About Stor4Build

Stor4Build is a consortium focused on affordable thermal energy storage solutions for buildings, co-led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

What Is Thermal Energy Storage?

Thermal energy storage (TES) refers to energy stored in a material as a heat source or a cold sink and reserved for use at a different time. Similar to how a battery stores energy to use when needed, TES systems reserve energy to regulate building temperatures and help balance energy supply and demand—especially during peak demand periods or extreme weather events.

Currently, more than 45% of electricity consumption in U.S. buildings is used to meet thermal uses, such as air conditioning and water heating. TES systems can improve energy reliability in our nation’s building stock, lower utility bills for American consumers and businesses, and protect people during extreme weather events.

Stor4Build Goals and Objectives

Stor4Build aims to accelerate the development and optimization of next-generation TES innovations that enable resilient, flexible, affordable, and comfortable buildings and a reliable and flexible energy system and supply.

The consortium will work to:

  • Accelerate the science-to-system timeline by advancing TES solutions from early- to medium-stage development to market introduction.
  • Optimize power and energy density, reduce materials and systems costs, and improve lifetime and durability, ease of installation, operation, and maintenance.
  • Conduct field evaluations of novel packaged/integrated TES solutions to demonstrate and validate benefits of the new technologies.
  • Facilitate collaboration among stakeholders—industry, utilities, nonprofit organizations, communities, building owners, academia, research institutions, and national laboratories.
  • Support American industrial leadership through concerted efforts to drive TES innovation and impact.

Stor4Build Leadership

Co-Directors

  • Sven Mumme
    • U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office
    • Technology Manager on Opaque Envelope and Thermal Energy Storage R&D
  • Kyle R. Gluesenkamp 
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Distinguished R&D Scientist and Subprogram Manager for TES
  • Sumanjeet Kaur
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Materials Research Scientist/Engineer and Thermal Energy Group Leader
  • Tim LaClair
    • National Renewable Energy Laboratory
    • Distinguished Research Scientist, Building Thermal Energy Sciences

R&D Steering Council

  • LEAD: Reinhard Rademacher
    • Professor and Director of the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, University of Maryland
  • Kaushik Biswas
    • Senior Engineer, GTI
  • Ravi Annapragada
    • Global Sustainability Technical Director, Carrier

Market Adoption Steering Council

  • LEAD: Mike Filler
    • Thermal Energy Storage Solutions Leader, Trane
  • Stet Sanborn 
    • Vice President and Director of Climate Impact, Smith Group
  • Matthew Robinson
    • EPRI 
  • Ryan Hamilton
    • Principal Program Manager, Consortium for Energy Efficiency
  • Justin Hill
    • Principal Research Engineer, Southern Company 
       
Large group of people standing together and facing the camera in a spacious lobby area of a building.

Attendees of Stor4Build’s Second Annual Meeting. 

Image by Oak Ridge National Laboratory