Date: 2 November 2009
Department of Energy's fourth Solar Decathlon competition held in Washington, D.C. Southwall Insulating Glass, a joint venture company formed by Southwall last year, supplied the high performance Heat Mirror glass for the project.
"We were pleased to support Team California in this competition, which has become increasingly relevant for today's global energy challenges," said Bruce Lang, president of Southwall Insulating Glass. "Super-insulating glass is low-hanging fruit that can dramatically improve the energy efficiency of buildings and homes, and the technology exists today."
The Solar Decathlon is sponsored by Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, in partnership with its National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The competition focuses on cutting-edge energy efficiency and renewable energy innovation. 20 teams of college students competed to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient 800-square-foot solar powered home.
Team California, comprised of students from Santa Clara University and California College of the Arts, placed third overall and was the only undergraduate-led team in the competition. The team's entry, The Refract House, placed first in Architecture and received high marks in all other categories, including market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment and net metering.
For more information on the Solar Decathlon competition, visit www.solardecathlon.org.
About Heat Mirror Suspended Film Technology
Heat Mirror insulating glass is a superior multi-cavity solution that suspends one or more low-emissivity and solar-reflective Heat Mirror films inside of an insulating glass unit to create two, three or even four insulating cavities without adding weight. This innovative approach enables window fabricators to offer higher performance glass options for their existing window systems today as well as for next-generation window systems in development. Heat Mirror suspended film technology combines the best of film-based and glass-based technologies to create the industry's first "super glass" with center-of-glass insulating performance ranging from R-6 to R-20 while minimizing solar heat gain and blocking UV radiation.
About Southwall Technologies
Southwall Technologies Inc. is recognized as a leader in the development and manufacture of high performance, energy-saving films and glass products that dramatically improve the energy efficiency of residential, commercial and automotive glass. Southwall is an ISO 9001:2000-certified manufacturer with customers in over 25 countries.
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