Obama spotlights energy efficiency work at Penn St.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — President Barack Obama’s visit to Penn State will spotlight an architectural engineering professor’s work to make energy-efficient building renovations more affordable.

Jim Freihaut helps run one of the Department of Energy’s three Innovation Hubs. They’re part of an administration goal to pursue breakthroughs in clean energy projects.

The president plans to tour Freihaut’s lab today and see work that will be part of a collaboration with companies and other schools to retrofit buildings at the redeveloped Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Freihaut hopes the project will lead to affordable solutions in five to 10 years for making apartment buildings and single-family homes more energy-efficient.

Obama plans to give a speech on campus after his tour.