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Developing metrological frameworks to standardise new passive cooling materials and test them under real-world conditions

The Metrology Partnership project

The Metrology Partnership project Metrological framework for passive radiative cooling technologies (21GRD03, PaRaMetriC) is working to develop a metrological framework to classify and compare Passive Radiative Cooling (PRC) materials. These materials provide an emerging technology that can cool to sub-ambient temperatures even in direct sunlight, and could be an efficient alternative to conventional systems, saving up to 80 % of cooling-related electricity.

The project will create protocols and best-practice guides for in-field testing and set up long-term tests across several sites to assess material performance under a variety of real-world conditions. This will help drive innovation in PRC technology, producing more energy-efficient cooling to meet rising needs. The standardised methods developed by the project will allow informed decisions to be made by both citizens and industry, and will overall reduce reliance on fossil fuels, in turn reducing the human impact on climate change.

The collaboration

SPACECOOL INC in Japan has developed a material known as SPACECOOL film that allows cooling without using traditional energy sources. This material makes it possible to lower the temperature below the outside temperature with zero energy input, by releasing heat into space even under direct sunlight.

The company will provide the material and will collaborate with the other members of the consortium towards the development of characterisation methods, demonstration tests and life cycle assessments for PRC materials. The goal is to contribute to the standardisation of reliable and reproducible PRC materials, in line with the objectives of the PaRaMetriC project.

Project Coordinator Lorenzo Pattelli from INRiM said ‘The successful identification of widely available and highly reproducible materials exhibiting passive radiative cooling is paramount to promoting standardisation in this field, enabling the comparison of new materials against well characterised samples.

The PaRaMetriC consortium will collaborate with SPACECOOL to evaluate the cooling capacity of its cooling films using different testing prototypes, potentially up to surface areas of square meters due to the scalable fabrication of the SPACECOOL film.

Among several materials that are currently being studied in the project, large-scale and flexible films such as the one developed by SPACECOOL hold promise for several thermal management applications reaching beyond the residential sector, including for instance efficient heat shedding from electric vehicles, refrigeration in the transportation or electric power distribution fields, non-evaporative cooling and storage of water, or to enhance the efficiency of traditional cooling appliances, to name a few.

Representation at COP28 Climate Change Conference

For their leading role in the field of passive radiative cooling, SPACECOOL has been selected to exhibit at the COP28 Japan Pavilion as one of the companies supporting the realisation of Japan’s long-term goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and the worldwide efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. During the event, launching November 30th, the collaboration between SPACECOOL and PaRaMetriC will also be presented, to highlight our joint commitment towards the standardisation of passive radiative cooling technologies.

This Metrology Partnership project has received funding from the European Partnership on Metrology, co-financed by the European Union Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme and from the Participating States.

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