The United States Department of Energy (DOE)

$30 million in funding for several programs aimed at developing breakthroughs in energy efficiency, including new window technologies that prevent energy loss.

DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy will fund three programs that aim to develop energy storage technologies, promote early career energy innovators and cut energy waste. Within the $30 million allotted, $5 million is for four projects under the Galvanizing Leaps in Advanced Super Insulating Glass (GLASING) program.

The program is designed to research new technologies that can cut energy costs for homeowners and businesses by developing window technology that prevents energy loss. The projects, run by North Carolina State University, Alfred University, NextGlass and V-Glass Inc., will develop low-cost, high-performance vacuum insulating glass (VIG).

“I am thrilled to announce that V-Glass has been awarded $1 million by DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy under its GLASING program,” writes Michael J. Petit on LinkedIn. He is the co-founder and CEO of V-Glass Inc. “This project, entitled ‘Innovative Technology Enabling Affordable R-10 Windows,’ along with recently secured private capital, will fund the development of V-Glass’ novel automation and manufacturing technology and accelerate our move out of the lab into a pilot plant.”

According to the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the GLASING project descriptions are as follows:

V-Glass will develop a room-temperature high-speed ultrasonic welding process to produce low-conductivity edge-seal VIG. The edge-seal will be combined with an efficient spacer design and plasma-based vacuum degassing to enable rapid, low-cost VIG manufacturing.

North Carolina State University will develop composite, glassy gel edge seals that are stiff yet tough, flexible yet hermetic and rapidly curable at room temperature to enable production of low-cost, highly insulating, retrofittable VIGs.

Alfred University will create “bent” tempered glass lites that flatten during evacuation, reducing or even eliminating the need for internal support pillars. Pillar placement in VIGs is a time-consuming operation, and the pillars form thermal conduction paths that lower the thermal performance of VIGs. By eliminating pillars, this approach could speed VIG assembly, lower material costs and increase manufacturing speed as well as improve thermal performance.

NextGlass LLC will develop an oven-free VIG fabrication process that enables a multifold increase in production speed. The VIG construction improves overall thermal performance by minimizing heat conduction around the edge of the VIG. The VIG design also uses low-cost getters, enabling fast and low-cost evacuation of VIGs during the assembly process. NextGlass will also replace the bakeout process and innovate on the pillar placement process, unlocking economical, scalable, high-throughput VIG manufacturing.