Source : THE AGE NEWS
ASX-listed smart building materials company ClearVue Technologies has kicked off the first real-world deployment of its next-generation photovoltaic glazing technology, jointly developed with Chinese building materials heavyweight LandVac. The trial, at a hotel in Macau, marks a significant step in commercialising the company’s technology for the massive global building retrofit market.
The installation represents a key execution milestone for the recently announced Hong Kong joint venture between ClearVue and LandVac and is designed to validate the product’s performance under real operating conditions. The trial has landed at an opportune time, with jurisdictions such as Hong Kong and Macau pushing harder on energy-efficiency upgrades for existing buildings, creating a policy tailwind for new retrofit technologies.
The wider global market for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is also forecast for strong multi-year growth as demand for building materials that both insulate and generate power continues to expand.
The partnership with LandVac, a subsidiary of LandGlass, began with a memorandum of understanding back in July 2025 to co-develop, manufacture and commercialise solar vacuum-insulated glazing. The launch of this real-world trial shows the collaboration is moving at a solid clip.
‘This new product delivers excellent insulation and a 20% lower solar heat gain coefficient.’
ClearVue Technologies chief executive officer Doug Hunt
The jointly developed product, dubbed “Project Delta”, is a single-glazed insulating photovoltaic window that ClearVue says is designed to deliver thermal performance comparable to approximately 1.5 metres of brick wall, while being about the thickness of a mobile phone.
Although ClearVue’s relationship with LandVac has primarily focused on combining solar tech with structural vacuum insulation – which uses double-pane units with a vacuum gap between the panes – the joint venture’s newer standalone single-glazed product achieves its insulating properties entirely through a spectrally selective chemical and optical approach, eliminating the need for a vacuum gap.
Instead, it uses an innovative mix of materials science and optics built directly into a single laminated pane. The company says the product delivers excellent insulation and a 20 per cent lower solar heat gain coefficient. Management claims the lightweight glazing solution is up to three times as efficient as a normal double-glazed unit and 12 times more efficient than legacy single glazing.
The Macau trial will see an existing single-glazed window in a hotel room replaced with the new technology. An adjacent room with its existing glazing will be retained as a direct control for a side-by-side comparison.
Environmental sensors will monitor and measure electricity generation, thermal performance and the subsequent impact on air-conditioning energy consumption. The hot and humid subtropical conditions of Macau are considered an ideal test environment for a technology designed to reduce cooling loads.
In addition to the window trial, three of ClearVue’s BIPV façade cladding panels with different surface finishes will also be installed to evaluate their durability and weathering performance.
ClearVue Technologies chief executive officer Doug Hunt said: “This deployment demonstrates the early execution of our joint venture with LandVac and represents an important step in taking our jointly developed technology from product development into real-world validation. The combination of LandVac’s advanced glazing technology with ClearVue’s photovoltaic technology creates a compelling solution for the global retrofit market – improving building thermal performance while also generating renewable electricity.”
LandVac founder, Mr Zhao Yan, added that the Macau hotel is the first real-world deployment of his company’s work with ClearVue, with the partnership focused on developing next-generation glazing products to improve the thermal and energy performance of the building envelope.
With building energy consumption a major contributor to carbon emissions, the retrofit market could represent a significant opportunity. Proving out a technology that can not only generate renewable electricity but also drastically improve a building’s thermal efficiency could be a game-changer across existing and future building design, renovation and construction.
The information gathered from the Macau deployment will provide real-world data and is ultimately expected to help build confidence among architects, engineers and developers for broader commercial adoption.
This latest move adds to a string of recent commercial successes for ClearVue, including being named the successful tenderer in May for global visual communication powerhouse and AI-design unicorn Canva’s new Sydney headquarters. Two other recent big wins for ClearVue include a purchase order exceeding $1 million to re-clad two 10-storey towers in South Africa and the company’s first European commercial project in Cyprus.
With real-world data from a demanding climate soon to land and a growing list of commercial-scale projects under its belt, ClearVue appears to be building a solid case for its range of innovative power-generating and insulating glazing products. If the numbers from its Macau verification program stack up as management hopes, it might just have the practical application proof it needs to unlock a big slice of the lucrative global retrofit market.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
