Dr. Harris joined NREL in 2017. As a member of the Building Energy Science Group, his research focuses on the application of fundamental heat transfer and materials science to the development of high-performance building components. He is particularly interested in the development of novel opaque insulation and window frame materials using nano-scale approaches to reduce their thermal conductivity.

Prior to NREL, Chioke was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office. In that role, Chioke co-developed a software tool for evaluating the long-term energy impacts of novel building technologies and supported project management for windows and opaque envelope R&D. His research background is in electricity market modeling and simulation of energy storage for grid applications.

Research Interests

Ultra-low thermal conductivity materials

Building-to-grid and vehicle-to-grid energy storage strategies

Electricity (ancillary service) market design for demand-side resource participation

Education

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Brown University

Featured Work

Is every kWh the same? How do energy efficiency measures stack up across regions?, ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2018)

Ten questions concerning future buildings beyond zero energy and carbon neutrality, Building and Environment (2017)

Scout: An Impact Analysis Tool for Building Energy-Efficiency Technologies, ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2016)

An empirically-validated methodology to simulate electricity demand for electric vehicle charging, Applied Energy (2014)

The impact of vehicle charging loads on frequency regulation procurements in ERCOT, IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (2014)