Page 34 - Climate Control News Magazine Feb 2020

Industry collaboration to develop
climate friendly technologies
OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY (ORNL) AND FIVE LEADING BUILDING EQUIPMENT INDUSTRIES WILL COLLABORATE TO IMPROVE THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF HEATING, AIR CONDITIONING AND VENTILATION SYSTEMS AND INVESTIGATE CLIMATE-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANTS.
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BTO's goal is to create marketable technolo- gies and design approaches that address ener- gy consumption in existing and new buildings to reduce the average energy use in all US buildings by 30% by 2030.
Moe Khaleel, associate laboratory director for Energy and Environmental Sciences at ORNL, said these collaborations are just the beginning.
"We anticipate a record number of industry partnerships over the next year to develop break- throughs for energy-efficient buildings and a more secure, resilient power grid,” Khaleel said.
ORNL's BTRIC facility, established in 1993, has 40,000 square feet of laboratory space dedi- cated to early-stage research and development in building technologies, with the goal of im- proving the energy efficiency and environmen- tal compatibility of residential and commercial buildings by focusing on building envelopes, equipment, building systems integration, ener- gy storage and grid-interactive efficient build- ings, sensors, transactive controls, and data modelling and simulation.
THROUGH COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
and development agreements (CRADAs), scien- tists at the US Department of Energy's only des- ignated national user facility for buildings re- search - the Building Technologies Research and Integration Centre at ORNL - will conduct research and development with the National Automatic Merchandising Association, Taylor Commercial Foodservice, Emerson Climate Technologies, Enginuity Power Systems and Baltimore Aircoil Company.
"CRADAs are among the U.S. Department of Energy's chief instruments to connect the
ingenuity of our national labs with industry's leading companies to produce innovations at the scale we need to make a difference," said David Nemtzow, building technologies office director, DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Improving the energy efficiency of buildings and equipment is a priority for DOE's Building Technologies Office (BTO) because the 127 million buildings in the United States con- sume nearly 40% of the nation's total energy at a cost of $415 billion annually, accounting for 36% of carbon emissions.
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