DOE-Industry Partnership Produces Efficient Window Prototype

DOE unveiled on Monday a new residential and commercial window prototype that could save billions of dollars in energy costs. The new concept is the result of a partnership between DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Sage Electrochromics, Inc. Several technologies have been optimized and integrated for the first time into the window prototype, including SageGlass, a dynamic electrochromic glass that can be electrically controlled to change from clear to dark, and low-emissivity (Low-E) glass coatings, which are microscopic metal or metallic oxide layers that help control heat transfer through windows. Low-E glass coatings are in over half of windows sold today and have saved the country over $8 billion in energy costs. Other technologies that have been incorporated into the prototype are an unsealed internal plastic triple pane, a krypton gas filler, and an insulating frame.

DOE would like these prototypes to be incorporated into affordable, mass-produced window products. In the long term, DOE hopes to produce windows that are as energy efficient as today's walls and that can actually become a net-energy provider for homes. See the DOE press release and the Sage Electrochromics Web site.