Southwall Celebrates 30 Years of Energy Efficiency Innovation by Commemorating the World’s First Low-E Glass Installation

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southwall Technologies Inc. (OTCBB:SWTX), the worldwide innovator of energy-saving films and glass products, today celebrates the 30-year anniversary of the world’s first high performance glass installation, the City Hall in Spokane, Washington. Utilizing Southwall’s Heat Mirror^® insulating glass - the world’s first commercially produced low-emissivity, or low-e, glass product - Spokane City Hall has delivered significant energy savings over the past three decades. This underscores the company’s field-proven product durability and its pioneering role in improving the energy efficiency of residential and commercial glazing.

“As we reflect on our past by honoring the anniversary of our project with Spokane City Hall, we look forward to another 30 years of continuing to deliver innovative, industry-proven, and cost-effective super-insulating glass – glass that promises to take green building to the next level of energy efficiency performance.”

Southwall’s Heat Mirror technology - in which one or more lightweight Heat Mirror films are suspended within an insulating glass unit to create multiple insulating cavities - was the first major breakthrough in insulating glass performance in over 100 years, an innovation chosen by Popular Science as one of the Top 100 Products of the Millennium. Utilizing a high performance suspended film with an advanced low-e coating that reflects heat back to its source, Heat Mirror insulating glass enables buildings like Spokane City Hall to realize superior insulation and solar control, lowering a home or building’s carbon footprint while decreasing cooling and heating expenses by up to 30 percent.

“Founded 30 years ago in response to the oil embargo, Southwall has always had, and always will have, energy efficiency as its core philosophy,” said Dennis Capovilla, president and chief executive officer of Southwall Technologies. “As we reflect on our past by honoring the anniversary of our project with Spokane City Hall, we look forward to another 30 years of continuing to deliver innovative, industry-proven, and cost-effective super-insulating glass – glass that promises to take green building to the next level of energy efficiency performance.”

Since its introduction to the market, Heat Mirror has been installed in thousands of homes and buildings worldwide, including all 6,500 windows in New York’s Empire State Building saving $400,000 in annual operating costs as a key component of a major energy upgrade.

About Southwall Technologies

Southwall Technologies Inc. is recognized as a leader in the development and manufacture of high performance, energy-saving films and glass products that dramatically improve the energy efficiency of residential, commercial and automotive glass. Southwall is an ISO 9001:2000-certified manufacturer with customers in over 25 countries.