Orion Engineering Corporation's "Novel Frequency Selective Solar Glazing System" (affiliated with the DOE Inventions and Innovations Program) seeks to develop a new class of solar glazings. This glazing system will provide a single-layer low-cost method for controlling the frequency of light entering spaces.

Glazings that reduce the amount of solar energy entering through windows and skylights are essential to minimizing cooling loads. Consider, as an example, an uncoated window on the south wall of a single room. When the sun’s rays enter the room through the south window, ultraviolet, infrared, and most of the visible spectrum are transmitted through the window. Most of this energy is absorbed in the walls, floor, furniture, and air of the room; the rest is reflected back out the window. This absorbed energy now constitutes sensible heat energy that must be removed from the room by the cooling system.

A new glazing technology being developed by Orion Engineering shows promise for reducing absorbed energy in automobiles and buildings. The new glazing’s characteristics also make it ideal for trapping heat in solar-thermal collectors. While blocking convection and providing a frequency-selective radiation barrier, the glazing reduces energy loss to the environment. Orion’s improved glazing can be easily manufactured using today’s technology, introducing a substantially new product to the glass industry and producing energy savings via decreased cooling loads.

Frequency Selective feature surface in production