Energy Department awards $32M for building retrofit projects

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $32 million to fund over 30 building retrofit projects that will improve technologies in affordable housing.

The DOE’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) in the Office and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) created the Advanced Building Construction (ABC) Initiative to reinvent the “ABCs” of building construction and renovation. These projects are among the first whole-building demonstrations of the ABC Initiative’s efforts to drive the development of new technologies, practices, and approaches.

With this funding, these demonstration projects will apply innovations developed through previous funding from DOE’s 2019 Advanced Building Construction with Energy-Efficient Technologies & Practices Funding Opportunity. Most of these projects will demonstrate large-scale renovations in the affordable housing sector, including public housing, manufactured housing communities, privately owned affordable housing, and student housing.

“We’re in an all-out sprint to beat the climate crisis, and that race runs straight through our nation’s building sector,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “Faster and more efficient construction and renovation methods that improve our nation’s supply of affordable housing are the kinds of transformative innovations we need to lower costs for working families and build a better America.”

Currently, buildings use 40 percent of the nation’s energy and 75 percent of its electricity, making the building sector responsible for 35 percent of America’s carbon emissions. Buildings can readily save 30 percent by replacing windows, putting in insulation, and using high-efficiency equipment. But with innovations like the ones these teams will develop, thermal energy use in buildings could be reduced by 75 percent.

Several of the award recipients will test renovation techniques that reduce disruption to tenants while upgrading buildings’ energy and environmental performance. These techniques, including prefabricating walls and drop-in replacements for heating, cooling, and hot water systems, can revolutionize construction and renovation. Further, they can help decarbonize 130 million buildings at the rate needed to address the climate crisis and meet President Biden’s goals of a net zero carbon economy by 2050.

Recipients include the Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation ($4.9 million); Home Innovation Research Labs ($4.5 million); National Renewable Energy Laboratory ($4.4 million); Oak Ridge National Laboratory ($5 million); Rocky Mountain Institute ($4.4 million); Syracuse University ($5 million); and the University of Central Florida Board of Trustees ($3.6 million).

“To fight the climate crisis and protect our country long-term from upheaval caused by the global fossil fuel market, we need to invest in domestic clean energy and in energy efficiency. This is why I am excited that DOE is supporting demonstration projects like Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation’s work on wall insulation retrofits. Programs like the Advanced Building Construction Initiative are exactly what our country needs to improve energy efficiency technologies and save families money, save energy, and save the planet all at the same time,” Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) said.