternatives to oil and gas such as biofuels — chemicals such as ethanol fermented from corn that can be blended with petroleum-based fuels or burned alone to power engines. The centers and programs highlighted here are exploring a wide range of research related to energy production.
- Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC)
A student run organization that was established in 2005 at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business to harness the strengths of the university’s students, faculty and research programs across the energy and natural resources sectors. - Berkeley Institute of the Environment
BIE brings together diverse UC Berkeley programs focused on solving complex environmental problems in new and innovative ways.- Urban Sustainability Initiative
- Roundtables and Working Groups on transportation and climate change
- CoolClimate Calculator
- California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3)
QB3 is a public-private partnership between the UC campuses at Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz, the state of California, and industry and venture capital. At Berkeley, QB3's more than 70 faculty affiliates explore research at the interface of the physical and biological sciences, with applications in health, energy, and the environment. - Energy and Resources Group (ERG)
An interdisciplinary academic unit at UC Berkeley, conducting programs of graduate teaching and research that treat issues of energy, resources, development, human and biological diversity, environmental justice, governance, global climate change and new approaches to thinking about economics and consumption. - Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI)
A partnership between UC Berkeley, LBNL, University of Illinois, and BP to apply advanced knowledge in biology, physical sciences, engineering, and environmental and social sciences to global energy problems. BP is funding the institute with $500 million over ten years. - Energy Resources Department at LBNL
Pursues focused and applied fundamental research to develop earth technologies for production of energy in an environmentally responsible manner and to deploy these technologies through partnership of industry, government and academia. - Helios
A broad LBNL initiative in close partnership with UC Berkeley to develop a new kind of research facility that targets the development of efficient processes to produce transportation fuels from biomass and solar-driven electrochemistry. - Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI)
A new bioenergy research center, with UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as two of its six collaborating institutions, has been created to advance research on biofuels. Headquartered in the East Bay and led by Berkeley professor Jay Keasling, the center will receive approximately $125 million in federal funding over five years. - Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL)
A unique new research, development, project implementation, and community outreach facility based at UC Berkeley in the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. RAEL focuses on designing, testing, and disseminating renewable and appropriate energy systems. - Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC)
SynBERC is a multi-institution research effort to lay the foundation for synthetic biology, in which researchers engineer biological systems to solve a wide range of problems in human health, industrial processes, and renewable energy and the environment. Based at Berkeley and funded by NSF, partners include UC San Francisco, MIT, Harvard, and Prairie View A&M University. - UC Berkeley/LBNL Environmental Combustion Group
Performs research on combustion and air emissions, diagnostic methods for the measurement of air pollutants and small particles, industrial ecology, and the effects of regulations and policies regarding combustion emissions.
Other related programs: