Transparent insulation of building facades - steps from research to commercial applications

In 1981, the Fraunofer-Institute for Solar Energy Systems (FhG-ISE) has started research work in the field of the use of transparent insulation in the building sector (1). From 1983 till to date a large number of demonstration projects have been established, mostly supported by the German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT). The program led to fruitful cooperation between different research institutes and also initiated and gave financial support for cooperation with companies interested in producing and marketing TI systems. This paper gives a short summary of the work done in this specific field in the past 12 years. It is an example of the dynamic developments in solar energy from the basic ideas to commercial systems.