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The super-cool materials that send heat to space

Paints, plastics and even wood can be engineered to stay cool in direct sunlight — but their role in displacing power-hungry air conditioners remains unclear.
  1. XiaoZhi Lim

    1. XiaoZhi Lim is a freelance writer in Natick, Massachusetts.

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When businessman Howard Bisla was tasked with saving a local shop from financial ruin, one of his first concerns was energy efficiency. In June 2018, he approached his local electricity provider in Sacramento, California, about upgrading the lights. The provider had another idea. It offered to install an experimental cooling system: panels that could stay colder than their surroundings, even under the blazing hot sun, without consuming energy.

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Nature 577, 18-20 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03911-8

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