The need to provide a whole lot more affordable housing solutions for disadvantaged communities is imperative but daunting. That’s why the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) launched a funding effort to reinvent the “ABCs” of building construction and renovation.
Nationally, buildings use 40% of the nation’s energy and 75% of its electricity, making this sector ideal for reducing up to 35% of US carbon emissions. A total of $32 million will ultimately fund more than 30 next generation building retrofit projects to improve affordable housing and commercial building technologies.
According to the DOE, techniques such as prefabricating walls and drop-in replacements for heating, cooling, and water-heating systems can revolutionize construction and renovation efficiency. They can also provide the means to decarbonize the 130 million buildings in the US at the rate needed to address both the climate crisis and to meet President Biden’s goal of a net zero carbon economy by 2050.
The selected teams will also advance the DOE-funded Advanced Building Construction Collaborative, which connects companies working in prefabricated, modular, and other industrialized construction techniques with building owners, developers, financiers, utilities, and researchers to modernize the construction industry and buildings sector.
DOE Award Winners
The 7 ABC awardees are researching new renovation techniques to upgrade the energy and environmental performance of buildings. The goal is to reduce disruption to tenants as the work is conducted through faster, more affordable, and effective materials and construction methods.
The selectees are:
- Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation, Massachusetts — Award amount: $4.9 million: Their project will test prefabricated, super-insulated wall retrofit panel blocks with a suite of high-performance building technologies across 4 locations in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.
- Home Innovation Research Labs, Inc., Maryland — Award amount: $4.5 million: They will test an innovative wall system with vacuum insulated panels in three residential, multi-family public housing buildings in Albany, New York.
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado — Award amount: $4.4 million: NREL will use software tools to properly size and install retrofit packages in two residential low-income, multi-family buildings in Arvada, Colorado.
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee — Award amount: $5 million: Oak Ridge will demonstrate 3D-printed modular overclad panels with heat pump systems in 8 to 12 single-family attached public housing homes and one commercial building in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- Rocky Mountain Institute, Colorado — Award amount: $4.4 million: The Rocky Mountain Institute will demonstrate an integrated retrofit package of envelope panels, a heat pump pod, and innovative financing in a mid-rise, 120-unit low-income multifamily building in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Syracuse University, New York — Award amount: $5 million: Syracuse will pair overclad panels with real-time performance monitoring capabilities and an “HVAC pod” in single-family attached dormitories in Syracuse, New York.
- The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees, Florida — Award amount: $3.6 million: UCF will demonstrate a solar photovoltaic-integrated multi-functional heat pump system for space and water heating in 4 single-family homes and 8 manufactured homes across numerous locations in 6 states.
Case Study: NREL Retrofit Affordable Housing Project
A National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) proposal is among 7 selected by the DOE to help fast track affordable housing solutions for disadvantaged communities. A senior NREL researcher will be leading a $4.8 million Building Technologies and Science Center project to retrofit packages in two low income multifamily residential buildings. The demonstration project in Arvada, Colorado will…
Read More: US Department of Energy Accelerates National Affordable Housing Upgrades