Buildings News
Explore our archive of buildings news stories.
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buildings research.
Dec. 22, 2020
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and technology commercialization in 2020, from breaking world records to launching new initiatives. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Dec. 21, 2020
This year's JUMP into STEM competition pushed students to research, collaborate, and develop possible solutions for three key issues facing the building science industry.
Dec. 1, 2020
Now in its seventh year, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) is now a $50 million program, designed from the start to consider a diverse cross section of start-ups, collect them into cohorts, connect them with technological expertise, and accelerate their clean technologies to the marketplace.
Oct. 30, 2020
2020 JUMP into STEM winners were undaunted by the shift of JUMP into STEM's summer internship programs to a virtual experience, and NREL staff members committed to providing a meaningful virtual opportunity for the interns.
Oct. 30, 2020
A new publication looks toward the future of renewable energy and explains research direction in the areas of renewable energy transmission, consumption, and generation.
Oct. 16, 2020
Scientists at NREL report a breakthrough in developing a next-generation thermochromic window that not only reduces the need for air conditioning but simultaneously generates electricity.
Oct. 6, 2020
Do not delay! The deadline for submissions to the JUMP into STEM competition is quickly approaching. Make sure your submission is in before Nov. 13, 2020.
Sept. 8, 2020
In a small Athabascan village on the Yukon River, a new house is going up. Tribal leaders in Huslia, Alaska, hope homes like this will attract health care and law enforcement workers to the remote Arctic community. Staying warm is the center of life at this latitude and the driving purpose of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.
Aug. 31, 2020
A new online course called "Achieving Zero-Energy Building Design" was adapted from the "Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings" and unveiled in August. The training will give building professionals the knowledge to design zero-energy schools in any climate in the United States.
Aug. 24, 2020
A recent upgrade by NREL's Data Analysis and Visualization Group (DAV) has brought some order to laboratory data flow with a platform that makes data streaming and access much easier for ESIF researchers and partners.
Aug. 18, 2020
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, launches its third JUMP into STEM collegiate competition this August.
Aug. 7, 2020
The Research Support Facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory continues to set an example for high-performing zero energy buildings worldwide in the design and construction process.
July 21, 2020
Wind energy, water power, and grid integration research conducted at NREL's Flatirons Campus gained a boost with a recent upgrade to the power capacity at the facility.
June 8, 2020
NREL is growing its mission space through an expanded collaboration with Alaska's Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC), based in Fairbanks, Alaska. CCHRC has 20 years of experience designing energy efficient, healthy, culturally appropriate homes in some of the harshest conditions on Earth.
May 14, 2020
A common vision for the future of the nation's energy grid involves homeowners selling unused power generated from rooftop solar panels to others in their communities, and working together to help ensure the reliability, resiliency, and security of the power grid everyone uses. But how can the grid manage such complex energy transactions at scale? Several emerging solutions rely on blockchain technology.
April 16, 2020
"Earth Day is about looking at how we use energy and how we can increase sustainability by reducing our negative impact on Earth," said NREL's Roderick Jackson. "Buildings are the largest consumers of energy. If a building can be designed in a way that allows us to accelerate that clean energy future… that's what we're doing here."
Feb. 3, 2020
The impact of NREL Principal Engineer Paul Torcellini's research can be seen in hundreds of commercial buildings worldwide. After three decades of dedication to energy-efficient buildings research, Torcellini has earned the distinction of ASHRAE Fellow.
Jan. 30, 2020
Through a partnership with NREL, Autodesk has added an integrated building-design-to-energy-analysis workflow to Revit, referred to as "BIM-to-BEM." By closely coupling building information modeling (BIM) with building energy modeling (BEM), Revit makes it easy for buildings professionals to evaluate the impacts of their design choices on energy use.
Jan. 28, 2020
During fiscal year 2019, NREL filed a record 124 patent applications and counted a record 233 disclosures — a category that includes 161 records of invention and 72 software records. NREL-developed software is protectable by copyright, while records of invention can be protected with patent applications.
Jan. 13, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy has also taken notice of researcher achievements, providing interviews, career highlights, and advice from several NREL buildings experts on their website.
