Research Expertise and Interest

public policy, nuclear engineering, energy, resources, risk analysis as applied to global warming, methodological studies of forecasting, hazard assessment, renewable energy technologies, environmental resource management

Research Description

Daniel Kammen is the James and Katherine Lau Distinguished Chair in Sustainability and a Professor of Energy with appointments in the Energy and Resources Group (where he is the Chair), the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL). Kammen’s research is focused on energy systems science in the context of decarbonizing the energy systems in the United States/North America, and in a range of field-based programs in Africa, Latin America, southeast Asia, and Europe.  He is the author of over 400 publications, over 50 technical reports and over 40 Federal and State testimonies.  These are all online at his laboratory website:  http://rael.berkeley.edu

Kammen was trained in physics and develops analytic and computational methods derived from a physical science/engineering perspective to inform and engage in analysis of energy futures.

During 2010 – 2011 Kammen served as the first Chief Technical Specialist / Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. He now serves as a World Bank Fellow in Energy. In April 2010 Secretary of State Hilary Clinton introduced Kammen as the Energy Fellow / Envoy of the U. S. State Department’s Energy and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA).  He resigned his position as Science Envoy in August, 2017 in protest over administration policies on climate and justice.

Kammen’s research and the RAEL and TSRC is based in physical science modeling to inform interdisciplinary sustainability approaches to the systems science of energy. His current research efforts are focused around:

• High-resolution modeling of the integrated energy generation/transmission and distribution system. This modeling platform, SWITCH, is in use and under continuous development for: California; the Western Electricity Coordinating Council of North America; the emerging East African Power Pool; and China.
• Methods in carbon and sustainability assessment and utilization at household to national levels using life-cycle and resource assessment methods. An extensive set of models and geographically specific applications are available at http://www.coolcalifornia.org and http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu.
• Economic and Job Creation Impacts of the Clean Energy Economy, including open-source analytic tools.
• Island Systems as design laboratories and applications of low-carbon development. Specific field efforts are underway in: Nicaragua; East Africa; Sabah (Malaysia); Kosovo; the Caribbean; French Polynesia; Native American / First People’s communities.
• Developing the disciplines of sustainability and energy systems science.