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The Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division (ESDR) works on developing advanced batteries and fuel cells for transportation and stationary energy storage, grid-connected technologies for a cleaner, more reliable, resilient, and cost-effective future, and demand responsive and distributed energy technologies for a dynamic electric grid.
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We work closely with academic, government and industry partners to conduct foundational and applied research that provides the groundwork for the development of transformative new energy technologies in the areas of energy storage and conversion, electrical grid, advanced materials for the energy infrastructure, science of manufacturing and water-energy nexus.

Visit our focus areas and research groups at the right to find out more.
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Supercomputers Accelerate Development of Advanced Materials

November 7, 2011

New materials are crucial to building a clean energy economy—for everything from batteries to photovoltaics to lighter weight vehicles—but today the development cycle is too slow: around 18 years from conception to commercialization. To speed up this process, a team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) teamed up to develop a new tool, called the Materials Project, which launches this month.

"Our vision is for this tool to become a dynamic 'Google' of material properties, which continually grows and changes as more users come on board to analyze the results, verify against experiments and increase their knowledge," says Kristin Persson, a Berkeley Lab chemist and one of the founding scientists behind the Materials Project. "So many scientists can benefit from this type of screening. Considering the demand for innovative clean energy technology we needed most of these materials yesterday."