Macau hotel puts ClearVue solar glass tech to the test

ASX-listed smart building materials company ClearVue Technologies has kicked off the first real-world deployment of its next-generation photovoltaic glazing technology, jointly developed with Chinese building materials heavyweight LandVac. The trial, at a hotel in Macau, marks a significant step in commercialising the company’s technology for the massive global building retrofit market.

The installation represents a key execution milestone for the recently announced Hong Kong joint venture between ClearVue and LandVac and is designed to validate the product’s performance under real operating conditions. The trial has landed at an opportune time, with jurisdictions such as Hong Kong and Macau pushing harder on energy-efficiency upgrades for existing buildings, creating a policy tailwind for new retrofit technologies.

The wider global market for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is also forecast for strong multi-year growth as demand for building materials that both insulate and generate power continues to expand.

The partnership with LandVac, a subsidiary of LandGlass, began with a memorandum of understanding back in July 2025 to co-develop, manufacture and commercialise solar vacuum-insulated glazing. The launch of this real-world trial shows the collaboration is moving at a solid clip.

The jointly developed product, dubbed “Project Delta”, is a single-glazed insulating photovoltaic window that ClearVue says is designed to deliver thermal performance comparable to approximately 1.5 metres of brick wall, while being about the thickness of a mobile phone.

Although ClearVue’s relationship with LandVac has primarily focused on combining solar tech with structural vacuum insulation - which uses double-pane units with a vacuum gap between the panes - the joint venture’s newer standalone single-glazed product achieves its insulating properties entirely through a spectrally selective chemical and optical approach, eliminating the need for a vacuum gap.

Instead, it uses an innovative mix of materials science and optics built directly into a single laminated pane. The company says the product delivers excellent insulation and a 20 per cent lower solar heat gain coefficient. Management claims the lightweight glazing solution is up to three times as efficient as a normal double-glazed unit and 12 times more efficient than legacy single glazing.

The Macau trial will see an existing single-glazed window in a hotel room replaced with the new technology. An adjacent room with its existing glazing will be retained as a direct control for a side-by-side comparison.

Environmental sensors will monitor and measure electricity generation, thermal performance and the subsequent impact on air-conditioning energy consumption.