According to the EPA, the cement and steel production industries account for over a fifth of the world’s CO2 emissions. Now, Heliogen, a clean energy company supported by Bill Gates, claims it has achieved a solar energy breakthrough that for the first time will allow clean energy to generate the heat necessary to make cement, steal, glass and industrial products. A real breakthrough.
Heliogen’s team of scientists and engineers have turned to a combination of solar energy and artificial intelligence to find energy solutions. They claim their technology has the potential to generate enough heat to produce pure hydrogen fuel for use in trucks and aircraft.
Heliogen uses computer vision software, automatic edge detection and other advanced technologies to train a mirror field to reflect sunlight toward one point. The focused energy produces extreme heat exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. This artificial, solar oven can reach up to a quarter of the heat at the sun’s surface.
Unlike conventional solar energy, which accumulates solar energy dispersed on the roof, Heliogen technology, concentrates the sun’s energy on one point. It is not new. But while others have done it before with limited success, Heliogen’s new method uses artificial intelligence to optimize the focus. That’s the difference.
Given the massive scope of the climate crisis, affordable alternatives to green house gases are desperately needed. Luckily, the sun is free for all to use just like the plants do and by applying technology to it, we may be able to develop our way out of the trouble we have caused ourselves.