SINGAPORE - The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has set up a partnership with California's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) to develop technological solutions for energy efficiency and sustainable development in the tropics.

The institutions announced on Monday that they will collaborate on research on energy efficiency solutions for buildings, renewable energy generation and storage, and smart grids.

The five-year partnership was signed by NTU's chief of staff and vice president for research Professor Lam Khin Yong and Berkeley lab director Professor A. Paul Alivisatos.

The Berkeley Lab is a US Department of Energy National Laboratory managed by the University of California.

Prof Lam said: "This partnership will lead to highly innovative energy-efficiency solutions that will help overcome specific environmental challenges faced in tropical megacities like Singapore."

NTU's efforts in the partnership will be led by the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) which has been spearheading the university's initiatives in sustainable energy research.

The research projects will also be tested on the NTU campus.

Professor Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Berkeley Lab's Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Technologies, said the partnership will "advance global efforts toward energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions".