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Greetings! 

The start of the new academic year is just around the corner and we are excited to deliver another year of focused research, education and outreach activities centered on new technologies for energy efficiency.  The Institute continues to grow rapidly with the launch of a new $20M research center, the Center on Materials for Energy Efficiency Applications (CMEEA), funded by the Department of Energy.   

I am especially excited to announce the opening of a new resource on our website - what we have affectionately dubbed the White Room (white being the color of energy efficiency) - a one-stop shop of information and global news on energy efficiency, updated daily.  Please visit the White Room and let us know what you think.   Additionally, you are encouraged to help make this the leading resource for energy efficiency-related information by suggesting items to post. 

We are looking forward to interacting with each of you in the coming year. We are bringing an exciting array of speakers to Santa Barbara in our lecture and seminar series (look at our upcoming events page), working with an ever-broadening group of Industry Partners, hosting the second annual Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency (May 12-13, 2010), and more!

Kind regards,
Dan Colbert
 

Institute News

Energy Frontier Research Center Launched
UC Santa Barbara's Energy Frontier Research Center, the Center on Materials for Energy Efficiency Applications (CMEEA), has been officially launched. The Center will receive $19 million over five years to support research on materials that control the interactions between light, electricity, and heat at the nanoscale. Center director John Bowers characterized the center's goal as "to develop novel materials that will improve the efficiency of generating electricity, storing electricity, and generating light from electricity."
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Institute launches information portal dedicated to technologydevelopment for energy efficiency
The Institute for Energy Efficiency today launched The White Room.  This online space is a one-stop shop for news, blog postings, events and videos about technologies for energy efficiency and the policy and economic issues relating to them.  Users can refine search results by technology area of interest and desired content type, making it easier to find a video lecture on the efficient data centers or all blog postings relating to solid state lighting. 
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Announcing 2009-2010 Graduate Student Fellowships 
The Institute for Energy Efficiency announced today its first cohort of graduate student fellows, comprised of seven graduate students recruited from around the world to UC Santa Barbara.
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Research Insights
How much and how soon can available energy efficiency technologies produce energy savings?
by Economics & Policy . Group Head Charles Kolstad

The Obama and Swartzenegger administrations are pinning a great deal of hope on energy efficiency opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut imports of foreign oil.   A new report by the consulting group McKinsey & Co. asks the fundamental question:  How much energy/greenhouse gas savings can be achieved, and by when, using available energy efficiency technologies?  In a previous report, McKinsey was very bullish on energy efficiency technologies, suggesting that there were a number of opportunities to actually save money while significantly reducing energy consumption.  In a new report, released in July, the company is a little less sanguine on these prospects. Although they provide a detailed analysis of the cost advantages of a number of new technologies, they also point out that there are obstacles, both behavioral and structural, to achieving these gains.  They propose a five-step strategy to try to achieve some of the gains that seem on the surface to be technologically feasible.  This report is recommended reading for gaining a broad view of the economic issues relating to implementing energy efficiency technologies.
 

Faculty News

Coldren recognized by IEEE Photonics Society
Larry Coldren, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara and Institute faculty member, has been selected to receive the IEEE Photonics Society's Aron Kressel Award. The award is "given to recognize those individuals who have made important contributions to opto-electronic device technology." Coldren and fellow photonics pioneer Dr. Jack Jewell are being honored with the award "for original contributions enabling low threshold, manufacturable VCSELs (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers)." The honorees will receive the award and accompanying stipend on October 5 at the society's annual meeting in Belek-Antalya, Turkey. 
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