Bikes & Cars...

California’s AB32 cap on greenhouse gas emissions has its regulatory agencies working to find a set of measures that will add up to enough savings to cut 2020 emissions by about 30%. Since twelve years is too short to change California’s vehicle fleet or its power plants, a myriad of measures are being considered, each rather small, but cummulatively are hoped to make a difference.

One such effort is to find paints and coatings to reduce how hot cars get when parked, so the driver is less likely to turn on the air conditioner:

This strategy is based on measures to reduce the solar heat gain in a vehicle parked in the sun. A cooler interior would make drivers less likely to activate the air conditioner, which increases carbon dioxide emissions.

Potential approaches include reformulation of paint to reflect near-infrared sunlight, parked car ventilation, and solar reflective window glazing. It is expected that cool paints, together with reflective glazing, will reduce the soak temperature of the typical vehicle parked in the sun by 5 to10 degrees celsius.

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