USA pilots next-generation building upgrades

The aim is to demonstrate fast, cheap and low-carbon building renovation and construction techniques in low-income communities across the USA.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has allocated US$32m to fund over 30 next-generation building retrofit projects. Seven awardees will test renovation techniques designed to reduce disruption to tenants while upgrading the energy and environmental performance of buildings more quickly, affordably and effectively.

The techniques include prefabricating walls and provision of drop-in replacements for heating, cooling and hot water systems. The DOE said that they can also provide the means to decarbonise America’s 130m buildings at the rate needed to address the climate crisis and meet goals of a net-zero-carbon economy by 2050. 

“We’re in an all-out sprint to beat the climate crisis, and that race runs straight through our nation’s building sector,” said US secretary of energy Jennifer Granholm. “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.”

Today, US buildings use 40% of the nation’s energy and 75% of its electricity, making the building sector responsible for 35% of America’s carbon emissions. The DOE said that, with off-the-shelf equipment, buildings can readily save 30% by replacing windows, putting in insulation, and using high-efficiency equipment. It said that with innovations like the ones these teams will develop, the USA can lead the way with industrialized solutions that could cut thermal energy use in buildings by 75%.  

The Building Technologies Office (BTO) in DOE’s Office & Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has created the Advanced Building Construction (ABC) Initiative to reinvent the ‘ABCs’ of building construction and renovation. “Given the lack of change in techniques since the 19th century, builders and contractors need solutions that deliver sustainable and appealing buildings faster and more affordably,” said the DOE. “The projects announced today are among the first whole-building demonstrations of the ABC Initiative’s efforts to not only drive the development of new technologies, practices, and approaches, but ensure these highly efficient and low-carbon innovations are widely deployed and shape the construction industry’s modernization efforts.” 

Seven teams have been chose:

• Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation (Massachusetts) will test prefabricated, super-insulated wall retrofit panel blocks with a suite of high-performance building technologies across four locations in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. (Award amount: US$4.9m)
• Home Innovation Research Labs (Maryland) will test an innovative wall system with vacuum-insulated panels in three residential, multi-family public housing buildings in Albany, New York. (Award amount: US$4.5m)
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Colorado) will use software tools to properly size and install retrofit packages in two residential low-income, multi-family buildings in Arvada, Colorado. (Award amount: US$4.4m)
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee) 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. (Award amount: US$5m)
• Rocky Mountain Institute (Colorado) 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. (Award amount: US$4.4m)
• Syracuse University (New York) will pair overclad panels with real-time performance monitoring capabilities and an ‘HVAC pod’ in single-family attached dormitories in Syracuse, New York. (Award amount: US$5m)
• The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees (Florida) 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 six states. (Award amount: US$3.6m)

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 modernise the construction industry and buildings sector. 

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