Dow Chemical declared that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will finance a part of an important lab research that is being conducted by Dow and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) of DOE under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).
The research is aimed at speeding up the implementation of cool roof technologies in the U.S. As a vital part of the research accord, ORNL will associate with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) of DOE to utilize their applied research experience in the field and their wide range of cool roof technology.
The new research will mainly concentrate in finding viable solar reflective technologies that will improve the energy saving benefits of cool roofs over old as well as to the new commercial buildings by more than 50%. The existing standards necessitate the cool roofs to hold a minimum of 55% reflectance capability after three years of exposure to elements. The CRADA research aims to introduce new technologies to maintain a normal 75% of solar reflectance even after a period of five years to allow over 50% savings than the currently available ERCs. Dow and ORNL in association with LBNL will concentrate on technologies that improves the white elastomeric roof coatings resistance against microbial growth and dirt pick up and to improve the solar reflectance retention. Ultimately CRADA is aiming to commercialize the use of advanced polymers for roof coatings to reduce energy costs in new as well as existing buildings and to speed-up an analytical testing program to slow down ageing and dirt pick for cool roof coatings.
According to the estimation provided by DOE, the use of elastomeric roof coatings (ERCs) to substitute or repaint the commercial buildings will cut down the annual spending on air conditioning by 25%, which is 15% more than the presently available ERCs and will reduce around 5 metric tons of carbon dioxide discharges for each 10,000 square foot area of painted commercial roof.
Cool roof coatings are cheaper and considered as a non-medaling procedure to improve the energy effectiveness of the existing buildings. The U.S. currently has commercial buildings that can offer more than 20 billion square feet of space for deploying cool roof technologies.