Dow and Deptartment of Energy work on "cool roofs" project

There may be a surge in the number of "cool roofs" being used across the country thanks to an agreement between Dow Chemical and the Department of Energy to fund key lab research.

Dow announced last week that they will be working with the DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to accelerate the adoption of cool roof technologies in the United States. The research will focus on the development of new solar reflective technologies that would increase the energy savings that cool roofs offer for new and existing commercial buildings by approximately 50 percent.

"Dow is a leader in innovative polymer technologies that are used in today's elastomeric roof coatings for commercial low-slope cool roofs," says William Jackson of Dow Building and Construction. "With this new research project we are looking to push the performance boundaries even further--which could ultimately result in an entirely new polymer technology for elastomeric roof coatings. We're excited to be part of this important research project that has the potential to greatly increase cool roof adoption rates and reduce our nation's energy usage and environmental footprint."

Dow and the DOE will also focus on technologies to improve the long-term resistance to dirt pick up and microbial growth on white elastomeric roof coatings. The aim of this program is to improve retention of solar reflectance using newly developed and accelerated testing protocols for faster commercialization.

In addition, the team also intends to develop accelerated weatherization testing protocols that speed commercialization, and conduct studies to quantify the performance of the new cool roof products. This work would potentially allow DOE to propose new standards for cool roof performance.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: William Jackson, Dow