PNNL Pens Market Success Report
Document highlights energy-saving commercial products for buildings
High-performance windows are one route to improved energy efficiency in buildings. The BTO Market Success Report 2015–2020 features multiple advanced window and other products that have benefited from BTO investments on their way to the marketplace.
(Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) team recently completed a report highlighting 28 energy-efficiency innovations that have made their way to the marketplace as commercial products for buildings. The document, developed for the Department of Energy’s (DOE's) Building Technologies Office (BTO), was published as the BTO Market Success Report 2015–2020.
The report chronicles BTO-funded, technology-oriented research and development projects that enabled commercial products. In particular, the report focuses on new or updated technologies from the 2015–2020 period that were still on the market as of March 2021. The products, which in some cases have been widely deployed in buildings, cover a broad range, spanning from novel lighting, window, and structural “envelope” applications to building controls, software tools, and advanced heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning components and systems.
“These innovations help make buildings more energy efficient and, in many instances, more comfortable for occupants, while delivering a range of other benefits for our energy system and environment,” said PNNL’s Julia Rotondo, who managed the project alongside report lead Lindsay Steele. “This year’s technology tracking effort was challenging in the midst of workplace disruptions that occurred over the past couple years, but ultimately helps DOE to understand how their research projects are moving from innovation to deployment in support of their larger energy, occupant comfort, and climate goals.”
Team members also included PNNL’s Charles Degan, Sumitrra Ganguli, Sarah Lemmon, Rachel Long, Patricia Prison, and Katherine Rockhold. Four staff from Energetics, a firm that provides communications support to BTO, also contributed to the report. PNNL has regularly supported BTO in tracking and measuring the progress of research projects toward commercialization. The 2022 report builds on previous PNNL tracking efforts in 2017 and 2012.
Among the featured innovations, the document highlights PNNL’s Economic Dispatch algorithm for combined heating, cooling, and power systems, which is deployed via the PNNL-developed Eclipse VOLTTRON™ software platform. PNNL also collaborated on two energy-modeling software products.
A BTO-authored article summarizes the report and highlights several technologies.
Published: January 16, 2023