Global competition achieves installation of over 1.1 million square meters of new, highly solar-reflective “cool” roofs in developing countries suffering from heat stress and lack of access to cooling.

SAN FRANCISCO – Clean Cooling Collaborative, a philanthropic initiative to make climate-friendly cooling accessible to all, today announced Cool Roofs Indonesia as the winner of the Million Cool Roofs Challenge, a global competition to scale the use of solar-reflective “cool” roofs in developing countries suffering from heat stress. Cool Roofs Indonesia was selected among 10 finalists for demonstrating the best sustainable and transferable model for the rapid deployment of cool roofs.

“Lack of access to cooling is deadly and a problem for more than one billion people worldwide. We need to meet the rising demand for cooling with more climate-friendly and equitable solutions,” said Noah Horowitz, director of the Clean Cooling Collaborative. “The Million Cool Roof Challenge showcased the global potential to scale cool roofs, which make buildings more comfortable for their occupants and reduce the incidence of heat stress.”

The Million Cool Roofs Challenge was launched in 2019 as a project of the Clean Cooling Collaborative in collaboration with the Global Cool Cities Alliance, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), and Nesta Challenges. The Million Cool Roofs Challenge awarded $125,000 grants to 10 finalist teams based in Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Niger, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa. In some of these countries, the teams were the first to introduce highly solar-reflective coating to local residents, practitioners, and officials in their respective countries. Collectively, they installed over 1.1 million square meters of new cool roofs — an area equivalent to 250,000 small household rooftops — in under two years, despite delays stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

Cool Roofs Indonesia is a partnership of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI), Tangerang Municipality, University of Florida, and Milenium Solutions USA. The group ran a pilot project deploying cool roof materials on six residential, community, and public buildings in the Tangerang municipality of Indonesia. Building on the learnings from the pilot project, the team deployed cool roofs in other locations within Indonesia, measuring as much as a 10-degrees Celsius reduction in temperature following some installations. As the Challenge winner, the team will receive an additional $750,000 to expand cool roofs in Indonesia.

“To bring cool roofs to Indonesia, we had to address barriers to adoption, including the performance of the materials in a tropical climate, a lack of awareness of cool paints, and resource constraints to support installations,” said Dr. Eng. Beta Paramita, assistant professor, Architecture Study Program of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) and project manager of Cool Roofs Indonesia. “We credit our collaboration with institutional, academic, and community partners for overcoming these challenges to achieve the target and make cool roofs more affordable and accessible to many rural and underdeveloped areas in our country. We’re excited to receive additional resources to bring the benefits of cool roofs to more people in Indonesia and hope our learnings help increase the use of this cooling solution around the world.”

Read here to learn more about Cool Roofs Indonesia and their Million Cool Roofs project.