The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced its intent to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) on behalf of the Building Technologies Office (BTO) entitled, “Advanced Building Construction (ABC) – 2021.” This FOA would fund research that could accelerate the renovation and construction of affordable, appealing, and energy-efficient buildings to ensure America has a carbon-neutral building economy by 2050.
There are almost 129 million non-industrial buildings in the United States that collectively use 75% of the nation’s electricity and 40% of its energy. Energy use in our buildings is responsible for 35% of our country’s carbon dioxide emissions. To achieve the Biden Administration’s 2050 goal of a carbon-neutral building economy, the energy efficiency of our building stock must improve significantly.
This FOA, developed in support of BTO’s Advanced Building Construction Initiative, will seek R&D projects that can accelerate energy efficiency upgrades and benefit all Americans–including underserved communities. ABC seeks innovations that:
- result in high-performance, low-carbon buildings with lower energy bills, improved indoor air quality, improved comfort, and reduced maintenance;
- deliver faster building renovations with less disruption to building occupants; and,
- incorporate modernized construction and manufacturing techniques to drive down costs and scale production of both low carbon new buildings and retrofit components.
The ABC Initiative drives the development of new technologies, practices and approaches, while ensuring that these innovations are widely deployed in the marketplace and conducive to the construction industry’s broader modernization efforts. The ABC FOA will seek applications for deep energy retrofit and new construction technologies suitable for environments with extremely high or low temperatures that tackle a combination of envelope, heating, cooling, and water heating issues, and appeal to both building owners and occupants. Priority will be given to applicants with prior experience serving low-income residents living in extremely hot or cold environments.
To prepare for the release of this FOA, prospective applicants are encouraged to read the full Notice of Intent (DE-FOA-0002544) on EERE Exchange, which describes the intended FOA more fully, with more details about its motivation and how to prepare for its release.
EERE’s mission is to accelerate the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of technologies and solutions to equitably transition America to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050, and ensure the clean energy economy benefits all Americans, creating good paying jobs for the American people—especially workers and communities impacted by the energy transition and those historically underserved by the energy system and overburdened by pollution.
Last modified: July 26, 2021