Center for Buildings and Thermal Systems

NREL's Center for Buildings and Thermal Systems (Ron Judkoff, Director) conducts research in heat transfer, thermal dynamics, and systems engineering to help reduce the energy consumption of buildings on-site and at the source (power plants). Our research accelerates industry adoption of advanced energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

Mission

The mission of NREL's Center for Buildings and Thermal Systems is to make a significant contribution to the nation's energy supply through reduction of energy consumption in buildings and thermal systems such as heat transfer for electricity production in power plants.

Center Organization

NREL's Center for Buildings and Thermal Systems is organized into two major groups: The Buildings Research Group and Thermal Systems Research Group. The buildings group conducts research in residential, commercial building technologies as well as thermally activated technologies or TAT. The thermal systems group conducts research in thermal power production, including concentrating solar power, solar heating and lighting, geothermal, and hydrogen.

Buildings Research Group

Ron Judkoff, Group Manager

Building technology researchers are significantly reducing the energy consumption in residential and commercial buildings. This research group is broken into three teams:

Residential Buildings Research

Our researchers work with members of the home building industry to provide the technical expertise gain from their research to produce quality homes that use up to 50% less energy.

Commercial Buildings Research

Our researchers develop high-performance whole-building design methods and technologies that integrate energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies in commercial buildings for significant energy savings.

Thermally Activated Technologies

Researchers working in this area of buildings research work to develop and improve the performance of building equipment that uses thermal energy for heating, cooling, humidity control, and power (mechanical and electric) in buildings, factories, campuses, industrial parks, and district systems.

Thermal Systems Research Group

Chuck Kutscher, Group Manager

Researchers in this group investigate improving thermal systems (systems that use heat) for power production. Many of these technologies are for utility-scale power production, including parabolic trough mirrors that focus the sun's heat onto mirrors to produce power and geothermal power plants that use hot water from underground to produce electricity.

Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrating solar power technologies use reflective materials such as mirrors to concentrate the sun's heat that is then converted into electricity for power plants. Researchers support the development of new designs and manufacturing processes for solar components and systems with an emphasis on improved performance, reliability and service life.

Solar Heating & Lighting

Researchers investigate the use of solar energy to light and heat buildings to significantly reduce energy consumption.

Geothermal

The Center's geothermal research specializes in improving advanced power plant systems, small-scale power plants, and direct-use performance.

Hydrogen

NREL is utilizing its high-flux solar furnace to investigate dissociation chemical reactions used in the high-temperature production of hydrogen. We are helping to develop codes and standards for the use of hydrogen fuel cell technologies in transportation, buildings, and other applications. Finally, we are providing technical support for hydrogen R&D activities being performed by the Nevada Southwest Energy Partnership (NSWEP).