Daniel M. Kammen is Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, 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) and the co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment. Kammen is the Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Kammen received his undergraduate (Cornell A., B. ’84) and graduate (Harvard M. A. ’86, Ph.D. ’88) training is in physics After postdoctoral work at Caltech and Harvard, Kammen was professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1993 – 1998. He then moved to the University of California, Berkeley. Daniel Kammen is a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He hosted the Discovery Channel series ‘Ecopolis, and had appeared on NOVA, and on ’60 Minutes’ twice.
Contact and Office Hours
Office ERG 310 Barrows
Office Hours
By appointment, via email
About
Areas of Expertise
- Climate Change
- Engineering
- Environment
- Energy, Renewable and Clean Energy
- Energy Forecasting
- Health and Environment
- International R&D Policy
- Race and Gender
- Rural Resource Management
Curriculum Vitae
Other Affiliations
- Professor of Energy & Society, Energy and Resources Group (ERG)
- Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL)
Research
Working Papers
Oil, Energy Poverty and Resource Dependence in West Africa
Working Paper (June 2013)
Turning Words into Action on Climate Change
Working Paper (April 2013)
Indirect Land Use and Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Biofuels
Working Paper (April 2013)
Deep carbon reductions in California require electrification and integration across economic sectors
Working Paper (March 2013)
Renewable energysectordevelopmentintheCaribbean:Current trends andlessonsfromhistory
Working Paper (March 2013)
Island regions and isolated communities represent an understudied area of not only clean energy development but also of innovation. Caribbean states have for some time shown interest in developing a regional sustainable energy policy and in implementing measures which could help to protect its member states from volatile oil markets while promoting reliance on local resources. Here we examine four case studies of renewable energy advancements being made by public utility companies and independent energy companies in the Caribbean. We attempt to locate renewable energy advances in a broader historical framework of energy sector development, indicating a few policy lessons. We find that different degrees of regulatory and legislative sophistication have evolved in different islands. Islands should have specialized policy focus, contrasting the ad-hoc nature of current regional energy policy discussion. We also conduct a cost benefit analysis which shows that these early, innovative alternative energy projects show themselves to be both profitable and significant sources of emissions reduction and job creation. This lends support to the potential benefits of regional energy policy.
Selected Publications
Pervasive over-crediting from cookstoves offset methodologies
Annelise Gill-Wiehl, Daniel Kammen, Barbara K. Haya. (2023). Preprint posted to Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2606020/v1
Carbon offsets from improved cookstove projects could advance Sustainable Development Goals 13 (climate), 7 (energy), 5 (gender), and 3 (health). To legitimately "offset" emissions, methodologies must accurately or conservatively quantify climate impact. We conduct the first comprehensive, quantitative over/under crediting analysis of five cookstove methodologies, comparing them against published literature and our own analysis. We find misalignment, in order of importance, with: fraction of non-renewable biomass, fuel consumption, stove adoption, usage, and stacking, emission factors, rebound, and firewood-charcoal conversion factor. Additionality and leakage require more research. We estimate that our project sample, on average, is over-credited by 6.3 times. Gold Standard’s Metered and Measured methodology, which directly monitors fuel use, is most aligned with our estimates (only 1.3 times over-credited) and is best suited for fuel switching projects which provide the most abatement potential and health benefit. We provide specific recommendations for aligning all methodologies with current science.
Sustainable silicon photovoltaics manufacturing in a global market: A techno-​​economic, tariff and
Solar photovoltaics (PV) manufacturing has experienced dramatic worldwide growth in recent years, enabling a reduction in module costs, and a higher adoption of these technologies. Continued sustainable price reductions, however, require strategies focused in further technological innovation, minimization of capital expenditures, and optimization of supply chain flows. We present a framework: Techno-economic Integrated Tool For Tariff And Transportation (TIT-4-TAT), that enables the study of these different strategies by coupling a techno-economic model with a tariff and transportation algorithm to optimize supply chain layouts for PV manufacturing under equally-weighted objectives.
We demonstrate the use of this framework in a set of interacting countries (Mexico, China, USA, and Brazil) and two extreme tariff scenarios: no tariffs, and high tariff levels imposed. Results indicate that introducing tariffs between countries significantly increase the minimum sustainable price for solar PV manufacturing, alter the optimal manufacturing locations, and render a more expensive final solar PV module price which can hinder the adoption rates required to mitigate climate change. Recommendations for stakeholders on the optimization process, and techno-economic drivers are presented based on our results. This framework may be utilized by policymakers for the spatially-resolved planning of incentives, labor and manufacturing programs, and proper import tariff designs in the solar PV market.
Rooftop solar photovoltaic potential in cities: how scalable are assessment approaches?
Distributed photovoltaics (PV) have played a critical role in the deployment of solar energy, currently making up roughly half of the global PV installed capacity. However, there remains significant unused economically beneficial potential. Estimates of the total technical potential for rooftop PV systems in the United States calculate a generation comparable to approximately 40% of the 2016 total national electric-sector sales. To best take advantage of the rooftop PV potential, effective analytic tools that support deployment strategies and aggressive local, state, and national policies to reduce the soft cost of solar energy are vital. A key step is the low-cost automation of data analysis and business case presentation for structure-integrated solar energy. In this paper, the scalability and resolution of various methods to assess the urban rooftop PV potential are compared, concluding with suggestions for future work in bridging methodologies to better assist policy makers.
