Flat glass is the material that goes into a variety of end products and primarily in windows and facades for buildings, windscreens and windows for automotive and transport as well as glass covers, connectors and mirrors for solar energy equipment. It is also used in smaller quantities for other applications such as appliances, electronics, etc.
Glass for Europe has four members: AGC Glass Europe, NSG Group, Saint-Gobain Glass and Sisecam Trakya Cam and works in association with Guardian. All together, these five companies represent 90% of Europe’s flat glass production.
Glass products not only provide light, comfort, style, security and safety, they are also essential to energy-efficient buildings, houses and transport. Windows containing high-performance glass such as low-e insulating glass, which helps keep warmth in, and solar-control glass, which reflects unwanted heat away, help reduce energy consumption. Solar energy glass helps enhance the production of a renewable source of energy.
To maximize its contributions to a competitive low-carbon economy, the flat glass industry believes that it is essential that the energy saving glass Europe needs can be produced in Europe to profit its economy, to enhance recycling and to avoid importing carbon from outside EU borders.
Table of content
Glossary of terms .................................................................... 2
Introduction .............................................................................. 3
Executive Summary ................................................................. 3
4.1. General questions ............................................................ 4
4.2. Targets .............................................................................. 6
4.3. Instruments...................................................................... 12
4.4. Competitiveness and security of supply ........................ 14
Appendices ............................................................................ 17