Cool Surfaces

United States Cool Surfaces Deployment Project

Accelerating the deployment of cool surfaces across the United States

Mission

Solar-reflective building envelope surfaces, such as cool roofs and walls, can be especially helpful in disadvantaged communities that often have poorly insulated older homes, aging or absent air conditioning units, steep utility bills, polluted air, and high vulnerability and exposure to extreme heat. With support from the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Cool Surfaces Deployment Project seeks to dramatically increase the climate-appropriate deployment of cool surfaces across the United States with an emphasis on their application to disadvantaged communities.

Project Objectives

   

Technical Assistance

  

Educational Campaign

  

Demonstration Projects
Provide support to federal, state, and local government officials to incorporate cool roofs and walls into their program guidance and into building specifications   Launch the "Keep Your Cool" educational campaign to inform stakeholders and the general public on how cool surfaces keep unwanted solar heat out of our homes, workplaces, and communities   Initiate scalable demonstration programs that bring cool surfaces to disadvantaged communities to provide local examples and data on the performance of cool surfaces

Webinar

The Phase 2 webinar was held on Friday, February 9th, 2024. Please see below for presentation slides and a summary of the webinar. If you would like to join our “Keep Your Cool” education campaign or our high-profile demonstrations team, please use the following google form to express interest.

 
Expand/Collapse All
U.S. Cool Surfaces Deployment Project Webinar Summary

Fri. Feb 9, 2024

Summary:

The meeting began with some confusion over participants' names due to a shared link, but eventually everyone was properly identified. The focus of the meeting was on the US Cool Surfaces Deployment Project, which aims to increase the adoption of cool roofs and walls across the country, particularly in disadvantaged communities. The project has six main areas of focus, including technical support, education and communication, research and development, building codes and standards, incentives, and collaboration with governments.

The meeting discussed the goals and priorities for phase two of the Cool Surfaces project, which aims to promote the use of cool roofs and walls. The project will focus on technical assistance to government programs, an education campaign to raise awareness of cool surfaces, and high-profile demonstration projects to showcase their effectiveness. The team is seeking input and involvement from stakeholders to help achieve these goals.

The speaker, Ronnen Levinson, concludes the presentation and answers questions from the chat. He encourages those interested in participating in the education campaign or demonstration team to let them know as soon as possible. He also mentions that the team will share the slides and put them on their website.

Chapters & Topics:

Name Confusion and Poll Introduction

Ronnen Levinson addresses the confusion of participants being named Iona or Frank, attributing it to a shared meeting link. He requests everyone to rename themselves with their real names and affiliations to avoid complications. Following this, Iona Isachsen introduces a poll question about the prevalence of cool surfaces and light-colored roofs and walls in the participants' locations, with the results indicating a need for change.

U.S. Cool Surfaces Deployment Project

Ronnen Levinson presents the multifaceted benefits of cool roofs and walls, including energy savings, urban heat island mitigation, and peak power demand reduction. He underscores the significance of addressing heat-related challenges in disadvantaged communities and introduces the U.S. Cool Surfaces Deployment Project as a strategic initiative to promote the widespread use of cool surfaces, with a focus on enhancing building resilience and energy efficiency in vulnerable areas.

Phase One Recap and Phase Two Implementation Plan

Ronnen Levinson, representing LBNL, presents a comprehensive overview of phase one achievements and the plan for phase two implementation. He emphasizes the collaborative efforts with various institutions and stakeholders, the identification of key needs for cool surfaces, and the development of a national deployment plan. Additionally, he outlines the transformative ideas for phase two, covering technical support, education and communication, research and development, building codes and standards, incentives, and government collaboration.

Technical Assistance & "Keep Your Cool" Education Campaign

Ronnen Levinson and Iona Isachsen lead a discussion on seeking technical assistance for cool roofs and walls, followed by the introduction of an education campaign aimed at promoting the benefits of cool surfaces to different stakeholders. They outline the goals, timeline, and ways for participants to get involved in the campaign, including brainstorming, marketing, and design contributions.

Demonstration Projects and Next Steps

David Sailor presents the plan for high-profile demonstration projects focusing on cool surfaces, with a goal to provide local examples and performance data to facilitate widespread adoption. The next steps involve forming a demonstration team and designing scalable programs for implementation in FY25, with opportunities for stakeholders to contribute in various ways.

Q&A and Open Discussion

Ronnen Levinson responds to inquiries about IRA funding and leveraging opportunities for cool surfaces, including generating boilerplate language for cool roof codes. He also discusses the potential for demonstrating R&D technologies and commercially available products, highlighting the need for a long-term service life for R&D materials.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Ronnen Levinson expresses gratitude to the team members and discusses the extraction of quiz answers and AI summaries from the meeting. Iona Isachsen reports on the interest form results and plans to schedule a brainstorming meeting for the education team via a Doodle poll. 

Action Items:

* Iona will schedule a brainstorming meeting for the education team via a Doodle poll and look at the interest form results.

Key Questions:

* How common are cool surfaces, light-colored roofs, and/or walls where you live?

* What role can you play in helping with the deployment projects?

* Are you willing to demonstrate R&D technologies or only commercially available products?

Publications

  • Levinson, R., Alhazmi, M., Becce, J., Desjarlais, A., Gilbert, H., Kats, G., Miller, J., Morin, E., Sailor, D., & Schneider, S. (2023). United States Cool Surfaces Deployment Plan. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.20357/B7602K [open access]
     
  • Alhazmi, M., Sailor, D. J., & Levinson, R. (2023). A review of challenges, barriers, and opportunities for large-scale deployment of cool surfaces. Energy Policy, 180, 113657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113657 [closed access]
     
  • Alhazmi, M., Sailor, D. J., & Levinson, R. (2023). A review of challenges, barriers, and opportunities for large-scale deployment of cool surfaces [preprint]. ASU Scholarship Showcase. https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.187989 [open access]

Project Background

A brief history

With support from the Building Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy, in Phase 1 of the U.S. Cool Surfaces Deployment Project (2022-2023), a deployment plan was developed with input from stakeholders. A set of 19 transformative ideas form the core of the deployment plan (Levinson et al., 2023).

Where we are today

The Building Technologies Office is now supporting Phase 2 of the project, the implementation of three transformative ideas: a “Keep Your Cool” educational campaign, high-profile cool roof/wall demonstrations in disadvantaged communities, and technical assistance to governments.

As part of Phase 2, the project team conducted interviews with home builder associations to fill a gap identified in the Phase 1 deployment plan. Takeaways from these additional interviews can be viewed below.

 

Meet the project staff

* = past member

     
     
Expand/Collapse All
Why cool roofs and walls?

Cool roofs and walls can provide many well-known benefits to building occupants, communities, power utilities, and the planet including:

  • HVAC energy and monetary savings
  • Heat island mitigation
  • Peak power demand reduction
  • Comfort, health, and safety in heat waves
  • Smog abatement
  • Global cooling
What are the available cool surface materials?

You can browse the Cool Roof Rating Council directories of roof and wall products to see the array of available materials. Generally, materials with higher solar reflectance and thermal emittance values will lead to greater benefits.

Are there opportunities to get involved?

Yes! The project is currently seeking stakeholders interested in participating in the development and deployment of the “Keep Your Cool” educational campaign to launch by summer 2024 and the high-profile cool roof and/or cool wall demonstrations in disadvantaged communities to execute in 2025. If you are interested in joining either team, please complete this short form and you will be contacted by someone on the project staff.

 

Questions?

Contact [email protected] for more information on the project