“Its capacity to achieve the high temperatures required for these processes is a promising development in the quest to one day replace fossil fuel.” “I’m pleased to have been an early backer of Bill Gross’s novel solar concentration technology,” Gates said in a statement. (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person. (MSFT) co-founder who recently surpassed Amazon That’s why the potential of Los Angeles-based Heliogen attracted investment from Gates, the Microsoft These industries are responsible for more than a fifth of global emissions, according to the EPA. Cement, for instance, is used to make the concrete required to build homes, hospitals and schools. And that’s a problem because the world has an insatiable appetite for those materials. That means renewable energy has not yet disrupted industrial processes such as cement and steelmaking. Using artificial intelligence to solve the climate crisis “You’ve ended up with technologies that can’t really deliver super-heated systems,” said Olav Junttila, a partner at Greentech Capital Advisors, a clean energy investment bank that has advised concentrated solar companies in the past. The problem is that in the past concentrated solar couldn’t get temperatures hot enough to make cement and steel. It’s even used in Oman to provide the power needed to drill for oil. This technology, which uses mirrors to reflect the sun to a single point, is not new.Ĭoncentrated solar has been used in the past to produce electricity and, in some limited fashion, to create heat for industry. Unlike traditional solar power, which uses rooftop panels to capture the energy from the sun, Heliogen is improving on what’s known as concentrated solar power. The company uses artifical intelligence and an array of mirrors to create vast amounts of heat, essentially harnessing the power of the sun. Heliogen, backed by Bill Gates, has achieved a breakthrough that could allow cement makers to transition away from fossil fuels. … The potential to business is unfathomable.” “Bill and the team have truly now harnessed the sun,” Soon-Shiong, who also sits on the Heliogen board, told CNN Business. Cement, for example, accounts for 7% of global CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. Heliogen, which is also backed by billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, believes the patented technology will be able to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry. “We are rolling out technology that can beat the price of fossil fuels and also not make the CO2 emissions,” Bill Gross, Heliogen’s founder and CEO, told CNN Business. In other words, carbon-free sunlight can replace fossil fuels in a heavy carbon-emitting corner of the economy that has been untouched by the clean energy revolution. The breakthrough means that, for the first time, concentrated solar energy can be used to create the extreme heat required to make cement, steel, glass and other industrial processes. This is an existential issue for your children, for my children and our grandchildren.” Heliogen, a clean energy company that emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday, said it has discovered a way to use artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius.Įssentially, Heliogen created a solar oven - one capable of reaching temperatures that are roughly a quarter of what you’d find on the surface of the sun. A secretive startup backed by Bill Gates has achieved a solar breakthrough aimed at saving the planet.
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