Low-cost Solar Thermal Plants? Use Google’s Mirror technology

Solar thermal technology is one that harnesses the energy of the sun to generate thermal energy or heat. This heat could in turn be used to produce steam to run a turbine. Mirrors or lenses are used to concentrate the sunlight on the heated substance. By such concentration high temperatures can be achieved.

The effect of the use of such high-temperature collectors is to reduce a solar thermal plant’s size, its cost and eventually its impact on the environment.

Latest innovation in the field comes from…

The Internet search engine company Google Inc.

Bill Weihl, Google's green energy czar (via: Google)

And the innovation is…

A prototype for a new mirror technology! Google Inc. has been quite active in the field. They have been investing in other companies in addition to doing their own research to produce affordable renewable energy. This new mirror technology for solar thermal plants is the fruit of that labour!