The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $61 million to 10 projects aimed at transforming housing communities and workplaces into grid-interactive efficient buildings to decrease carbon emissions and reduce energy costs.
The pilot projects will deploy smart controls, sensors, analytics and other technologies that will enable residents and tenants of over 7,000 buildings to communicate with the electrical grid and control their power consumption, DOE said Wednesday.
The awardees are:
- Electric Power Research Institute
- IBACOS
- Open Market ESCO
- PacifiCorp
- Portland General Electric
- Post Road Foundation
- Slipstream Group
- Spokane Edo
- SunPower
- Ohio State University
The projects, covering a cross-section of the buildings industry, will demonstrate the capability of a grid-interactive infrastructure to lower utility bills, reduce system costs and other benefits across a wide range of applications.
“From our homes to workplaces, this groundbreaking, grid-connected building technology will help reduce our impact while cutting energy bills, maximizing convenience, and propelling our efforts to reach a carbon-neutral, clean energy economy by 2050,” explained Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
DOE's Building Technologies Office is leading the project in partnership with other related agency offices and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.