Save the date and join us for the 2024 Partner Forum, Aug. 6–7.

Industry experts, researchers, valued partners, and NREL leaders will discuss how decarbonizing a diverse portfolio of buildings, campuses, or larger communities results in enhanced energy efficiency and improved energy resilience and ensures the continuity of operations in the face of disruption.

Transforming Buildings and Communities

Successfully decarbonizing buildings will require innovative breakthroughs and successful collaborations in clean energy research and development, modeling and analysis, and rapid deployment.

NREL's 2024 Partner Forum will address challenges and barriers to prioritizing affordability, resilience, reliability, and mission assurance as we decarbonize buildings. The program will include keynotes, panel sessions, and lightning talks from experts and relevant industry leaders, and a demonstration of NREL's forecasting capabilities that typically take place in the Energy Systems Integration Facility's visualization lab.

Participants will discuss:

• How do we navigate the transitions and new technologies required to evolve how we build, equip, and maintain building infrastructure?
• How do we prioritize affordability, resilience, reliability, environmental justice, and mission assurance as we decarbonize buildings?
• What areas of opportunity do we foresee for developing the workforce involved in decarbonizing buildings and communities?
• By electrifying buildings, how will we accommodate the increased electrical demand?
• What are business models and procurement pathways for decarbonization?
• How do we assess the energy and economic impacts of various technologies and prioritize those that offer the greatest return on investment to enhance mission assurance?

An Annual Event

To better facilitate engagement with a range of partners from academia; industry; and city, state, and local government, NREL hosts an annual Partner Forum. Since 2017, the event has gathered energy thought leaders to:

• Gain insight into our most pertinent energy challenges
• Explore future energy innovation opportunities
• Convene stakeholders with an urgency to achieve clean energy goals
• Discuss collaborations and partnerships.

The Partner Forum provides a unique opportunity for partners to connect with NREL and one another, learn about and explore current and future activities, and discuss new trends and innovations in renewable energy technology. By facilitating these discussions, the event helps set the stage for future collaborations among attendees.

NREL's expanding partnerships include more than 1,000 agreements with organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense; U.S. General Services Administration; New York State Energy Research and Development Authority; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; U. S. Agency for International Development; Xcel Energy; Wells Fargo; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Dallas Fort Worth International Airport; and more—organizations that are working with the laboratory to shape the future of the U.S. energy market.

Learn more about partnering with NREL—or reach out to your business partner.