Carbon Times – reflecting on solar gains through glass

Carbon Times

In

this the latest episode of the Carbon Times Podcast we speak to Molly Allington

who is the CEO and Co-founder of Albotherm.

Albotherm

are developing glass coatings that reversibly transition from transparent to

white to reduce solar gain in hot weather, allowing buildings and greenhouses

to regulate their own temperature without electrical input. Our coatings are

tunable to transition temperatures between 18 °C and 45 °C to create

comfortable internal temperatures in a range of climates.

Temperature

regulation is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas

emissions with air conditioning alone accounting for 20% of electricity usage

from buildings and 10% of total global electricity usage. Glass buildings in

particular have problems with overheating as they trap solar radiation. The

technology has been developed at the University of Bristol and is being

continued at Albotherm by our CTO Dr Sian Fussell and Scientific Advisor Professor

Paddy Royall.

We

talk to Molly about the journey so far the exciting proof of concept and trial

projects they have completed, and are still ongoing. We explore the potential

of the product and all of many building challenges it could help to address.

We

hope you enjoy the episode, thank you for listening. As always we want to

provide interesting and insightful content to keep the sustainability

conversation going, we all have a responsibility to consider how we create a

more sustainable world.