How do you help ensure that American companies and entrepreneurs can access the materials they need to build and develop clean energy technologies?
The Energy Efficient Buildings Hub team is taking a “living lab” approach, working in a 30,000-square-foot building in the Navy Yard, where they are testing how different technologies interact in the building with sophisticated sensors and modeling equipment.
They are also monitoring humidity and air flow in buildings – a task that is intimately tied with building efficiency and comfort – and that hasn’t yet been deciphered, given that it is surprisingly difficult to track.
The overarching goal of the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub is to discover how to cut building energy use in existing buildings by 50 percent by 2015.
Energy Innovation Hubs: Achieving Our Energy Goals with Science
Energy Innovation Hubs are integrated research centers that combine basic and applied research with engineering to accelerate scientific discovery in critical energy issue areas.
Increasing Access to Materials Critical to the Clean Energy Economy
The new Critical Materials Hub will help accelerate U.S. leadership in energy innovations by eliminating supply uncertainties for modern and emerging clean energy technologies.
Modeling and Simulation for Nuclear Reactors Hub
Scientists and engineers are working hard to create computer simulations that will help the nuclear industry make reactors more efficient.
Fuels From Sunlight Hub
Energy conversion "machines" that generate fuels directly from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide? This hub is accelerating our innovation in designing solar energy-to-fuel conversion systems with the required efficiency, scalability, and sustainability to be economically viable.
Energy Efficient Buildings Hub
Science and industry work together to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions of both new and existing buildings while also stimulating private investment and quality job creation.
