PNNL helps deliver efficiency-related rules and requirements that steadily improve performance of America’s buildings, saving energy and costs and reducing carbon emissions.
PNNL had a significant presence at October’s North American Wind Energy Academy/WindTech 2023 Conference in Denver, Colorado. Thirteen PNNL wind experts participated in various capacities.
Fiscal year 2023 offered PNNL wind researchers a wealth of opportunity to address wind implementation challenges and expand its support of various federal and state agency wind energy goals.
Mandy Mahoney, director of the DOE Building Technologies Office, visited PNNL in late November. One key agenda item involved meeting with staff for a discussion of effective equity and justice integration in buildings-related research.
Understanding the risk of compound energy droughts—times when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow—will help grid planners understand where energy storage is needed most.
A larger HVAC workforce with training on modern heat pump technology will be pivotal to achieving the mass-scale electrification of household HVAC systems needed to meet building decarbonization goals.
Leaders from the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy visited PNNL October 19–20 for a firsthand look at capabilities and research progress.
Floating offshore wind farms could potentially triple the Pacific Northwest's wind power capacity while offsetting billions of dollars in costs for utilities, ratepayers, insurance companies, and others.
PNNL’s Andrea Mengual co-chaired a working group that produced Building Performance Standards: A Technical Resource Guide. PNNL’s Kim Cheslak, Bing Liu, and Jian Zhang contributed to the effort.
PNNL is at the midpoint of a study focused on the installation of electric heat pump water heaters in New Orleans homes. The efficient water heaters offer a unique capability that could help speed the transition from fossil fuels.
Two renewable energy approaches—enhanced geothermal systems and floating offshore wind energy—get new focus as Energy Earthshot™ Research Centers at PNNL.
PNNL is supporting the floating offshore wind industry to enable gigawatt-scale development of floating offshore wind in the United States while minimizing environmental impacts and supporting local workforces.
PNNL led one of five Pathway Summer School programs nationwide, with a specific focus on engaging students from Native American or Indigenous backgrounds.
For her most recent efforts, Bruckner-Lea, a senior technical advisor at PNNL, received the Secretary’s Appreciation Award from the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in July.
The Distributed Wind Market Report provides market statistics and analysis, along with insights into market trends and characteristics of wind technologies used as distributed energy resources.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has given its 2022 Journal Paper Award to Jamie Kono, a PNNL building research engineer.
PNNL’s extensive portfolio of buildings-grid research included three projects that helped answer some of the technical questions related to leveraging energy consumption in buildings to enhance grid operations.