Research Projects

“Cool” roofs and pavements can reflect a significant amount of sunlight, reduce cooling load, decrease the urban heat island effect, and save energy. In addition to energy savings, increases in surface reflectivity or albedo also produce an indirect climate benefit by creating a negative radiative forcing proportional to the amount of additional sunlight reflected back through the atmosphere to space. Research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to quantify the direct energy saving benefits of cool roofs and pavements is currently funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC) and ARB. This project is intended to improve efforts to quantify the indirect benefits of “cool” roofs due to increased albedo. This project will develop California specific information on roofing stocks and the associated albedos, which is necessary for improved estimates of the climate benefits of increasing urban albedo through the widespread application of “cool” roofs and pavements. Using satellite retrieval and other available data resources, the Principal Investigator (PI) will assemble maps of solar reflectance (albedo) for seven major urban areas in California (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach and Sacramento). The databases generated by this proposal will be an important part of any future modeling effort to improve estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent climate forcing benefits of a program to increase urban albedo in California. This project is a necessary first step toward estimating the total climate benefits (direct energy savings + indirect albedo benefits) of cool communities.