Each year, R&D Magazine hands out the R&D 100 Awards, sometimes referred to as the “Oscars of Innovation.” The awardees includes breakthrough developments from the cleantech, telecom, aerospace, and manufacturing industries. The 2016 winners were recently announced and included a number of energy-efficiency-related products, including a plug-and-play ductless heat pump, a cool-roof savings calculation tool, an HVAC recirculation technology, and other cool and innovative inventions. The DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program and the national laboratories supported much of this development of these winning technologies, which you can read about at the link below.
https://energy.gov/eere/articles/7-award-winning-clean-energy-inventions-2016