Clean Energy EXPO 2025: Building Resilience and Comfort

The 28th Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum was held on Thursday, July 24, 2025. The event was hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), with the House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REEE) Caucuses serving as honorary co-hosts. It featured eight panels, including Building Resilience and Comfort .

Justin Koscher, President, Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA)

Patrick Kiker, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA)

John Farrell, Associate Lab Director, Mechanical & Thermal Engineering, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Highlights

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Americans spend most of their time indoors, making healthy and safe indoor environments paramount, especially during power outages or extreme weather events.
As buildings account for about 75% of all U.S. electricity consumption, energy-efficient building materials and design are crucial for reducing strain on the electrical grid and preventing blackouts.
Energy-efficient buildings and homes offer substantial affordability benefits to consumers by lowering energy bills, while also providing crucial resilience by allowing homes to remain safe havens for extended periods during power outages.

Justin Koscher, President, Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association

Polyisocyanurate insulation is a building envelope insulation technology that is commonly used in roofing projects but can also be used in building siding.
Addressing building efficiency is critical for macro-level grid resilience, as buildings account for about 75% of U.S. electricity consumption.
A 2021 paper by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that deploying building energy efficiency and flexibility could reduce summer peak demand by 181 gigawatts by 2030—the equivalent of 90 Hoover Dams worth of electricity.
Immense opportunity for energy efficiency lies in U.S. schools. Many of the country’s 98,000 public schools and 30,000 private schools were built before modern energy efficiency standards. Replacing a school’s roof with an energy efficient roof can reduce its annual energy use by three to 11%.

Sarah Maston, President-Elect, ASHRAE

ASHRAE has over 111 standards focused on building energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration, and sustainability that serve as standard building codes at the federal and local levels.
Resiliency is important for social, economic, and technical reasons, and will have a major impact on how buildings are designed, renovated, and maintained.
ASHRAE’s new strategic plan for the next three years focuses on healthy and resilient buildings, particularly their indoor air quality and energy efficiency.
Investing in air quality improvements makes homes and workplaces more comfortable as well as more cost effective by reducing healthcare and energy costs.
Utility incentives can help make energy efficiency more cost effective for consumers.

Patrick Kiker, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA)

Blackout prevention, affordability, and general resiliency form the three pillars of consumer-end incentives for increased energy efficiency.
Insulation/air sealing reduces peak electric load by seven to 10%, decreasing strain on the grid and preventing blackouts.
Driven by a rapid increase in demand, retail electricity rates could rise between 15 and 40% by 2030, but proper insulation can lower heating or cooling costs by 15%.
During a power outage, energy-efficient homes can prolong the amount of time a family can safely shelter in place by three to seven days.

John Farrell, Associate Lab Director, Mechanical & Thermal Engineering, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

NREL focuses on system-level integration of building technologies to improve energy efficiency, affordability, and indoor environmental quality across the residential and commercial sectors.
The Lab works closely with industry partners to de-risk new building technologies, accelerating market deployment and ensuring integrated systems function effectively under real-world conditions.
NREL is developing performance modeling tools that help users evaluate energy outcomes at multiple scales, from individual homes to entire neighborhoods.
An NREL smart neighborhood project in suburban Chicago includes 50 low-income homes outfitted with solar panels, batteries, natural gas generators, and smart controls, cutting annual energy bills by 30%.

Compiled by Erin Parker and edited for clarity and length. This is not a transcript.