Cool roofs can save money on air conditioning bills in the summer. Conventional roof materials absorb heat and raise the temperature in houses. Some appliances continue to use power even when they appear off to the owner. A low-power watt meter can calculate the energy use of certain home appliances when they seem to be turned off. Using LLNL designs, flywheels are being manufactured and sold by industry.
Flywheels can maintain consistent power quality for sensitive electronic equipment.
If the power grid fails, they also bridge the gap before emergency generators come up to speed. Fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy of a fuel directly to usable energy without combustion, are widely viewed as the technology of the future to replace internal combustion engines in vehicles and to generate stationary power. The solid oxide fuel cell, constructed of ceramic oxide material, has higher operating efficiencies than other types of fuel cells. LLNL is improving the power density of solid oxide fuel cells, reducing their operating temperatures, and lowering their fabrication costs. LLNL is performing research focused on making geothermal energy more economically competitive.