Petroleum provides about 35% of total primary energy supply and meets about 95% of our transportation energy needs. Some argue that this dominance is short lived due to rapid expansion of electric vehicles, while others argue for a continued role for petroleum well into this century. While visions for the future use of oil vary widely, most model projections suggest that humanity will consume more than 1 trillion barrels of oil between now and the end of the century.  Where will this oil come from? What are the impacts of producing, refining, and consuming this oil?

Understanding, and then replicating, the computing paradigm(s) used in the brain’s neocortex is a computer architecture research problem that is of unquestionable practical and scientific importance, but one that will require an unconventional approach. Unconventional because it begins with the end product  ̶a biological computing engine possessing amazing capabilities and operating efficiencies  ̶and then tries to reconstruct, or reverse-architect, the underlying computational paradigm(s). When considered as a whole, the task is daunting.

The Institute for Energy Efficiency (IEE) at the University of  California, Santa Barbara would like to invite you to attend an Emerging Technologies Review,  Friday May 27th.  This review will cover new developments in areas of energy and energy efficiency. Recent progress of IEE industrial partners and other local companies  will be highlighted. Advances in energy generation and grid storage will be discussed, along with energy efficiency improvements in areas such as irrigation,  motors, power electronics, and photonics.

Please join us for a unique panel on the Future of Water in California bringing together leading farmers, government agencies, technology innovators, and sustainability experts. The panel will be in 1414 Bren Hall on April 12, 2019 from 3:30–5:00pm. California will experience a once-in-a-generation change with the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2020. Come and see how it will affect the food, energy, and water sectors.

With abundant resources and declining costs, both wind and solar technologies have the potential to significantly decarbonize our energy systems. Together with rapidly evolving battery storage and super-efficient end-use technologies, wind and solar now present an opportunity for both developed and developing economies to transition to a sustainable and low carbon future. However, their large-scale deployment introduces challenges in planning and operating future electricity systems and will require balancing trade-offs with social and environmental objectives.

Storage particles in lithium-ion batteries swell upon insertion of lithium, generating elastic stresses sufficient to crack them. This phenomenon is studied using a phase field method for fracture encompassing elasticity, lithium insertion and extraction and lithium diffusion within the particle. It is shown that high C-rates, large particles and large swelling strains motivate particle fracture and comminution.

The Institute for Energy Efficiency at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites you to attend the annual 2018 Emerging Technologies Review on Thursday, May 10th. This all-day review will feature seventeen speakers, covering new developments in areas of energy and energy efficiency.

Integrated electronic-photonic co-design can profoundly impact both fields resulting in advances in several areas such as energy efficient communication, signal processing, imaging, and sensing.

The climate science, technology, and policy landscape we face today are hugely out of alignment.  While the climate science community has highlighted the critical need for immediate action towards a 1.5 degree C (or lower) global climate warming target, and while energy and transportation technologies are moving rapidly to enable that tremendously challenging goal, the US nationally stands as the sole denier of a path that is both needed and potentially, although with delay increasingly unlikely.

To stave off the worst impacts of climate change, the world must limit warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures and this will require the US to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by at least 80 percent by 2050, relative to 1990 emissions levels.  The Natural Resources Defense Council and its consultant completed a detailed analysis that showed that the US can indeed meet these targets through a combination of bold actions tied to energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification of vehicles and buildings with clean power, and electric grid