PPG Awarded Funding from DOE for Development of New Window Coating

PPG Industries’ flat glass business has received $312,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a dynamically responsive infrared (IR) window coating.

The funding is part of an award of up to $750,000 being shared with project leader Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The two are working together to design a coating that can switch from a solar IR-reflecting state to a solar IR-transmitting state while maintaining high levels of daylight transmittance in either condition. PPG will provide an additional $78,000 in cost-sharing, according to information from the company.

The coating potentially could be used in both commercial and residential retrofit applications.

“PPG’s glass business is tightly focused on energy-efficiency research and development for windows and more,” says Mehran Arbab, director of glass science and technology for PPG. “Not only is it a market driver for our company, we believe it is simply the right thing to do.”

The two-year project is designed to develop the coatings on a laboratory scale. If development is successful, the product could be scaled up and potentially commercialized within several years, according to PPG.