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Energy/Environment/Clean Technology
Equally important have been the cost impacts of lost and wasted energy on government revenue.
“We looked at the effects on tax revenue, in particular the loss of sales tax,” Sathaye recalls. “We
found that the state government was losing enough money to cover 15-30% of its fiscal deficit at
the time.” MERC has since raised electricity rates by 0.5%, producing an additional $22 million
annually that is set aside specifically to increase energy efficiency. One recent policy outgrowth:
Mumbai has converted all of its traffic lights to LED.
With funding support from the U.S. State Department’s Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean
Development and Climate, LBNL is also working with MERC to explore: monitoring and pricing
alternatives to better align power generation patterns with demand; energy-saving technologies
such as solar water heaters, drip irrigation, efficient refrigeration and compact fluorescent
lamps; and building standards and reduced energy consumption in public buildings. Under this
program, Bay Area utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company is advising the Bureau of Energy
Efficiency (BEE) on implementation of building standards and conservation programs.
Chief Maharashta energy regulator Pramod Deo, who had responsibility for implementing the
MoU on the Indian side, has since been appointed to head the Forum of Indian Regulators. A
second CEC MoU was signed with the Forum in March 2009, with seven states signed up to
launch efficiency programs.
CEC Commissioner Art Rosenfeld is helping two LNBL scientists, Hashem Akbari and Surabi
Menon, promote their research on cool roof technology in India. In a 2008 paper, Akbari and
Menon argue that the simple step of painting rooftops white reflects rather than traps heat and
can cut energy use for cooling by 20%. California has mandated white flat roofs on commercial
buildings since 2005.
LBNL is partnering with USAID on cool roof technology demonstration projects in some 30
Indian cities, replicating successes in Brazil in Mexico, to reduce air conditioning energy use in
hot weather. The laboratory participates in the third phase of the Energy Conservation and
Commercialization Program (ECO-III), a joint effort of USAID and International Resources
Group to further commercialization of energy efficiency technologies.
Finally, LBNL’s building technologies department, with support from companies such as
Hewlett-Packard and Network Appliance, is helping India’s IT and medical sectors cope with
rising energy demand from data centers and clean rooms that use large amounts of energy to
power operations and cooling. Server farms have become a particular concern, given the rapid
growth and global reach of the IT industry.
“Indian tech parks are basically gated communities,” says applications team leader Dale Sartor.
“You go through the gate and all of a sudden you’re transported from the India scene outside
into Silicon Valley. Reliability is critical; you have redundancy built into everything, with two sets
of diesel generators backing everything up.” Cooling is also important, as servers run longer and
hotter. Most Indian data centers continue to use cooling tower technology that continuously
chills and circulates water through the facility via conventional refrigeration and pumps, as
opposed to less energy-intensive air chilling or use of continuous monitoring with temperature
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