Declaration of the Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility Climate Change, Air Pol
With unchecked climate change and air pollution, the very fabric of life on Earth, including that of humans, is at grave risk. We propose scalable solutions to avoid such catastrophic changes. There is less than a decade to put these solutions in place to preserve our quality of life for generations to come. The time to act is now. We human beings are creating a new and dangerous phase of Earth’s history that has been termed the Anthropocene. The term refers to the immense effects of human activity on all aspects of the Earth’s physical systems and on life on the planet. We are dangerously warming the planet, leaving behind the climate in which civilization developed. With accelerating climate change, we put ourselves at grave risk of massive crop failures, new and re-emerging infectious diseases, heat extremes, droughts, mega-storms, floods and sharply rising sea levels. The economic activities that contribute to global warming are also wreaking other profound damages, including air and water pollution, deforestation, and massive land degradation, causing a rate of species extinction unprecedented for the past 65 million years, and a dire threat to human health through increases in heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease, mental health, infections and cancer. Climate change threatens to exacerbate the current unprecedented flow of displacement of people and add to human misery by stoking violence and conflict. The poorest of the planet, who are still relying on 19th century technologies to meet basic needs such as cooking and heating, are bearing a heavy brunt of the damages caused by the economic activities of the rich. The rich too are bearing heavy costs of increased flooding, mega-storms, heat extremes, droughts and major forest fires. Climate change and air pollution strike down the rich and poor alike.
Defeating energy poverty: A call to invest in scalable, solutions to energy access for the poor
Energy poverty, is arguably the most pervasive and crippling threat society faces today. Lack of access impacts several billion people, with immediate health, educational, economic, and social damages. Furthermore, how this problem is addressed will result in the largest accelerant of global pollution, or the largest opportunity to pivot away from fossil-fuels onto the needed clean energy path. In a clear example of the power of systems thinking, energy poverty and climate change together present a dual crisis of energy injustice along gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic grounds, which has been exacerbated if not caused outright by a failure of the wealthy to see how tightly coupled is our collective global fate if addressing climate change fairly and inclusively does not become an immediate, actionable, priority. While debate exists on the optimal path or paths to wean our economy from fossil fuels, there is no question that technically we have today a sufficient knowledge and technological foundation to launch and to even complete the decarbonisation (IPCC, 2011). Critically needed is an equally powerful social narrative to accelerate the clean energy transition. Laudato Si’ provides a compelling formulation of the injustice that is both greed and pollution, but an ongoing outreach and partnership effort is needed to truly leverage its powerful message. In this essay we present examples across scales of the evolving knowledge base needed to build universal clean energy access. This leads to a formulation of an action agenda to defeat energy poverty and energy injustice.
In the News
Articles and Op-Eds
Green energy is gold for California, US
SF Chronicle, August 17, 2018
Why Democrats and Republicans are Both Right on Climate
Scientific American, March 2, 2017
The Pentagon Knows Climate Change is Real. Will Donald Trump Ignore the Science?
Democracy Now!, November 15, 2016
What Action Can Obama Take Before a Climate Denier Replaces Him in the Oval Office?
Democracy Now!, November 15, 2016
Coal makes global poverty worse
The Hill, October 30, 2016
Proposed state fee would end solar savings
SF Chronicle, October 29, 2015
Time to implement the US-China climate accord
Al Jazeera America, February 3, 2015
Did We Just Find a Cool Trillion Dollars for Green Energy Projects?
The Huffington Post, September 23, 2014
The Gathering Storm
The Huffington Post, September 19, 2014
Energy Access and the True Cost of Fossil Fuel Projects in Africa
The Huffington Post, February 20, 2014
Solar opportunity or new trade war?
SF Gate, December 28, 2011
CASE STUDY: Dr. Kammen
State Department ECPA Newsletter,
Media Citations
California Assembly Passes Historic 100% Carbon-Free Electricity Bill
Greentech Media, August 28, 2018
California advances an ambitious climate policy that should be a model for the world
MIT Technology Review, August 28, 2018
State Department Science Envoy Explains Why Trump Drove Him to Resign
Scientific American, August 24, 2017
Daniel Kammen: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Heavy., August 24, 2017
US science envoy steps down, spells out "impeach" in resignation letter
CNN, August 24, 2017
Webcasts
Dan Kammen on finding hope in the fight against climate change
Date: February 24, 2020 Duration: 6 minutes
Sustainable Energy Now and in a Livable Future (SETI Talks 2016)
Daniel Kammen,
Event: SETI Institute Weekly Colloquium: Sustainable Energy Now and in a Livable Future
Date: December 20, 2016 Duration: 97 minutes
“Coal doesn’t benefit the poor”: Dan Kammen on Energy Access and Poverty
Daniel Kammen,
Date: November 7, 2016 Duration: 13 minutes
Does the world need a nuclear renaissance?
Daniel Kammen, Ralph Cavanagh, Steven Chu, Burton Richter,
Event: Silicon Valley Energy Summit
Date: June 3, 2016 Duration: 75 minutes
The Clean Energy Revolution: Science and Policy
Daniel Kammen,
Date: May 17, 2016 Duration: 90 minutes
Last updated on 08/25/2021