According to the US Department of Energy, windows account for 30% of a commercial building’s heating and cooling, costing building owners around $50 billion annually. However, according to a new project completed with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) funded by the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), a renewable technology initiative, it’s now known that our technology has the potential to significantly decrease energy use of commercial buildings.
With NEXT’s windows, buildings could notably lower their Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC), the industry-standard performance metric for commercial windows. Lowering this number means buildings could be saving anywhere from 10% of median source energy to 50% in areas like Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, compared to traditional windows today.
Mitigating Climate Change
President Biden recently set a goal to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and we believe our technology can contribute to that. To mitigate climate change, it is extremely important that businesses rethink the design and efficiency of our buildings.
By harnessing the capacity of the building sector’s emissions, businesses not only benefit economically from the energy savings, but also make strides toward a more sustainable business model. Sooner or later, businesses will find a need to cut back on emissions, the simplest way this can be done is by pursuing alternative energy sources in pursuit of decarbonization.
According to the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, the building and construction sector is on track to complete decarbonization by 2050. However, it appears that this conclusion may be temporary. The pandemic greatly affected these results, and there is a projected negative rebound. This temporary progress masks the reality that the decarbonization of commercial buildings is not on track.
Our CEO, Daniel Emmett, believes that the fundamental redesign of how businesses manage the built environment is essential to combating climate change. In a 2016 report, the World Economic Forum stated that engineering and construction will continue to define our daily lives because of our reliance on the built environment. WEF encourages private companies to shape the sustainable commercial transformation and hopes that the industry as a whole will work collectively to take action. NEXT plans to do just that.
The Bottom Line
NEXT Energy Technologies is looking forward to continuing their fight toward energy efficiency. The results of the study with NREL proves that our photovoltaic windows are superior in energy-efficiency to traditional commercial windows. The next chapter in commercial construction begins.