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Energy Efficiency

Generating new findings for a brighter future. We’re exploring how to improve energy production, storage, distribution and consumption that leads to efficient and effective energy use. 

A youthful man with short hair, mustache and beard wears a blue shirt and smiles, with a pale stone wall behind him
Photo Credit
Lilli Walker
J. Tyler Mefford

UCSB chemical engineer to develop low-cost technologies for renewable energy storage

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A modern building lit up at night
Photo Credit
Bruce Damonte
Henley Hall, home to UCSB's Institute for Energy Efficiency, is LEED Platinum certified, underscoring the institute’s focus on reducing the energy demands of advanced technologies

Institute for Energy Efficiency invests in energy-efficient AI, data centers and quantum technologies
A man lit by red light looking down toward a small device in his hand
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Doctoral researcher Roark Chao in UCSB's Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center laboratory

Red microLEDs developed at UCSB achieve record efficiency of 20.8%, operate at up to 200°C
Three pumpjacks silhouetted by the setting sun.
Photo Credit
TebNad via iStock
The conflict with Iran provides the perfect circumstance to usher out the era of oil and gasoline now that renewable energy is cheap and ubiquitous.

Are we missing the perfect opportunity to kick fossil fuels?
Concrete pours onto the ground on a construction site.
Photo Credit
Chaiyaporn1144 vis iStock
Cement production is an overlooked source of carbon emissions in public discourse.

Basalt could be the key to greener and cheaper cement
Roark Chao in lab
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Doctoral student Roark Chao researches microLEDs at UC Santa Barbara

Hair-width LEDs could replace lasers — and a UCSB doctoral student is helping make it happen
A coronal mass ejection shoots off from the sun.
Photo Credit
NASA

UCSB scientists bottle the sun with liquid battery
molecules in blue
Photo Credit
Anusorn Nakdee/iStock

Designing better catalysts for cleaner, more efficient chemistry
woman in suit
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
UCSB's Grace Han’s research centers on solar fuels that capture sunlight and convert it into usable heat.

Chemist Grace Han named Moore Inventor Fellow
Rare earth element names with suffix “ium.”
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

A simple filter for rare earth elements will ensure a clean domestic supply of these crucial metals
cargo ships queueing at Los Angeles and Long Beach port during COVID pandemic
Cargo vessel congestion at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex during the COVID pandemic

A cheap and easy potential solution for lowering carbon emissions in maritime shipping
The open back of a smartphone shows lithium-ion batteries inside
Photo Credit
Tyler Lastovich / Unsplash
Lithium-ion batteries power everything from cell phones to laptops

Lithium shows its metal, paving the way for better batteries
artist rendering of #D semiconductor architectures using 2D materials
Photo Credit
Brian Long/UCSB

Next-gen 3D transistors transform energy-efficient electronics
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