Here is the text version of the Building Technologies Office Peer Review 2019 address by Daniel Simmons, presented in April 2019. Watch the video.
Good morning. I'm Daniel Simmons, assistant secretary for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. I'm sorry I couldn't physically join you today, but glad to virtually be with all of you researchers, reviewers, federal staff and other experts. On behalf of Secretary Perry and myself, let me note how critically important that the Department host this annual event, so thank-you for being part of it.
Residential and commercial buildings account for approximately 40 percent of America's energy consumption, some three-quarters of U.S. electricity use and in most cases over 80 percent of peak power demand. This costs American families and business nearly $400 billion annually. Without making buildings more productive, smart and energy-efficient, we will be hard-pressed to meet our national energy and economic goals.
Now, I want to acknowledge all of the reviewers for taking time and effort to thoroughly examine our work and provide recommendations. By working with external reviewers to evaluate our work, we keep ourselves more objective and honest about what we can do better. The research you'll see this week is cutting-edge. Some of the best in the world. We rely on the outstanding technical expertise of reviewers, as well as, of course, that of researchers, staff and others, and your unbiased viewpoint to help move everyone ahead in solving the most challenging problems in the building technologies space. Your feedback is invaluable.
Let me set the stage for BTO's work by saying that under this Administration, DOE is committed to advancing affordable and reliable energy in buildings, while offering consumers and homeowners more energy options. Because of the enormous changes we have seen in the energy and technology areas in recent years, the future seems increasingly difficult to predict. Nonetheless, we can confidently focus on three essential priorities that guide us going forward: energy affordability, energy integration, and energy storage. If we make progress in these three areas, we will continue to make positive advances no matter what technological surprises occur.
First and foremost, affordable, reliable energy is critical for human well-being. The use of energy helps keep us safe, saves us time, amplifies our work efforts, reduces the effects of distance, and more. When energy is more affordable, it frees up our family and business budgets and gives us more time to spend on the things we care about most. This affordable energy challenge is one of the things that make EERE's portfolio so interesting, fun and important. We get to work on exciting technologies that have the potential to make energy more economical, clean, secure, and reliable.
Second, while energy affordability is necessary, it is not sufficient if we cannot integrate the many opportunities and technologies of the modern energy system together. Flexibility and choice of generation is key, but certainly we need to consider the opportunities from greater flexibility and demand, as well. Rest assured, I predict you will hear more about integration and grid-integrated efficient buildings -- David, this has never been my favorite acronym, but it is David Nemzow's and it adequately describes -- it well-describes -- what we're trying to do. So thank-you, David. And David will talk to you about grid-efficient interactive buildings all this week, as well as others from the BTO team.
Closely related to energy integration, especially regarding buildings, is energy storage. In both cases, we're talking about improving our ability to balance and adjust energy supply and energy demand. As more diverse and variable resources are added to the grid, we need to store electricity to give us greater flexibility. To meet this challenge, DOE is undertaking the Advanced Energy Storage Initiative, in which building technologies will play a key role, to enable the conversion of energy resources into useful energy services, while assuring grid security and resilience. For buildings, that means not just energy storage but providing the technologies to make demand more flexible so it can better optimize with the grid. This is why EERE's Building Technologies Office is researching, with your help, energy-efficient building upgrades that save energy, lower utility bills, and make commercial and residential buildings more affordable while also improving occupant health, comfort and the natural environment.
At the same time, DOE is bringing together industry, researchers and practitioners to explore advanced building construction strategies to create more-productive, less-intrusive, more-affordable and faster ways to retrofit and construct efficient buildings. BTO is addressing the energy challenges facing buildings today and beyond by focusing on the three priorities I described earlier: energy affordability, energy integration, and energy storage. BTO and EERE cannot do this alone. So thank-you for your continued hard work and partnership on these important issues.
In closing, I'm happy to introduce, at least remotely, Steve Chalk, the deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable power. Thank-you very much.