The Dow Chemical Company announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will fund key lab research as part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Dow and DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to accelerate the adoption of cool roof technologies in the U.S. As a critical element of the research agreement, ORNL will partner with DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to bring a broad range of cool roof technology and experience from their applied research in this field. The research will focus on the development of new solar reflective technologies that would increase by over 50% the energy savings that cool roofs offer for new and existing commercial buildings.
Current standards require that after three years of exposure to the elements, cool roofs retain a solar reflectance of at least 55%. The charge of the CRADA is to develop new technologies that would enable cool roof manufacturers to meet a standard of 75% solar reflectance after five years, which would increase cool roof energy savings by over 50% compared to current ERCs.
Dow and ORNL, in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), will focus on technologies to improve the long-term resistance to dirt pick up and microbial growth on white elastomeric roof coatings. The aim of this program is to improve retention of solar reflectance using newly developed and accelerated testing protocols for faster commercialization.
As part of the CRADA, Dow and ORNL/LBNL also intend to develop accelerated weatherization testing protocols that speed commercialization, and conduct studies to quantify the performance of the new cool roof products. This work would potentially allow DOE to propose new standards for cool roof performance. The stated outcome of the CRADA is to commercialize the next generation of polymers for roof coatings to save energy in new and existing buildings, and to advance a predictive accelerated aging/dirt pickup testing program for cool roof coatings.