Nocturnal passive radiative cooling has been recognized for thousands of years, with records showing awareness by the ancient Iranians, demonstrated through the construction of Yakhchāls, since 400 B.C.E.
Passive daytime radiative cooling was hypothesized by Félix Trombe in 1967. The first experimental setup was created in 1975, but was only successful for nighttime cooling. Further developments to achieve daytime cooling using different material compositions were not successful.
In the 1980s, Lushiku and Granqvist identified the infrared window as a potential way to access the ultracold outer space as a way to achieve passive daytime cooling.
Early attempts at developing passive radiative daytime cooling materials took inspiration from nature, particularly the Saharan silver ant and white beetles, noting how they cooled themselves in extreme heat.
Research and development in passive daytime radiative cooling evolved rapidly in the 2010s with the discovery of the ability to suppress solar heating using photonic metamaterials, which widely expanded research and development in the field. This is largely credited to the landmark study by Aaswath P. Raman, Marc Abou Anoma, Linxiao Zhu, Eden Raphaeli, and Shanhui Fan published in 2014.