On February 10th, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $74 million for 63 selected projects to research, develop, and test energy-efficient and flexible building technologies, systems, and construction practices to improve the energy performance of our Nationโs buildings and electric grid. Awardees include National Laboratories, universities, small businesses, and industry partners.
Americaโs 125 million residential and commercial buildings use more energy than any other sector in the United States, accounting forย 40%ย of the Nationโs energy use and nearlyย 75%ย of its electricity consumption. The research partnerships announced today will pursue new technologies to enhance the energy productivity of buildings and improve the capacity of buildings to operate more flexibly.
โDOE is accelerating its quest to improve the energy productivity and flexibility of Americaโs residential and commercial buildings,โ said Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Daniel R Simmons. โWeโre renewing our commitment to develop state-of-the-art building technologies that will empower Americans with more options to enhance buildings performance quickly without disruption to their lives.โ
Many of the projects announced today will advance technologies to unlock deep energy savings throughย grid interactive efficient buildingsย andย advanced building constructionย technologies and practices, without sacrificing the comfort of building occupants or the performance of labor-saving devices and equipment.ย For example, the grid interactive efficient building projects will make advances in technologies to link buildingsย to one another across the internet and the power grid, which would enable a greater degree of flexibility over conventional buildings to reschedule operations to periods of the day when energy is cheaper and more efficient to use.
Crucially, those projects are also required to address the cybersecurity of flexible buildings and verify the performance of their equipment. Other projects will focus on developing novel thermal energy storage materials, advancements in non-vapor compression HVAC technologies, fuel-driven building equipment, and solid-state lighting.
Learn more about these projects from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energyย HEREย andย HERE.