Housing daily use accounts for the 40% of total CO2 emissions in EU-27. Thus, EC has issued a directive that claims for:

• 20% reduction of energy consumption,
• 20% use of Renewable Energy Sources and
• 20% reduction of CO2 emissions at year 2020.

Since Cooling/Heating is a major energy consumer in buildings, insulation and thermal reflection are key aspects of COOL-Coverings project.
The NIR reflective COOL-Coverings Project aims to develop an easy to use and cost-effective range of coatings that can be rapidly offered in the market of retrofitting and new constructions:

• on the external walls
• on façades ceramics
• on the roofs, for which an already existing new generation membrane will incorporate a nanotechnological-based NIR reflecting coating
• on the internal walls and tiles, since the NIR-Reflecting nanocrystalline oxides can be developed in such a reflection range that may also cover the radiation from indoor heating systems.

Key innovation of the COOL-Coverings project is that these enabling technologies do not define a unique specific insulation system but instead open a range of high performance insulation solutions (roof, walls and ceramics) by combining the different functionalities according to the application requirements.