NSF Award
2318673
A workshop will be held to discuss opportunities and strategies for promoting ambient energy use in buildings. Experts in ambient energy systems and materials, design, construction, marketing, finance, policy and social science will be assembled to provide their perspectives. The result of the workshop is to be a white paper outlining needs in research, education, and dissemination to increase the use of ambient energy and, thereby, help address the looming climate crisis. The workshop is to be held at DOE in Washington DC, tentatively during July 2023. <br/><br/>Buildings account for nearly half of US carbon emissions. Further, emissions are projected to increase due to the doubling of built floor area by 2060. All-electric net-zero buildings will not solve the problem, because utilities are expected to still burn fossil fuel for nearly half of all electricity by 2050. Locally harvested ambient energy offers a transformational alternative. Nearly ten times more solar energy is incident on buildings than they consume. A number of historic and modern buildings have been heated and cooled entirely from ambient sources. Solar energy can also heat water, dry clothes, cook food, and provide lighting. 100% solar heating has been proven by numerous buildings over many decades. For current technologies, more wide-spread adoption may require innovations in education, training, marketing, and incentives. Thermal, economic and environmental performance could be advanced by new technologies, including heat pipe systems, polymeric solar collectors, phase change materials, transparent insulation, vacuum-insulated panels, and electrochromic surfaces. Adoption could be enhanced with improved design tools and incorporation into building performance standards and codes. It is estimated that with local ambient energy systems serving demands for which they are well-suited, the remaining need for utility-level electricity could be smaller in 2050 than it is today. The workshop will discuss opportunities and strategies for promoting ambient energy use in buildings.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
