Google Busting Out Breakthrough Solar Thermal Technology in 1-3 Years?

Google “green czar” Bill Weihl has just reported that if all things go as planned, we could see Google rolling out breakthrough solar thermal technology within 1-3 years.

Google “green czar” Bill Weihl has just reported that if all things go as planned, we could see Google rolling out breakthrough solar thermal technology within 1-3 years.

Google’s new concentrated solar technology, he says, would cut the cost of solar thermal power systems in half — a good step towards Google’s overall goal of making renewable energy cheaper than coal.

“The project is focused on reducing the cost of the heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun and concentrate its power on a point so that it can be used to create steam and drive a turbine. Google has reportedly developed new materials for the mirror’s reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted,” Rachel Fielding of Business Green reports.

According to Weil, the technology is not ready for external testing yet, but eSolar and BrightSource are already interested in the technology. If development and testing continue to go well, we could see it being mass-produced as early as 2011 (or at the latest 2013).

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