Reflecting the rapidly growing interest in sustainable design and construction technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced new funding to support research on net-zero energy buildings.

In November, the agency awarded $20.2 million to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which is managed by the University of Tennessee and the nonprofit corporation Battelle, and $15.9 million to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, managed by the University of California. The money is part of $104.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds that the energy department is spending on a range of new facilities at national laboratories. 

ORNL will use the money to expand its existing Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, which has equipment for testing sections of roof and wall systems for energy efficiency. It also will build two three-story structures—one with a metal frame, the other made of reinforced concrete—for testing larger scale commercial building envelopes, which it hadn’t done before. “We’re going to be doing the same kind of work, but with different types of facades for commercial structures,” says Jeff Christian, ORNL senior scientist.

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