Saving Energy and Money for Concrete and Cement Manufacturing, Power Line Utilities, and Hospital and Commercial Buildings

In this episode, you’ll learn about three real-world research applications for a more reliable and cost-effective future: 

1. Experts convened at NREL to focus on deploying next-generation concrete and cement technologies to decrease our reliance on cement imports and increase durability.  
2. Artificial intelligence has the potential to help snuff out wildfires caused by downed power lines before they even begin. 
3. NREL researchers are looking at how to lower the plug and process loads of medical buildings by examining idle energy consumption of equipment like MRI scanners. 

This episode was hosted by Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle, written and produced by Allison Montroy, Hannah Halusker, and Kaitlyn Stottler, and edited by Taylor Mankle, Joe DelNero, and Brittany Falch. Graphics are by Brittnee Gayet. Our title music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast is created by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. Email us at podcast@nrel.gov. Follow NREL on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Facebook.

Transcript

[music]  

Kerrin: Welcome to The NREL Podcast, brought to you by the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for energy systems research, development, and integration. We’re highlighting the latest news happening at the lab. It’s Wednesday, September 17th. I’m Kerrin Jeromin.  

Taylor: And I’m Taylor Mankle.  

Kerrin: Hey, Taylor, what's happening my friend? 

Taylor: Great to see you. 

Kerrin: Always great to see you! You know, the last two episodes were pretty big. We announced a new lab director and our 50th episode—what excitement pray tell have we got for today?  

Taylor: So true, so much excitement, and you know, National Podcast Day is this month? Let's keep it going with that! 

Kerrin: That's something to celebrate I suppose! And hey—if you’re listening out there, you’re already celebrating. Don’t forget to tell the world on social media how much you love the hashtag-NREL-Podcast.  

Taylor: And this episode is packed with hashtag real-world impact. Today, we’re discussing how NREL is using AI to prevent wildfire, making the equipment inside commercial buildings more energy efficient,  and paving the path for new cement and concrete technologies.  

Kerrin: Just like concrete—that sounds solid. Let’s hit the road to begin this episode of The NREL Podcast!  

Taylor: Hashtag-Lets-Go!  

[music]  

Kerrin: Alright, you may recall many many episodes ago—on episode 30—we talked about how cement and concrete are not the same thing. Cement is the powder that binds materials together to create concrete.  

Taylor: For any bakers out there, cement is the flour used to make the concrete cake. And while that cement flour needs some other ingredients to become a concrete cake, the process to make the cake is pretty energy-intensive and outdated.  

Kerrin: And because we make so much concrete cake each year with all that cement flour, there is need for more of it.  

Taylor: A LOT more: 30 million metric tons more cement each year. 

Kerrin: How do you even quantify that amount of material being imported? Walruses weigh about a ton, so the equivalent of 30 million walruses? 

Taylor: Let's do it, let’s go with walruses. 30 million walruses of cement every year being imported. 

Kerrin: Very scientific. However you measure it, it’s very clear advancements are needed to modernize domestic product, improve durability, and reduce our reliance on imports. Which is why NREL brought together a bunch of experts to figure out how to do just that.  

Taylor: More than 80 representatives from tech startups, investment firms, academia, industry, corporate institutions, and national labs came to NREL for the third annual Cement and Concrete Critical Technologies meeting.  

Kerrin: It was a two-day meeting that highlighted both the challenges and advances for next-generation cement and concrete technologies. And this year’s focus was on the shifting landscape in the cement and concrete industry.  

Taylor: NREL is already leading efforts among the national labs to tackle critical needs like reducing reliance on imported cement and improving material durability.  

Kerrin: One example of how NREL is doing this is something called LignoCrete, a durable material derived from aviation fuel byproducts that can be used to create concrete using less cement in the mixture. 

Taylor: NREL is also exploring 3D-printed concrete for marine environments and the development of “cementless” concrete and lignin-based additives. 

Kerrin: The goal of all of this research is to de-risk new technologies and support the deployment of reliable construction materials.  

Taylor: And the goal of hosting a meeting all about cement and concrete was to allow NREL to learn more about the challenges surrounding implementation, because the lab really acts as an important bridge from science to commercial application.  

Kerrin: You could say this meeting really paved the road for next-generation cement and concrete technologies.  

[music]  

Taylor: NREL’s home in Colorado is no stranger to this next, not-so-fun fact: Annually, tens of thousands of wildfires ravage the United States, threatening people, wildlife, and infrastructure.  

Kerrin: And many of those wildfires are caused by degraded or downed electrical equipment—because, like any other infrastructure, power lines are susceptible to the elements and they erode over time.  

Taylor: And wires can fall while still energized. When a fallen wire comes into contact with the ground, it creates a high-impedance fault, or HiZ fault. Traditional grid technology struggles to identify these faults, but they can cause sparks that might start a wildfire.  

