Google is well known for its search engine technologies. But one part of its business also has to do with energy, especially energy of the renewable kind. It has been conducting research in different kinds of sustainable energy. In a latest development, Google has unveiled a new mirror technology that it hopes could better the efficiency of solar energy.
Google’s focus has been on new age materials for the mirror’s reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted. The new prototype could cut the cost of building a solar thermal plant by half. Solar thermal technology involves the heating of a substance using solar energy. Mirrors focus the sun’s rays on the heated substance. The heat in turn produces steam to run a turbine.
Bill Weihl, dubbed as the green energy Czar of Google says that the new prototype could roll out in three years.
“Things have progressed. We have an internal prototype.”
Google has been involved in full fledged research and one of its focus has been on heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun. Google’s attempt is to make the new technology affordable.
As Weihl says,
“There is a decent chance that in a small number of years, we could have a 2-X reduction in cost.”
Google is one of the big corporate that is increasingly looking at energy investments as part of long term business strategy. It is symptomatic of the global trends that are about green technologies and capping carbon emissions. Google has a huge carbon footprint considering the power consumed by its worldwide server spread. Putting some investment back in energy could go a long way in making Google carbon neutral and give the behemoth a green image.
Google has invested in two energy companies – eSolar and BrightSource. These two companies are also part of Google’s research in mirror technology. Weihl dropped the news that these two companies are interested in the new technology. Though it hasn’t been put to a text externally, the two energy companies are definitely looking into the prospects.
Coming on the heels of the Bloom Box, developments like these can only spur the move towards cleaner technologies.
Image Credit: jurvetson
