Molecular Foundry Seminar

"Reducing Carbon Emissions and Global Warming with More Efficient Buildings: Nanometer Solutions that Generate Gigaton Impacts,"

Stephen Selkowitz, head of Building Technologies Department, Berkeley Lab,

Tuesday, January 5th at 1:30 pm, Room 67-3111

Abstract:

Buildings are the largest and fastest growing source of carbon emissions in the US; they account for over 40% of all energy and carbon emissions and over 70% of electricity use. State, national and international initiatives call for 20-30% reductions by 2030 and 80% reductions by 2050. Simple lifestyle changes cannot produce reductions of this magnitude and there is no guarantee that new non-CO2 based sources can be developed and deployed at scale sufficiently rapidly to have the desired impacts. Radical changes in energy end use can provide the desired reductions in emissions that buy time to implement a longer term transition to renewable energy supply.

The challenge for the US is to make very deep cuts in building energy use by aggressively pursuing innovative building technologies and systems that can convert todays wasteful buildings into "net zero energy buildings"- buildings that use 60-80% less energy and then provide the remaining use with renewables. Novel, high performance materials will play a key role in this revolution in building design and operations. Not only must these materials provide enhanced functionality but they must be durable, affordable and manufacturable at scale. This talk will provide the energy performance context for new building efficiency solutions, describe the role that new coatings and materials have played in the past and explore some future directions that may lead to promising transformational change in energy use in the building sector. A key objective is to further engage the materials science community at LBNL to address these pressing national challenges.