In testimony before the U.S. Congress in February, mechanical engineering professor Arun Majumdar outlined aggressive steps to achieve a zero–net energy building strategy by 2030 to reduce the huge chunk of energy used by U.S. buildings, roughly 40 percent of the energy consumed nationwide. “Buildings offer one of the best opportunities, if not the best, to economically and rapidly reduce energy demand and limit greenhouse gas emissions,” he told the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Majumdar, also director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, advocated a nationwide database for building performance data, an integrated approach to managing energy use in buildings, and establishment of regional centers to support research on other bold new technologies.

Go to http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.LiveStream&Hearing_id=672e1daf-bcc8-6e90-6e55-f95a8889b65e.