SWITCH Materials developing economical glaze for “smart windows”
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
I take a look today at Vancouver-based SWITCH Materials in today’s Clean Break column. This company, spun out of research conducted at Simon Fraser University, has developed novel molecular switches that are sensitive to both sunlight and electric current. They darken when exposed to sunlight, but can revert back to colourless mode when a small electric current is applied. The company calls it a hybrid switch — both photochromic and electrochromic — and it has a number of advantages. First, you don’t always want the shading even when it’s sunny, like in the winter (in the case of a building) or when you’re driving (in the case of car windows). Having an electrochromic override comes in handy as a way to manage building energy use. In the case of a vehicle, imagine that as soon as you turn off your ignition the windows tint to prevent the inside seats and dashboard from heating up and fading over time from sun exposure. Then, when you hop in the car to go, the shading goes away instantly when the ignition is turned on again. Very cool.
SWITCH says it has a roll-to-roll process for making a glaze that could be applied to any window or surface made of clear material. This could be an important development for smart buildings. Just recently, the company raised $7.5 million toward product commercialization, so it will be interesting to see what it has come up with a year from now.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