Kerrin: But now artificial intelligence could potentially help detect those sparks before a wildfire has a chance to ignite. And NREL is working on just that. The lab used its grid simulation capabilities to develop a type of computational model, literally designed after the human brain, that can detect faults in power lines before wildfires start.  

Taylor: To do this, NREL partnered with power management company Eaton to conduct extensive evaluations in a simulated environment.  

Kerrin: They simulated scenarios for how a downed power line might play out depending on the environment its in—such as the surrounding trees, whether the downed conductor is on grass or gravel, or what the air moisture content is. These are some really important factors in wildfire spread. 

Taylor: These simulated HiZ fault scenarios and datasets were then used to train an ensemble of artificial neural networks to identify HiZ fault states. Giving us a tool that is all but ready for real power systems.  

Kerrin: When the artificial neural network ensemble detects a fault from a power line, the utility company can then prioritize sending resources quickly to that area to reduce the chance of both power outages and wildfires. 

Taylor: The research team’s goal is to generalize this tech and provide utility companies with tools for a more reliable energy system for customers. And, in doing so, reduce the number and impact of wildfires every year.  

[music]  

Kerrin: So, we hear a lot about making commercial buildings more efficient to lower costs among other benefits. But this next story isn’t focused on the building itself: NREL researchers are looking at how to optimize everything inside the building.  

Taylor: All the equipment plugged into outlets or hardwired into the building to support its processes, also known as “plug and process loads.”  

Kerrin: And, why not make that an acronym—P-P-Ls, as they’re called. 

Taylor:  Right! PPLs look at energy usage in buildings not associated with things like HVAC, lighting, water heating, or basic building operations.  

Kerrin: But instead, we’re talking the energy use from devices like computers, printers, kitchen equipment, medical equipment, laundry machines, televisions, water fountains, elevators, escalators … you get the picture. All of this consumes around 28% of energy in U.S. commercial buildings.  

Taylor: The key is to reduce the PPLs in a building but not impact the comfort or behavior of the occupants and practices inside the building—which is, as you can guess, a challenge.  

Kerrin: A challenge, that NREL is up to.  

Taylor: For one of their projects, the research team is specifically focusing on medical imaging equipment,  like X-ray machines and M-R-I scanners that are found in most hospitals or healthcare facilities.  

Kerrin: In partnership with radiologists at UC Davis Health, they’ve introduced a methodology to categorize the energy use of medical imaging equipment based onthe operating mode—or whether the machine is actively scanning a patient or idling—using only power data from a meter on the electrical panel. 

Taylor: So let’s take MRI scanners for instance. To see when and how long the MRIs were in different operating modes, the study created what’s called a load duration curve—a tool to analyze and understand power demand over time.  

Kerrin: And they found that MRI machines spend as much as 80% of time in non-scanning or low-power mode. And the machines end up consuming more than 180 kilowatt hours of energy per day.  

Taylor: So, hospitals are spending $27 extra each day on each machine while it isn’t actually doing anything.  

Kerrin: You might think, well, OK, easy fix: turn the machines off when they’re not in use. But MRIs use liquid helium to cool the magnet that does the imaging, and if the system that cools the helium shuts down the helium is lost. 

Taylor: Not to mention, keeping the machines on saves time in an emergency situation. The research team’s methodology can help healthcare facilities identify opportunities for energy and cost savings, like by switching the MRI into low power mode instead of leaving it in idle mode when there are no patients waiting to be scanned. 

Kerrin: NREL worked with UC Davis Health and the University of Michigan Medicine to add power meters to their MRI systems so they can monitor energy use and find opportunities to save money.  

Taylor: They even created a medical imaging equipment energy efficiency fact sheet for healthcare facilities.  

Kerrin: And next, the team hopes to expand its research to include other imaging equipment, like CT scanners.  

Taylor: The best part? This can be applied to much more than medical equipment too.  

Kerrin: Oh, absolutely. And NREL also has a quick start guide for anyone interested in addressing energy costs in their commercial building through PPL energy use reduction. You can find a link to that quick guide in this story on nrel.gov and in this episode’s show notes. 

[music]  

Taylor: Well, another episode in the books Kerrin, I say we should take the rest of the month off to celebrate the big holiday.  

Kerrin: National Podcast Day?  

Taylor: Only the most important day of the year!  

Kerrin: Hashtag-Absolutely. Listeners, we’ll be back in two weeks with more news from NREL, October 1st, the day after hashtag-national podcast day! Hashtag-NREL Podcast. Okay I’m done speaking in social media ... 

Taylor: Help us celebrate, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, or your favorite platform. Or, send us an email at podcast@nrel.gov. We want to hear from you!  

Kerrin: We really do. Thanks everyone!  

[music] 

Taylor: This episode was adapted from NREL news articles from August 2025 written by Dana Strongin and Alyssa Bersine. Our theme music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino, of Drift B-C. This podcast is produced by NREL’s Communications Office.