Pennsylvania

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 has begun mass-manufacturing these windows at its Colorado factory, and has plans to open another production facility in Pennsylvania.

Critical minerals like neodymium are essential for energy technologies, but are often locked within industrial waste sites such as coal ash. Using drone-based geophysical sensing and AI, teams at Berkeley Lab are pinpointing hotspots of rare earth elements at fly ash sites in Pennsylvania. The method reduces the time and cost of exploration, and paves the way for a more secure domestic supply chain. Ultimately, this technology could accelerate the recovery of neodymium, which is utilized in specialized magnets for energy and medical applications.