Feature Stories

Throughout the United States, more than 100 million buildings tap into electrical energy to keep heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration units functioning. HVAC systems cause most of the peak load demand on the electric grid; one way to alleviate the grid burden is to develop new storage options for heating and cooling.

As a partner in the Department of Energy’s Stor4Build Consortium, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is co-leading research with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy to develop thermal energy storage as a complement to electrical battery storage. 

UPTON, N.Y. — With one-of-a-kind research facilities leveraged by scientists from across the nation and around the world, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory is a veritable city of science. Each year brings discoveries, from the scale of subatomic particles to the vastness of Earth’s atmosphere and the cosmos, that have the potential to power new technologies and provide solutions to major societal challenges. Here, the Lab presents, in no particular order, its top 10 discoveries of 2024 … plus a few major Brookhaven Lab milestones.

Jefferson Lab has dedicated the first particle accelerator cryomodule built with niobium-tin components. The quarter cryomodule is the first designed and tested for accelerating an electron beam to 10 MeV or greater energies and marks a major milestone toward the next era of SRF particle accelerators.

To increase awareness of quantum opportunities and help grow the U.S. quantum workforce, the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C²QA) hosts and co-hosts educational programs that introduce students to the foundational principles of QIS and foster the development of skills needed for a successful career in this rapidly expanding field.

The programs held this year, including the QIS & Engineering High School-Level Program, QIS 102: Quantum Computing Summer School, and QIS 303: Quantum Error Mitigation, reached more than 170 participants worldwide, from students who just completed their first year of high school to full-fledged QIS researchers — and enthusiastic learners from every level of expertise in between.