Darmstadt, Germany, September 27, 2011 - Merck, through its U.S. subsidary EMD Chemicals, and RavenBrick, a Denver-based clean technology company, announced a cooperation that uses Merck's liquid crystals and RavenBrick's leading window technology to create energy-efficient windows that can open and close with the power of the sun. RavenWindowsTM, which use dynamic smart glazing technology, have been installed at the Research Support Facility (RSF) on the campus of the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Merck has been supplying liquid crystal mixtures to RavenBrick for their patented RavenWindowTM products.
The new 220,000-square-foot RSF is the most energy efficient building in the world, garnering the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design's (LEED) highest rating, platinum. From energy producing technology such as roof top solar panels, onsite energy storage, recycled building materials and green computing practices, the final piece of the puzzle was an energy efficient window system. RavenWindowTM met this need head-on and due to the performance and highly positive occupant feedback RavenWindows will also be installed in the new RSF wing in December 2011.
Merck is the world's leading producer of liquid crystals. The Germany-based company seeks out opportunities in fields that will benefit society such as energy-saving technologies like smart windows. In RavenBrick there was a chance to partner with an innovative company using liquid crystals in thermally switchable window films. As the square footage for a typical window is many times the size of a video display, Merck saw the NREL building as an ideal occasion to work jointly with RavenBrick by providing the liquid crystal materials required to manufacture the windows.
"We anticipate a substantial potential of smart window technologies in commercial and residential buildings," said Rainer Neeff, Director of Marketing and Sales for Liquid Crystals and Optical Film Materials, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. "Merck can and will provide support to the fast-growing green building market by supplying functional formulations developed from our liquid crystal materials portfolio."
"We are pleased to demonstrate the positive result of our cooperative effort with Merck at the NREL installation," said Alex Burney, CEO of RavenBrick."
