Google's high-profile plan to develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal could soon bear fruit, after the search giant revealed it has developed a new mirror technology that could slash the cost of building a solar thermal plant.
According to reports by Reuters, the internal prototype for the new concentrated solar technology promises to cut the cost of solar thermal power systems in half.
Bill Weihl, Google's green czar, told the news agency that if development and testing go well, he could see the product being ready for commercial-scale deployment in one to three years. 'Things have progressed,' he said. 'We have an internal prototype.'
The project is focused on reducing the cost of the heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun and concentrate its power on a point so that it can be used to create steam and drive a turbine. Google has reportedly developed new materials for the mirror's reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted.
Google has already made a number of high-profile investments in concentrated solar thermal systems through solar companies eSolar and BrightSource.
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