Aerial photo of a commercial building.

The new building wing of the Saint-Gobain Research Shanghai facility, where LBNL is field testing commercialized electrochromic windows.

Lead Performer: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Berkeley, CA
Partners:
-- Saint-Gobain - Valley Forge, PA
-- Sage Electrochromics - Faribault, MN
-- Dow Chemical - Midland, MI
-- Lutron - Coopersburg, PA
-- 3M - Maplewood, MN
-- Tongji University - Shanghai, China
-- China Academy of Building Research - Beijing, China
-- Chongqing University - Chongqing, China
DOE Funding: $645,000
Cost Share: $200,000
Project Term: Jan. 2010 - Dec. 2015

Project Objective

The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) is a pioneering research and development (R&D) consortium bringing together governments, key policymakers, researchers, and industry to develop a long-term platform for sustainable U.S.-China joint R&D. This CERC project aims to identify, develop, and promote the use of energy-efficient window and shading technologies in Chinese and U.S. buildings. Specifically, this project focuses on demonstrating pragmatic, cost-effective solar control and daylighting technologies that can provide 40%–50% perimeter zone total energy savings compared to current systems.

U.S.-China Partnership Project

Learn more about how the U.S. and China are working together to reduce building energy consumption.

Project Impact

In the near term, the project team is benchmarking the technical potential of these technologies in typical Chinese commercial buildings using advanced, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-compliant modeling tools.

Accomplishments to date include the agreement of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in China to to adopt the ISO 15099 Standard, then subsequent inclusion of all Chinese window glazings in the LBNL International Glazings Database.  The LBNL WINDOW tool, which incorporates ISO 15099, was also adapted for use in calculating thermal and optical properties of windows in China.  In 2014, LBNL initiated field testing in the Advanced Windows Testbed of dynamic shading and switchable electrochromic windows to study the performance of advanced control systems under real sun and sky conditions, including prototype controls designed to minimize energy cost for buildings with microgrid and grid integration. Field testing of commercialized electrochromic windows was also initiated in the Saint-Gobain Research Shanghai facility. These third-party-monitored evaluations promote market adoption.

Assuming a 50% market adoption rate, LBNL estimates these technologies could save 995 TBtu (trillion British thermal units) and 100 million tons of carbon emissions per year by 2025.

Contacts

DOE Technology Manager: Karma Sawyer
Performer: Steve Selkowitz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Related Publications