Energy consumption of buildings during heating and cooling accounts for about 15% of global total energy consumption. Advanced dynamic switchable windows that enable independent control of solar heat will contribute to optimal energy efficiency in heating, cooling, and artificial lighting systems throughout buildings. Recently, energy‐efficient plasmonic electrochromic smart windows (PESWs) based on metal oxide nanocrystals (NCs) have been gaining increasing attention due to their effective and controllable regulation over the near‐infrared region of the solar spectrum without affecting the dynamic visible transmittance of the smart windows. Herein, the current state‐of‐the‐art results of colloidal metal oxide NCs for PESWs are highlighted, along with their design strategies and working principles. The recent research status of PESWs in typical colloidal metal oxide NCs is reviewed in detail, and the challenges and corresponding countermeasures in this field are discussed. Furthermore, an outlook into novel opportunities in PESW‐related academic research and how to accelerate the pace of real‐world applications is presented.

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Building energy consumption has become one of the main sources of social primary energy consumption and global carbon emissions, and the development of building energy-saving technology has become one of the focus issues. Dual-band electrochromic smart windows (DESWs) can independently control the visible (VIS) light and near-infrared (NIR) thermal radiation in the sunlight, so that the indoor lighting and temperature can reach the level of human comfort, which is expected to reduce the energy consumption of buildings in heating, cooling, and artificial lighting systems. In recent years, DESWs based on singlecomponent nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted much attention because of their facile construction method and excellent dual-band electrochromic performance. On the basis of the working mechanism of the DESWs, the spotlight article will first briefly introduce the basic principle and performance evaluation index of DESWs. Then the latest advances in DESWs based on typical single-component NCs are summarized. In addition, the challenges faced by DESWs based on single-component NCs and the potential development direction are also discussed.

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