How Nanotech Materials Can Support Net Zero Buildings with Nathan Kegel

The Green Impact Report Quick take: What if a coating 1 millimeter thick could insulate like a thick layer of conventional material, and you could prove it without waiting a year on a pilot? Nathan Kegel spent 20-plus years in energy modelling. Now he's at a materials science startup, building the simulation engine that tests its products before they ever reach a roof. Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Nathan Kegel leads energy services at Nanotech Materials. He grew up outside Green Bay, Wisconsin, working on a neighbor's sweet corn farm (and he's still a Packers fan). He studied at the University of Minnesota and started out designing HVAC and plumbing systems. He soon moved into energy simulation, the part of the job he found more interesting. Over about 20 years he worked on some of the early net zero and LEED Platinum lab projects in California and built building performance teams at architecture and engineering firms. He also spent roughly a decade, on and off, at IES, helping bring advanced building simulation software to North America. He's based in the Twin Cities and reads philosophy and the classics for fun. 🌱 Breaking Ground on Better Building In this episode, Nathan Kegel rethinks how we insulate buildings and how we prove that new materials work: Key Insight #1: Insulation doesn't have to mean thickness The Challenge: The industry rates insulation by R-value, and thickness is part of that calculation. More resistance has meant more material, more depth and more weight. Nathan half-jokes that R-value is "the bane of my existence." The Solution: Nanotech Materials puts a silica-based particle into coatings like acrylics and epoxies. Nathan says the particle has a K-value (thermal conductivity) on par with aerogel, without aerogel's brittleness. Applied about 1 millimeter thick on a roof, the coating can essentially stop heat conduction through it. ROI: According to Nathan, the roof product is rated for Florida's 200 mph impact standard. A related spray-on coating, developed with the state of California, protects timber from wildfire and resists heat up to 1,800°C with very low smoke. You get thermal performance and resilience from one thin layer. Key Insight #2: Stop running endless pilots The Challenge: A startup can't coat a roof and wait a year to see if it worked. As Nathan puts it, "you might not be in business a year." Slow field pilots stall innovation across the industry. The Solution: One of Nanotech's co-founders built a new p