The Building Technologies Office develops, demonstrates, and accelerates the adoption of cost-effective technologies, techniques, tools and services that enable high-performing, energy-efficient and demand-flexible residential and commercial buildings in both the new & existing buildings markets, in support of an equitable transition to a decarbonized energy system by 2050, starting with a decarbonized power sector by 2035. Learn more about BTO. 

News, Blogs, and Success Stories

DOE Recognizes 2022 Housing Innovation Award Winners

The winners' high-performance homes are so energy efficient they can offset most or all the energy they consume with a renewable energy system.

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Ready, Set, Go! 120+ Teams to Compete in the Solar Decathlon 2023 Design Challenge
124 teams from 97 collegiate institutions are working to solve the climate crisis, one building at a time, by participating in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon® 2023 Design Challenge.
November 9, 2022
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In Ohio, I Caught a Glimpse of the Future of Buildings and Vehicles
Acting Assistant Secretary Alejandro Moreno offers his thoughts on a recent visit to Ohio State University
November 8, 2022
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Connected Communities Cohort Kicks Off: A New Era for Grid-Efficient Buildings
Today, DOE kicked off the inaugural cohort of Connected Communities at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
November 2, 2022
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces $250 Million Investment From Inflation Reduction Act For Domestic Heat Pump Manufacturing
DOE Seeks Input on Best Uses of Defense Production Act Authority to Bolster American Clean Energy Manufacturing and Strengthen National Security, Announces Additional Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge Partner Successes
November 2, 2022
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EPA’s New ENERGY STAR® Specifications for Windows, Doors, and Skylights Made Possible through DOE Investments and Analyses
Recently, the ENERGY STAR® program released its final specification (Version 7.0) for residential windows, doors, and skylights that establish higher energy-efficiency benchmarks for products to earn EPA’s coveted ENERGY STAR certification.
November 1, 2022
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Study Finds Home Energy Score Positively Linked to Sale Price and Loan Performance
First-ever Berkeley Lab study finds relationship between Home Energy Score, sale price, and mortgage repayment in cities with Home Energy Score listing policies.
November 1, 2022
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DOE Intends to Issue Funding Opportunity for Innovations that Electrify, Optimize, and Decarbonize Building Operations
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy announced its intent to issue a FOA called “Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) - 2022.”
October 27, 2022
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces $84.5 Million to Make Clean Energy Improvements and Lower Energy Costs for K-12 Schools
New Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Grant Program and Prize Competition for Public School Energy Improvements Will Save Schools Money and Enhance Learning Environments
October 26, 2022
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Meet Clean Energy Champion Antonio Bouza
Tony Bouza has a passion for heat pumps and says working in energy efficiency is his dream. Find out where his enthusiasm comes from and how he's working to improve homes and buildings around the country.
October 17, 2022
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Discovering Unexpected Synergies Between Energy Efficiency and Demand Response
With funding from the Building Technologies Office, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently published a four-part, multi-year study looking at the interactive effects of energy efficiency and demand response.
October 14, 2022
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BTO's Program Areas

Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships

Energy, Emissions and Equity (E3) Initiative
Better Energy, Emissions, and Equity (E3) Initiative
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Advanced Building Construction Initiative
The ABC Initiative integrates energy-efficiency solutions into highly productive U.S. construction practices for new buildings and retrofits.
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Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings
We’re conducting Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings research to help bring connectedness and the related energy savings across the buildings sector.
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Tech-to-Market
T2M activities accelerate innovative R&D concepts to become commercially viable and available products.
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Better Buildings
Partners in DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative set ambitious goals and contribute real-world solutions that help accelerate our clean energy economy.
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Green Building Workforce Development Initiatives
Achieving DOE’s high-level goals of combating climate change, creating clean energy union jobs, and promoting energy justice, requires improving the energy efficiency of America’s nearly 130 million buildings.
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Examining data on a wall display

Resource Dashboard

Find technical reports, technology roadmaps, fact sheets, relevant and authorizing statutes, and quick links to BTO’s decision tools.

Project Map

The Building Technologies Office Projects Map is a searchable table and map of BTO’s active projects that have been competitively awarded and funded through DOE’s national labs all across the United States. Dive into any project to learn more about its funding amount, who’s leading the work, the project term, what the project is developing, and its most recent progress.

Map of Solar Projects

BTO Career Opportunities

Ready to start building our clean energy future with a new career in BTO? Whether you’re looking for building energy-efficiency research or engineering jobs, or you’re interested in business support careers in the building energy-efficiency industry, BTO may have a position for you.

See the available opportunities.