Google is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.
Full story.
That's pretty awesome. Solar thermal power is already fairly competitive at around 15 cents per kWh. If they could cut that by a third and get it down to 10 cents per kWh, that would bring it down to the average price of electricity in the US.
Quote:
"We've been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on," the company's green energy czar Bill Weihl told Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.
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Weihl said Google is looking to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the sun, by at least a factor of two, "ideally a factor of three or four."
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Weihl said Google is looking to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the sun, by at least a factor of two, "ideally a factor of three or four."
Full story.
That's pretty awesome. Solar thermal power is already fairly competitive at around 15 cents per kWh. If they could cut that by a third and get it down to 10 cents per kWh, that would bring it down to the average price of electricity in the US.
