Breakthrough Could Revive Concentrating Solar

Secretive energy startup backed by Bill Gates achieves solar breakthrough

Matt Egan, November 19, 2019 (CNN)

“…[Heliogen, a clean energy company just emerging from stealth mode, uses] artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius…The breakthrough means that, for the first time, concentrated solar energy can be used to create the extreme heat required to make cement, steel, glass and other industrial processes…Unlike traditional solar power, which uses rooftop panels to capture the energy from the sun, Heliogen is improving on what's known as concentrated solar power…[which] uses mirrors to reflect the sun to a single point, is not new…[It] has been used in the past to produce electricity and, in some limited fashion, to create heat for industry…[But has not been able to get temperatures hot enough to disrupt] industrial processes such as cement and steelmaking…[which] are responsible for more than a fifth of global emissions…

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Heliogen uses computer vision software, automatic edge detection and other sophisticated technology to train a field of mirrors to reflect solar beams to one single spot…[which can generate enough heat to] create clean hydrogen at scale…[as a] fuel for trucks and airplanes…[To overcome the limitation that the sun doesn't always shine but industrial companies like cement makers have a constant need for heat, Heliogen can use] storage systems that can hold the solar energy…Heliogen's biggest challenge will be convincing industrial companies using fossil fuels to make the investment required to switch over…Its biggest selling point is the fact that, unlike fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, sunlight is free. And Heliogen argues its technology is already economical against fossil fuels because of its reliance on AI…” click here for more

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