PNNL has developed a decision tool that provides contractors and installers with the information they need to properly select and install cold climate heat pumps, which are a key technology for achieving decarbonization.
PNNL and collaborators developed new models—recently approved by the U.S. Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)—to help utilities understand how new grid-forming inverter technology will enhance grid stability.
Researchers from PNNL have been assessing installation and use of electric heat pumps in an Alaskan community that relies on fuel oil for heat. The resulting information could advance electrification in cold rural areas across the nation.
PNNL helps deliver efficiency-related rules and requirements that steadily improve performance of America’s buildings, saving energy and costs and reducing carbon emissions.
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.
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.
PNNL led one of five Pathway Summer School programs nationwide, with a specific focus on engaging students from Native American or Indigenous backgrounds.
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.
The Department of Energy has issued updated energy conservation standards for manufactured homes. The effort to establish the standards, supported by PNNL, is expected to result in a range of benefits for the manufactured housing sector.
PNNL’s Reid Hart and Bing Liu have earned individual Champions of Energy Efficiency in Buildings awards from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
PNNL worked with the Department of Energy on the Commercial Packaged Boiler rule, which will help reduce energy use, enhance the environment, and save dollars.
PNNL researchers developed a new model to help power system operators and planners better evaluate how grid-forming, inverter-based resources could affect the system stability.
Researchers at PNNL examined heat pump water heater (HPWH) operation in Pacific Northwest residences, gaining insights into HPWH electricity use patterns. Part of the study captured trends during a COVID-19 stay-at-home order.
PNNL licensed two technologies to generate hydrogen. One, a reactor design, generates hydrogen from natural gas. The second innovation uses a 3D printing method to economically manufacture the generator.