On April 11-12, 2023, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) under the US Department of Energy held the Vacuum Glass Summit (VIG Summit). This is the first seminar on Vacuum Glass (VIG) held in North America, where discussions and discussions were held on how to expand the market demand for vacuum glass, ensure supply to meet market demand, incentive policies, performance testing, and other issues. The latest research progress in vacuum glass technology in the United States was also introduced.
The goals of this summit include:
1. Develop market application strategies for expanding high-performance insulation windows;
2. Review and propose suggestions for updating relevant (architectural) standards;
3. Review the current research status and determine future research needs.
More than 90 professionals from relevant industries, including the construction and glass industry, experts and scholars from research institutions, and government officials, attended the summit in the form of "online+offline".
The conference was attended by over 90 people, including 50 in person and the rest remotely. The attendees were stakeholders from various industries, including the construction and glass industry, construction professionals, practitioners, academia, researchers, and government departments.
The meeting responded to three challenging issues in three areas through personal statements and group discussions:
1. Three major social challenges, namely high costs, lack of publicity, education, and incentive policies;
2. Three major market challenges, namely promoting financial incentives for green projects, tools and models to demonstrate investment returns, and other benefits from using vacuum glass, obtaining project demonstrations validated by relevant departments, and developing building standards and specifications;
3. Three major research challenges, namely the lifespan and evaluation of vacuum glass, the industrialization technology of vacuum glass, and the validation of vacuum glass thermal models.
The next step will be to address these challenges through the joint efforts of the industry, the US Department of Energy, national laboratories, and practitioners. We plan to develop a 5-year "VIG 5-in-30" plan to accelerate the market application and promotion of vacuum glass, with the goal of vacuum glass accounting for 5% of the US window market share by 2030. A series of meetings will be held to discuss specific solutions and develop a roadmap for the wider use and application of high-performance insulation windows.
