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Minnesota Technology Magazine - Fall/Winter 2006

Up Front

Rooms With a View

A new view on glass reaps rewards for Faribault-based Sage Electrochromics.

—Becky Aldridge

Image of arrow Faribault-based Sage Electrochromics Inc. has a deceptively simple mission:Let people see out of their windows. You might be asking, don't most windows do that? Of course, but think of all the times glass is tinted to keep out glare or windows are covered by blinds. "People want daylight and connection with the outdoors," says company president John Van Dine. "Otherwise, people would never use glass—it's inefficient."

Image of Sage Glass The company's signature product is its SageGlass coating, which consists of multiple layers of thin ceramic films that are applied to insulated glass and affected by the application of low-voltage DC that causes the layers to darken. (The process can be reversed at night.) The result? SageGlass products block glare, keep out damaging UV radiation, and provide control of solar heat—all without blocking the view. As Van Dine notes, SageGlass windows allow 9 percent of the sun's energy to gets through the glass and penetrate into a building; with standard nonresidential windows, often more than 30 percent of the sun's energy radiates through.

The company's customers range from window and skylight manufacturers such as VELUX to utilities such as Southern California Edison. A new customer has recently been added to the list: Twin Lakes Elementary School in Elk River. The school district had already developed a well-designed daylighting system, but the system, which includes Venetian blinds, was "negated by the fact that teachers pull the blinds in the morning and leave them drawn for the whole day," says Lou Podbelski, Sage's vice president of marketing.

The Elk River project is one of many that the company has in the works. "Sales revenues are ramping up dramatically," Van Dine says, adding that the recent emphasis on saving energy and green building is "pulling our product into the marketplace."

To date, the SageGlass technology has been used only in building applications but Podbelski says, "We are just now looking at applications and opportunities outside the industry where sunlight heat and glare need to be controlled without loss of view."