The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Monday 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 Nation’s buildings and electric grid. Awardees include National Laboratories, universities, small businesses, and industry partners.
America’s 125 million residential and commercial buildings use more energy than any other sector in the United States, accounting for 40% of the Nation’s energy and nearly 75% of its electricity. The research partnerships announced today will pursue new technologies to enhance the energy productivity of buildings and improve the capacity of buildings to operate their energy consumption more flexibly.
Many of the projects announced will advance technologies to unlock deep energy savings through grid-interactive efficient buildings and advanced building construction technologies and practices, without sacrificing the comfort of building occupants or the performance of labor-saving devices and equipment. For example, the grid interactive efficient building projects will make advances in technologies to link buildings 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.
More information about the BENEFIT-2019 FOA project selections can be found HERE.
More information about the ABC FOA projects selections can be found HERE.
