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Biofuels

Solar fuels

Photovoltaics

Clean hydrogen

Geothermal energy

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Patrick Dobson is the Geothermal Systems program lead and staff scientist in the Earth & Environmental Sciences Area. He has studied geothermal systems around the world, working on a wide range of research topics that include supercritical systems, play fairway analysis, mineral recovery, district heating, and subsurface thermal energy storage.

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Corinne Scown is a staff scientist in the Energy Technologies Area and she leads the Life-cycle, Economics, and Agronomy Division in the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Her research is focused on modeling the economic and environmental impacts of advanced pathways to bio-based fuels and products.

 Peng Peng, a person with short dark hair, wearing glasses and a dark gray jacket over a black top, photographed outdoors with trees in the background.

Peng Peng is a research scientist in the Sustainable Energy Systems Group in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division. His research includes developing process models to analyze the economic and environmental impacts for early-stage sustainable energy storage and critical resource circularity technologies.

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Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Now researchers have succeeded in cracking a key secret of photosystem II.

Berkeley Lab Research Scientist Sean Lubner is studying materials that can help better store renewable energy to power large-scale systems.

What is photosynthesis? Oh, no big deal, just the key to life on Earth as we know it! Join me as I take a deep dive into this amazingly sophisticated chemical process. Hear fascinating details they didn’t teach you in school and get a crash course on how natural photosynthesis inspires the development of renewable energy technologies that could someday replace all petroleum products.

 Research scientist Reed Teyber works on a device he developed for measuring high-temperature superconducting magnets. Illustration depicting a city connected to a geothermal aquifer system. Light microscopy image of nanowires. Closeup shot of sorghum with a bee nearby. Solar panels and wind turbines in front of a cityscape. Scientist in a blue lab coat conducting experiments in a large open machine.