Net Zero World

Mission

As part of the vision of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Net Zero World Initiative, the Net Zero World (NZW) Action Center merges the expertise of 10 DOE laboratories, 9 U.S. government agencies, and a number of philanthropic organizations to promote inclusive, equitable, and resilient net-zero emission energy systems around the world.

Overview

The NZW Initiative is the DOE's signature program designed to work with countries to help them meet their climate ambitions and accelerate global transitions to a net zero, resilient, and inclusive energy system.

Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technology Area (ETA) scientists play a key role in the NZW Action Center, a multidisciplinary, cross-laboratory effort to accelerate global decarbonization and clean energy investment on behalf of the U.S.

ETA leaders in particular contribute their world-class expertise on energy system-wide modeling, industrial energy efficiency, market transformation initiatives, climate finance, and building technologies.

LBNL personnel hold various management roles including:

Technical Program Manager (Nan Zhou),
Investment Program Co-Manager (Carolyn Szum),
Country Program Co-Manager (Naïm R. Darghouth),
Industrial Sector Coordinator (Vestal Tutterow),
Building Sector Coordinator (Ronnen Levinson),
Power & Storage Sector Co-Lead (Juan Pablo Carvallo),
Climate-Smart Women’s Leadership Program Lead (Reshma Singh)
South Africa Country Coordinator (Stephane de la Rue du Can).

They have been actively engaged in the program development and planning phases of NZW country specific and cross-country activities. These include assessing and identifying rigorous country-driven net zero pathways to serve as a guide for developing and implementing technical and investment plans.

By pooling resources and knowledge across federal labs, agencies, and partners, the NZW provides collaborator nations with technical strategies, best practices, operational resources, and tools for everything from creating investment plans to making infrastructure decisions.

Berkeley Lab-developed tools that will be put into use by participant countries include:

Mapping tools that can assist with energy justice and decarbonization.
Climate vulnerability metrics such as a heat vulnerability index that identifies populations susceptible to extreme heat.
Economic tools like a method for assessing how solar energy could reduce energy burden on low-income households.

Accomplishments

Berkeley Lab team efforts have resulted in a joint NZW Energy Decarbonization Pathways Report for five countries, released at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) by United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm (watch video).

Some of the team’s accomplishments are listed below:

Argentina

Berkeley Lab researchers collaborated with other U.S. national labs to provide technical assistance to the Government of Argentina for its first Energy Transition Plan and Energy Efficiency Bill to meet commitments for a US$350 million Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan to boost sustainable growth in Argentina.
The Energy Efficiency Bill incorporates Berkeley Lab suggestions, emphasizing the importance of establishing energy efficiency standards, labeling, and procurement programs, along with mechanisms to mobilize public and private investment for energy efficiency.

Chile

Collaboration with Chile's Ministry of Energy on energy system-wide modeling and pathways to inform their policies and investments, using the Berkeley Lab DREAM model.
Workshops and capacity-building sessions to support long-term energy policy planning and development
High-fidelity modeling, optimization, and analysis to inform district energy pilot project design, and national district energy roadmap and regulations

Indonesia

Successful implementation of the first U.S.-Indonesia Joint Workshop on Decarbonizing the Building Sector in Indonesia
Establishment of the Indonesia Building Decarbonization Working Group
Energy system-wide modeling, using the Berkeley Lab DREAM model, to inform net-zero demand side pathways at the national and sub-national levels.
Power sector modeling to inform joint targets for restricting the development of captive coal power plants to inform the Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) International Partners Group (IPG) and Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) Joint Announcement, mobilizing US$20 billion for a just energy transition in Indonesia

Upcoming initiatives include the development of net-zero pilot projects, a National Center for Net Zero Buildings, the assessment of building energy efficiency investment strategies to inform JETP, and securing grants to conduct feasibility studies and engineering designs that will help to mobilize up to US$2 billion in investment in Indonesia to convert 500 megawatts of small island diesel capacity power plants to renewable energy hybrid plants, with magnified impact for remote and marginalized communities

Nigeria

Support modeling, capacity-building and refinement of the LEAP model used to support Nigeria’s Long-term Low Emissions Development Strategy
Analysis of possible climate actions and revenue recycling options from Nigeria's fossil fuel subsidy removal

Thailand

Development of industry decarbonization roadmaps for key industry sectors in close collaboration with the Energy Policy and Planning Office of the Ministry of Energy

Climate Smart Women Energy Leaders (CS-WEL) Program

Climate Smart Women Energy Leaders Program

Designed, developed and hosted launch of the first Climate Smart Women Energy Leaders, empowering women leaders in the energy sector from partner countries
The program featured seminars, test bed visits, and panel discussions on clean energy transitions and leadership mentoring for women energy leaders

Technical Program Areas of Expertise

Buildings

Buildings account for 30% of global energy demand. With the support of its Building Sector Technical Coordinator, LBNL is leading NZW teams working to identify cost-effective building technologies, create building codes, and launch pilot projects that use high-performance envelopes, efficient equipment, and other strategies to help decarbonize space cooling in Indonesia and Thailand and space heating in Ukraine, Chile, and Argentina.

Experts from Berkeley Lab have teamed with Indonesian building professionals, academics, and government officials to apply inclusive and sustainable architectural design, low carbon building materials, and innovative energy-efficient construction to benefit low-to-moderate income (LMI) Indonesian communities.

Berkeley Lab building scientists and their Chilean partners are applying powerful decision-support tools developed at Berkeley Lab, such as DER-CAM (Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model), to design pilot projects that will use district energy and other strategies to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions from residential heating in Chile.

