GOOGLE MIRRORS FOR SOLAR POWER PLANTS

Google plans new mirror for cheaper solar power
Poornima Gupta (w/Laura Isensee and Carol Bishopric), September 11, 2009 (Reuters)

"Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more…

"Google, known for its Internet search engine, in late 2007 said it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy…[Its] engineers have been focused on solar thermal technology, in which the sun's energy is used to heat up a substance that produces steam to turn a turbine. Mirrors focus the sun's rays on the heated substance."

Mirrored heliostats now at work in a solar power plant in Spain. (click to enlarge)

"…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 [or more and move the cost down from a capital cost of $2.50-to-$4 per watt, which makes the cost of a 250 megawatt installation $600-million-to-$1 billion, or 12-to-18 cents per kilowatt hour]...Google hopes to have a viable technology to show internally in a couple of months…[after] accelerated testing to show the impact of decades of wear on the new mirrors in desert conditions…

"Another technology that Google is working on is gas turbines that would run on solar power rather than natural gas, an idea that has the potential of further cutting the cost of electricity…"

A field of heoliostats at an eSolar installation in California that uses technology funded by Google. (click to enlarge)

"Google is invested in two solar thermal companies, eSolar and BrightSource, but is not working with these companies in developing the cheaper mirrors or turbines…[Google also wants to see significant] government-backed research…particularly in the very initial stages to encourage breakthrough ideas in the sector.

"The company has pushed ahead in addressing climate change issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm…[though it has found] a lack of companies that have ideas that would be considered breakthroughs in the green technology sector. After announcing its plans to create renewable energy at a price lower than power from coal, it has invested less than $50 million in other companies…[because] there was little to buy…[Google wants the federal government] to provide [$20-to-$30 billion for 10 years] to develop ideas at the laboratory stage…"