"The Solar Impulse project is a tremendous reminder and symbol of the extent to which renewable energy is not just a replacement for dirty fossil fuels, but can be used to accomplish things impossible without the clean, inspiring, and physically and socially uplifting potential of sustainable energy. Professor Dan Kammen Founding Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley and Energy and Climate Partners of the Americas Fellow for the U. S. Secretary of State "

The Renew­able and Appro­pri­ate Energy Lab­o­ra­tory (RAEL) is a unique new research, devel­op­ment, project imple­men­ta­tion, and com­mu­nity out­reach facil­ity based at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley in the Energy and Resources Group and the Depart­ment of Nuclear Engi­neer­ing. RAEL focuses on design­ing, test­ing, and dis­sem­i­nat­ing renew­able and appro­pri­ate energy sys­tems. The laboratory’s mis­sion is to help these tech­nolo­gies real­ize their full poten­tial to con­tribute to envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able devel­op­ment in both indus­tri­al­ized and devel­op­ing nations while also address­ing the cul­tural con­text and range of poten­tial social impacts of any new tech­nol­ogy or resource man­age­ment system.