Upcoming NZW activities planned for Argentina, Ukraine, and Thailand will create high-performance building energy codes and pilot projects that help decarbonize space cooling and heating.

Power & Storage

NZW is helping government and utility planners as well as system operators adopt, calibrate, and run state-of-the-art models to explore infrastructure requirements for decarbonized power systems. This effort includes scenario design, technology and innovation, and modeling tools.

LBNL’s Power Sector Technical Coordinator is supporting NZW activities related to storage, renewable integration, modeling, and resource planning. The Coordinator’s geographic foci are Argentina, Chile, and Thailand. LBNL is also using its DER-CAM modeling tool to conduct techno-economic analysis for the three proposed pilot projects, perform regional analysis to inform national policy and technology development, and review the regulatory framework for district energy.

Industry

NZW is collaborating with governments and stakeholders to pave the way for decarbonizing the industrial sector. LBNL researchers use meticulous modeling and analysis to identify cost-effective opportunities for decarbonization. In particular, the team focuses on addressing the challenges posed by high-temperature thermal processes that require alternative fuels and emerging clean technologies. NZW's national laboratory expertise helps governments and industries find sustainable solutions to replace fossil fuels in such processes. NZW is also committed to promoting clean energy entrepreneurship and energy justice by designing and implementing specialized programs tailored to industrial organizations. Drawing on their expertise, they develop policies and standards that foster energy and material efficiency, while effectively managing energy resources.

LBNL’s Industry Sector Technical Coordinator works with other national lab personnel to conceptualize programs targeting heavy industries, such as steel and cement. Activities inIndonesia include analyzing industrial sites to identify opportunities to decarbonize high-temperature thermal processes. This work within NZW supports objectives of the Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership.

Energy Modeling Pathways

Under NZW, the LBNL team is working with governments in Chile, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Thailand to establish integrated energy system modeling using the Berkeley Lab DREAM model to:

Enable local modelers, country energy system experts, and other stakeholders to collaborate on country-driven analyses
Update and run state-of-the-art bottom-up models, including cost-benefit and local pollutants analyses, power sector optimization at the national and sub-national level
Develop more robust in-country transition planning and roadmaps and identify priority sectors, technologies, and policies for decarbonization actions
Evaluate the energy, greenhouse gas emission, and local pollutant impacts, costs and scale-up potential of decarbonization actions
Mobilize clean energy investments

The preliminary analysis for five NZW countries was released at COP 27. In this report, Berkeley Lab’s modeling and analysis highlight the essential role of energy efficiency and fuel switching to electricity and hydrogen in order to meet Indonesia and Chile's decarbonization goals. Chile's government commended the work of our researchers and plans to integrate the new insights in their future modeling and policy planning.

Women's Leadership

Berkeley Lab proudly hosted the launch of the Climate Smart Women Energy Leaders program (CS-WEL) at the COP 27 meeting in 2022. CS-WEL emerged as part of NZW and aims to empower women in partner countries by expanding their skills and resources to tackle climate change. These women leaders receive intensive training, mentoring, and peer learning in clean energy transitions.

For the first phase of the initiative, CS-WEL brought together eight women energy leaders from Argentina, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Thailand, and Ukraine. The intensive training took place over two weeks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and included topics such as clean energy analysis tools and data, advanced technology performance testing and validation, innovation and entrepreneurship, policy and deployment best practices, and finance mobilization. The participants also had opportunities to network, visit scientific research facilities, and engage in leadership training.

Check out the tweet from U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm about the program.

International Coordination

The NZW Country Program is the interface with partner countries; it operationalizes the programmatic objectives and implements the work plans, using Lab expertise from the technical and investment teams. LBNL team serves crucial management roles, provide strategic leadership and guidance across NZW country work programs and overseeing, and guide three of the seven country coordinators (for Chile, Indonesia, and Nigeria).

Financial Investment

The NZW Investment Program works in partnership with eight U.S. government agencies, four multilateral development banks, and private investors to mobilize US$10 billion to accelerate net zero energy transitions in partner countries by 2024. Researchers at Berkeley Lab support the NZW Investment Program through:

Investment Plans: Modeling and analysis to estimate costs, benefits, risks, and variabilities for energy system decarbonization projects for national and subnational investment plans
Financial Policies and Instruments: Development or enhancement of financial instruments (e.g., revolving loan funds) or fiscal regulatory policy (e.g., tax rebates) to mobilize investment and finance for clean energy
Project De-Risking: Technical assistance for pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies, and engineering designs to de-risk priority clean energy projects and align them with potential investment and financing partners

Transportation

The Net Zero World Initiative brings capabilities to help Indonesia's national and city governments accelerate the transition to low-carbon, sustainable mobility.

Our goals are to:

Build government capacity and enable policy reform
Mobilize transport decarbonization finance
Identify priority infrastructure investments
Electrify public transportation systems

We provide multidimensional support - from analysis to implementation:

Understand unique mobility needs and challenges
Deliver tailored technical expertise
Facilitate collaborations across stakeholders

Key areas of support: Roadmapping and policy reform, Public fleet electrification, Grid impact and integration analysis for EVs, Techno-feasibility studies, environmental impact assessment, charging infrastructure demand and supply modeling, and Global best practice sharing

By combining localized engagement with technical depth across these areas, we equip partners to reimagine and activate sustainable transportation solutions aligned with accessibility, equity, and climate imperatives.

Core Team Members