Google Reveals Plans to Develop More Efficient and Cost-Effective Solar Thermal Technology
As if Google isn’t already doing enough for the world of technology, they’re actually joining the solar technology movement in order to help increase the progress, which they believe has been disappointing to date. Their goal is to use mirror technology for solar energy that will be cheaper and therefore more accessible to the masses, so cost isn’t such a contributing factor to why many are unable to make their homes a little bit greener.
The technology available on the market today a 250-MW solar thermal installation costs $0.12 to $0.15 a KWh and Google’s goal is to reduce costs by at least half, but ideally by 66% to 75% so costs come in around $0.05 or less. In order to reach this goal of lowering costs and increasing efficiency, Google is currently testing different materials to find a better solution, and plans to unveil a prototype model within the next few months, and part of that evaluation process will include ensuring that the material used for a solar thermal installation will be able to withstand the tests of time.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Google is hoping to make green technology a little more efficient and accessible, and as a leader in technology, they are trend-setting their way to cleaner and greener tech!
Via: Reuters , Image Via: Flikr Phil LaCombe with a Creative Commons License
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September 17th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
With ‘new tech’ ideas and commercial production are usually a million miles and possibly billions of dollars apart.
Good luck to Google but most of their projects will go bust with a few (I hope) ‘making it’. Capability, engineering, desire and luck all play a big role in developing new tech with luck often the biggest player.
September 18th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Agreed, but they do have the $$ and reputation to back them, so I hope as well that we’ll see some of their projects come to fruition!
September 18th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I used the Ambigrid Plans to build a solar pales for under $100, as well as a solar water heater for less than $10! I can’t say enough good things about them!