COOL SURFACES IN SOUTH AFRICA

Cool surfaces provide passive benefits by reducing heat entering structures and the energy required to keep buildings cool, which lowers the maximum energy demand. Applying cool coatings to low-cost housing and public buildings is a good starting point because it will support adoption at scale and help to meet these most pressing needs first. Tests from the low-cost housing cool surfaces project in Groblershoop showed that the indoor daytime temperature of a low-cost, corrugated-iron house dropped from 34 ºC to 25 ºC.”

DOE supports a number of collaborations with African nations that share the goals of the U.S.-Africa Business Forum. One key collaboration, managed by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) International program, is the South Africa Clean Energy Project. The goal of this project is to encourage the adoption of increasingly stringent energy-efficient building codes, and to accelerate the deployment of related clean energy products.  In 2016 MS-Thermashield was used to paint the Emmanuel School, and was presented by the South African National Energy Development Institute as a pilot project.

Leading U.S. and South African experts from industry, government and the non-profit sector gathered in May 2015 at the Powering South Africa with Cleaner & Smarter Energy Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.  In which the Enviroecoats brand participated, with its MS-Thermashield product, from which excellent results were obtained.  Energy engagement is especially important in South Africa as it faces its worst energy crisis since 2008, with the possibility of severe power outages affecting many homes and businesses.   With products such as MS-Thermashield in South Africa, the need for an energy passive, low-cost, low-maintenance cooling technology for buildings has been met since 2014 to date.   

In 2014, the U.S. and African energy ministries held an event where they emphasized the need for sustainable energy development in all African nations.   Since then, they have been conducting tests and projects with the MS-Thermashield product.  Although this product was developed in the United States, it can be manufactured anywhere in the world, with local materials, which allow lower production costs, without losing the characteristics of high reflectivity and low thermal emittance, to make cool surfaces. 

In 2019, a technical training was held with the purpose of promoting the Coolroofs Tangerang Project, among the residents and stakeholders of the city of Tangerang and providing technical explanations for the application of cool roof innovations in the city.

Cool Roofs Indonesia is one of ten Boost Awardees for our Million Cool Roofs Challenge, working in Indonesia. Here, Beta Paramita, an Asst. Professor at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI),  to produce Enviroecoats , MS-Thermashield cool paint in Indonesia.