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Building and Electricity Technology Application

Photo of a large building. A foot bridge extends from the front of the building. Three amber-colored silos protrude from a brick structure with six evenly spaced windows. A solar panel array is to the right. The rest of the building extends upward toward a blue sky.

The U.S. buildings sector accounts for 39% of the nation's primary energy consumption. More than half of this is used in residential buildings; the rest is used in commercial buildings.

To reduce these numbers, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Building Technologies Program has set a goal of creating technologies and design approaches that lead to marketable net-zero energy homes by 2020 and net-zero energy commercial buildings by 2025. These buildings generate as much energy as they consume through efficiency technologies and onsite power generation.

NREL works to increase the use of energy efficiency technologies for new and existing commercial and residential buildings by supporting DOE's Building America program and Net-Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative.

More Information

Learn more about efforts to advance technologies that improve building energy performance through: