SolarMantle

SolarMantle

SolarMantle

A state-of-the-art Passive Radiative Cooling Material that Reduces Cooling Energy by up-to 40%

Massachusetts, USA

USA

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

Cooling is one of the most energy-intensive and costly demands placed on buildings and infrastructure. It currently accounts for ~15% global electricity consumption, projected to triple by 2050, driven by rising temperatures and growing urban populations. The International Energy Agency estimates that space cooling alone could consume as much electricity in 2050 as China and India use today, contributing 1 gigaton of CO₂ emissions annually. This surge disproportionately affects developing countries, where cooling demand is growing fastest, but access to affordable, efficient technologies remains limited, exacerbating both energy poverty and climate vulnerability. Current cooling systems like HVACs rely heavily on fossil fuels and refrigerants with high global warming potential. Passive radiative cooling (PRC) offers an electricity-free alternative by emitting heat to outer space through the atmospheric transparency window. However, existing PRC technologies face barriers: they are fragile, difficult to manufacture, require complex nanofabrication, and lack durability for long-term outdoor use. Today, over 3.6 billion people live in regions where cooling is critical for health and productivity, yet 1.2 billion lack access to it. Rising global heat is projected to expose over 80% of the world’s population to life-threatening heat stress in the upcoming years.

SolarMantle’s solution is a passive radiative cooling (PRC) film that cools buildings and surfaces without using electricity. It reflects ~96% of solar radiation and emits ~90% of heat through the infrared transparency window (8–13 μm), allowing it to maintain surface temperatures up to 6.1 °C (11 °F) below ambient, even under peak sunlight. Developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and published in Nano Letters (2021, 21, 1493–1499), the film’s design is based on deep optical engineering and validated through outdoor testing. It is patent-pending and manufactured using low-cost commodity polymers via scalable roll-to-roll extrusion. Unlike many existing PRC technologies—which rely on complex nanostructures, expensive materials like silver, or PFAS-based paints—SolarMantle’s film is flexible, single-layer, PFAS-free, and designed for large-scale deployment. It can be applied to rooftops, facades, shipping containers, and vehicle exteriors, making it ideal for both retrofits and new construction. Across applications, SolarMantle enables 15–40% reductions in cooling energy demand, with the potential to save gigawatt-hours of electricity and avoid millions of tons of CO₂ annually. Its benefits are especially critical in regions with limited access to electricity, offering affordable, sustainable cooling for homes, cold-chain logistics, and data infrastructure worldwide.

SolarMantle’s solution is designed to serve a wide range of populations and industries that are currently underserved by existing cooling technologies. Its flexible, durable, and scalable PDRC film can be deployed across sectors such as cold-storage transportation, emergency shelters, data centers, warehouses, industrial facilities, and residential and commercial buildings. Many of these users fall into two categories: 1) those who currently lack access to cooling altogether—such as people living in informal settlements, off-grid communities, or disaster zones—where high heat impairs health, productivity, and quality of life; and 2) those who rely on energy-intensive mechanical cooling systems but face rising costs, unreliable power, or pressure to decarbonize—such as logistics operators, data center managers, and building owners. Both groups are underserved: the former by lack of infrastructure, and the latter by the limitations of existing technologies. SolarMantle addresses both challenges by delivering an affordable, electricity-free cooling solution that improves thermal comfort, reduces energy demand by 15–40%, and lowers operational costs and emissions. By making sustainable cooling accessible at scale, it directly improves human well-being, productivity, and resilience—particularly as extreme heat becomes more frequent and severe in both developed and developing regions.