Resilient Energy, Water and Infrastructure

Water-Energy

The hydrologic cycle (California Department of Water Resources).

Develop approaches for sustainable groundwater management and identification of new water resources including groundwater storage opportunities while reducing associated cost and energy demands and insuring water quality. Anticipate, assess, manage, and mitigate potential impacts of emerging energy technologies on water systems and quality.

Highlights

Project

Integrated Risk Management and Decision Support System (IRMDSS)

Underground natural gas storage (UGS) in California serves winter heating and summer cooling demands, and there is no immediate alternative to meeting California’s demand for natural gas during peak periods in winter (e.g. CCST report, 2018). Therefore it is critically important to ensure the safety and integrity of UGS infrastructure, especially considering that many of…

Overview

Water-Energy is an Energy Geosciences Division initiative within the Resilient Energy, Water and Infrastructure Program Domain.

Featured Projects

Project

Integrated Risk Management and Decision Support System (IRMDSS)

News & Events

Geothermal Brines Could Propel California’s Green Economy

August 5, 2020

Thermal mud pots at Controlled Thermal Resources’ project site at the Salton Sea. (Courtesy CTR) Deep beneath the surface of the Salton Sea, a shallow lake in California’s Imperial County, sits an immense reserve of critical metals that, if unlocked, could power the state’s green economy for years to come. These naturally occurring metals are dissolved…

Berkeley Lab To Partner with International Collaborators in Geothermal Energy Research

July 30, 2020

Scientists from the Energy Geosciences Division will collaborate with European partners on three new geothermal research projects through the Department of Energy’s membership in GEOTHERMICA, a transnational consortium that combines the in-country financial resources and research expertise of 15 participating countries to demonstrate and validate novel concepts in geothermal energy use. This marks the first…

EESA Participates In A Discussion of “Equity Reset”

June 25, 2020

On Wednesday, June 24, more than 40 members of EESA attended a special brownbag presentation on racial equity by Aditi Chakravarty of Berkeley Lab’s Learning and Organizational Development group. The event presented an opportunity to move forward with discussions begun at the June 15 EESA Town Hall, during which EESA Associate Laboratory Director Susan Hubbard…

EESA Researchers Receive DOE Early Career Awards

Three scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science to receive significant funding for research through its Early Career Research Program (ECRP). In addition, three faculty scientists with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley will receive ECRP funding through their UC…

Smart Farms of the Future: Making Bioenergy Crops More Environmentally Friendly

June 19, 2020

In a project led by Arva Intelligence, Berkeley Lab scientists will monitor carbon emissions and other indicators at five commercial farms in California and Arkansas. Here Berkeley Lab scientist Craig Ulrich collects geophysical measurements. (Credit: Jay McEntire/Arva Intelligence) Farmers have enough worries – between bad weather, rising costs, and shifting market demands – without having to…

Could the Answer to Groundwater Resources Come From High in the Sky?

Groundwater makes up 30 to 50 percent of California’s water supply, but until recently there were few restrictions placed on its retrieval. Then in 2014 California became the last Western state to require regulation of its groundwater. With deadlines starting this year, for the first time water managers in the nation’s premier agricultural region – the…