According to the U.S. government the United States uses over 130 billion gallons of gas each year, and over 7 billion of those gallons are used to power our vehicles’ air conditioning. Each gallon used puts over 19 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere, totaling over 1,500 million metric tons of CO2 per year. Testing at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has show a reduction of A/C fuel use of up to 26% when a vehicle was equipped with advanced solar control. If all vehicles were so equipped, that could add up to savings of 1.8 billion gallons of fuel per year, reducing CO2 emissions by nearly 18 million tons.
Enhanced protective glass is laminated glass, and it enables advanced solar control by incorporating special IR reflective or absorbing materials.
This improvement is substantial enough that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enables automakers to receive greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction credits when equipping vehicles with advanced solar control (IR reflecting or absorbing) glass with heat rejection capabilities superior to standard “solar green” tint glass.