Dr. Edwin Tso was invited to present in the Briefing Session on Government Energy Performance Reporting and Monitoring 2021

Dr. Edwin Tso, Assistant Professor, was recently invited by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) of the HKSAR Government to give a presentation on “Daytime Passive Radiative Cooling in Hong Kong: Past, Present, and the Future” on 14 July 2021 at the lecture theatre of Hong Kong Science Museum. To promote energy saving and conservation, Dr. Tso introduced an advanced building energy-saving technology, namely daytime passive radiative cooling, to the government officials from various bureau/departments in the presentation.

Air-conditioning consumes over 30% of building energy consumption in Hong Kong. Compressors of traditional air-conditioning systems consume enormous amounts of energy and use ozone-depleting refrigerants, contributing to energy shortage and global warming. Conversely, passive radiative cooling technology has an edge in decarbonization and environmental protection since it is green (refrigerant-free) and sustainable (energy-free). In the past, radiative coolers were expensive and the feasibility of large-scale application in buildings was yet to be facilitated. Based on the situation, Dr. Tso and his research team developed an energy-free and low-cost passive radiative cooling paint, providing a promising energy-saving approach to electricity consumption in buildings. With excellent cooling performance and significant building energy-saving potential, this award-winning cooling paint attracted numerous interests from different sectors of society. In the future, Dr. Tso will investigate this technology in-depth to further functionalize the current passive radiative cooling paint. For example, the cooling paints with different colors, the water-based property, cooling power modulation ability, and even the coolers in a ceramic form, will be developed, providing more options to building users and contributing towards the zero-carbon goal.