Colorado

Technology developed by Berkeley Lab has paved the way for the scale up of new, highly insulating triple-pane windows that could save U.S. businesses and homeowners billions of dollars annually in energy costs, as well as bolster domestic manufacturing jobs and enable shorter wait times for builders. Alpen High Performance Products mass-manufactures these windows at its Colorado factory, and has plans to open another production facility in Pennsylvania.

TOUGH (Transport Of Unsaturated Groundwater and Heat) software developed at Berkeley Lab is used by industry, government agencies, and academic institutions to tackle a range of challenges, including storing nuclear waste, cleaning up environmental pollution, and harnessing energy from underground resources. Colorado State University, University of Colorado, and Colorado School of Mines are some of the institutions throughout the state licensing TOUGH.

Rivers like the Colorado River deliver much of the state’s usable water. However, river hydrology – the distribution and movement of water, along with its physical and chemical properties – can be hard to predict because environmental conditions are ever-changing and rivers can run through hard-to-reach, remote locations. Berkeley Lab scientists are using machine learning to learn from past observations and make predictions about hydrology at new locations with fewer observations. With more accurate predictions, jurisdictions can better manage dwindling freshwater resources as demand continues to rise.