The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Office (BTO) awarded $26.3 million to 40 competitively selected projects, led by 29 organizations, to pursue innovations that can advance the goals of BTO's Advanced Building Construction with Energy-Efficient Technologies & Practices (ABC) Funding Opportunity. The funding opportunity underpins the Advanced Building Construction Initiative, one of BTO’s principal efforts to unlock deeper energy savings in the U.S. building sector, which still consumes 40% of the nation’s energy and 75% of its electricity.

Through this funding opportunity, BTO is investing in new technologies that can enable superior building energy performance, without disrupting occupant comfort, and can be deployed quickly, affordably, with minimal onsite construction in the existing building stock as well as new construction.

The Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation (CMI) was selected under the Integrated Building Retrofit topic. CMI will develop customizable prefabricated insulated Panel Blocks that greatly reduce the on-site labor and installed cost of high-performance exterior wall retrofits for low-rise residential buildings in cold, very cold, and mixed humid climates.

Story courtesy of Energy.gov