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New Google Mirrors May Cut Solar Power Costs

Would focus sun's energy to produce heat, steam

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 10, 2009 10:23 AM CDT

(Newser) – Google is working on new mirrors to make solar thermal power significantly cheaper, Reuters reports. If it works, the technology could reduce the cost of building a plant to draw power from the sun by 25% or more. “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,” says the Internet giant's green energy boss. Working prototypes should be ready in a few months.

The company also is experimenting with turbines that run on solar power instead of natural gas. “In two to three years we could be demonstrating a significant scale pilot system that would generate a lot of power and would be clearly mass manufacturable,” says Bill Weihl. The cost of electricity “would be in the 5 cents or sub-5-cents a kilowatt hour range," down from 12 to 18 cents using the current technology.

An exterior view of Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., is seen in this Oct. 19, 2006, file photo.
An exterior view of Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., is seen in this Oct. 19, 2006, file photo.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Solar mirrors in Israel.
Solar mirrors in Israel.   (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
bewilderbeast
Sep 11, 2009 12:17 PM CDT
Vested interests. Oil cartels pay politicians to be very dim, untrusting, slow, deaf and blind to "free energy". They coach them on what to say. (In the boardroom at Mega Oil: "FREE???" WTF! Are you crazy?).
bewilderbeast
Sep 11, 2009 12:13 PM CDT
I dunno. Read this: Solar panels 'take 100 years to pay back installation costs'. See: http://www.independent.co.uk/e...
riffran
Sep 11, 2009 8:08 AM CDT
try science daily...good website for looking at advances and discoveries...solar has it's own spot....they have advanced solar cells quite a bit here recently, alm ost at the needed effeciency level to make them feasable...but not quite.......I cannot fricken wait to cover my 6 acres in panels, as soon as they become cost effective...(meaning cheap enough for MY budget..lol)...

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