Innovative Paint Uses ‘Sweat’ to Cool Buildings

Swift Summary

• Engineers have developed a new cement-based cooling paint called CCP-30 designed to combat rising temperatures in urban settings.
• CCP-30 offers around 10 times the cooling power of traditional paints by leveraging reflective, radiative, and evaporative abilities.
• The paint is composed of calcium silicate hydrate modified to be porous and retains up to 30% of its weight in water,which aids passive evaporation-based cooling.
• In tests conducted over two years on buildings in Singapore, CCP-30 reflected up to 92% sunlight and emitted 95% heat as infrared radiation without diminishing its effectiveness when saturated with water.
• Pilot-scale tests showed electricity savings of 30-40%, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 28% over its life cycle compared to standard paints.
• The innovation may be particularly valuable in densely populated, humid regions affected by the urban heat island (UHI) affect.

!Air conditioner in house window on summer day

Indian Opinion Analysis

The development of CCP-30 holds meaningful promise for countries like India where rising temperatures and urban heat islands are increasingly pressing issues. IndiaS high population density combined with rapid urbanization makes cooling solutions both necessary and challenging. with global energy concerns mounting-air conditioning alone accounting for about 20% of worldwide electricity consumption-it becomes crucial for India to adopt environmentally enduring technology.Focused implementation of innovations like CCP-30 could help mitigate costs related to air conditioning while reducing strain on already stressed power grids during heatwaves. Additionally, improving thermal management through such eco-kind coatings could substantially enhance living conditions in humid areas such as coastal cities like Mumbai or Chennai prone to extreme UHI effects.

The potential combination of cost savings (up to 40%) alongside reduced carbon impact highlights a dual benefit that aligns with India’s climate goals under the Paris Agreement. Though, scalability across varying climates including arid regions will need further assessment before widespread adoption can occur.Read More