Modern glass is vital in the fight against climate change. Not only is it integral to solar energy products, but fitting energy efficient glazing to new and existing buildings could save the EU 97m tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. Clemens Miller explains the way forward for green development and the role of NSG Group.

Clemens Miller: Founded in 1918 in Japan NSG acquired the leading UK based glass manufacturer PLC in June 2006. Today the enlarged company has combined sales of approximately 600 billion Japanese Yen with manufacturing operations in about 30 countries, sales in 1 of the 30 countries around the world and employing around 28,000 thousands people world wide. The groups’ focus is in flat glass providing glass for buildings, architectural. For technical applications. Also glass for solar energy generation, for automotive products and some special applications. Geographically about 40% of our sales are in Europe, 25% in Japan, about 15% in North America and the rest primarily in South America, South East Asia and China.

The New Economy: So you are a company with an established pedigree in glass making, how are you responding to the new low-carbon world?

Clemens Miller: With enthusiasm, and that is not because it is the flavour of the day. It is because we are fully committed to sustainability, we have been for as long as we have existed, because we deal with glass. Our strategy and policy underline the unique contribution our products can make, to addressing climate change and the challenges we face in improving our own energy usage and resource management. Glass in fact has an important role to play in helping to reduce greenhouse gas omissions and mitigating the effects of climate change. We have been producing and promoting glazing solutions which, significantly contribute to reducing building energy consumption and therefore C02 omissions and we still do. At the same time we have successfully developed stronger glass for cars which results in significantly reduced glass thicknesses, and lighter cars means less fuel consumption and therefore less carbon emissions. The latest glass innovation for the new low-carbon world are glass panels for photovoltaic? energy generation and solar mirror production. These new high tech glass panels form the back bone of photovoltaic modules and mirrors. Literally there is no commercially available photovoltaic module and no concentrator mirror for solar energy conversion in the world, that does not contain a significant amount of high performance glass. We are proud of being a key industry for making our world better, that means less energy consumptive and less carbon omitting.

The New Economy: Given that buildings account for round half of the energy consumed in the EU, what role can glass play in reducing consumption levels?

Clemens Miller: In essence, glass can help to reduce heat loss in buildings by providing better insulation and it can also reduce energy consumption from cooling systems by minimising solar radiation into the buildings. Fortunately building regulations in most developed countries demand today’s state of the art glazing for new constructions, and consequently they help to reduce our carbon footprint. The challenge now lies in improving the performance of existing building stock, especially in our developed countries. The majority of these buildings were constructed at times when energy efficiency was not a concern for architects and designers. An independent study on performance of state of the art low emissivity glazing shows, that within the EU alone, fitting energy efficient glazing to new and existing buildings could save up to 97 million tonnes of C02 emissions annually by 2020. This equates to almost a third of the annual carbon emissions reduction targets set out but the latest EU directive.

The New Economy: What are the glass technologies and products that Pilkington has been developing in this area?

Clemens Miller: Let me start with good news for the legislators and the consumers; most of the glass solutions required to save this enormous amount of energy have already been developed. They are available off the shelf in all developed countries around the globe. This is an important advantage, particularly in comparison to other technologies aimed at reducing our C02 omissions. For example electrical cars, where a lot of expensive development work still needs to be done successfully before the first ton of C02 can be saved. The important product rules for glass in buildings are low emissivity, that means insulating glass, and reflective solar controlled glass. In both cases the end cases the product is an insulating glass unit consisting of 2 or 3 glass panes. 1 or more of the glass surfaces in this glass assembly, are coated with a very thin invisible high-tech coating. Depending on the type it helps to reduce energy losses from the inside to the outside, or it helps to shield the inside against radiation from the sun and therefore prevents the building from heating up. These key features can combine with each other but also with all functionalities of modern glazing like safety, security, noise insulation, fire protection, self cleaning, colour, decoration, what ever you want.

The New Economy: Of course cost is always the main concern for businesses and house holders, do you think cost will be a barrier to the adoption of new glass products?

Clemens Miller: Let me take 2 examples and then come to an answer. I will start with photovoltaics which I have already mentioned as a very important application of glass. Everybody agrees that in general electricity generated from photovoltaics can not compete cost wise with energy produced from fossil fuels. Already some time ago some governments have started to incentivise the use of photovoltaics modules through subsidies of feed-in tariffs. This has led to a real boom in demand of photovoltaics in the last few years. As a consequence, production technology has progressed, mass production as been set up and therefore the cost of making and installing photovoltaics modules have come down tremendously. Already today in some parts of the world, the cost of photovoltaic generated electricity equals the cost of conventional electricity. With crude oil and gas becoming more expensive over time, and with module prices continuing to fall today, a photovoltaic age without subsidies is in sight. In this case of environmentally friendly glazing of buildings, we to differentiate between two cases, new builds and existing stock. Standards of new buildings in developed countries are generally high but unfortunately building activity is rather low. Therefore our governments need to convince the developing countries, particularly China and Russia with high building activity, to implement revised building regulations which raise the standard of their new buildings.

The New Economy: So finally, what needs to happen in the market for these new technologies to be widely adopted.

Clemens Miller: The keys are in the hands of the glass industry and the governments. We try to deliver our part by continuing to develop even more sophisticated glazing solutions for buildings, for cars, as well as improved functional glasses for carbon free energy generation. Like, for example, photovoltaic modules. We would very much appreciate more ambitious governmental legislation for new buildings in developing countries, but also for the existing housing stock in our developed economies. In some cases, governmental intervention might mean some temporary incentives. The growth of photovoltaic energy generation and the development of a capable photovoltaic industry, supplying very much improved products at significantly reduced costs demonstrates how incentives can work to deliver the right glazing solutions in buildings.

The New Economy: Clemens Miller, thank you very much.

Clemens Miller: Thank you.