Operation: software-set solar mirrors reach 1000 degrees Celsius

The Heliogen company has concentrated solar energy for the first time to reach temperatures above 1000 degrees Celsius. The breakthrough could make the use of fossil fuels for industrial manufacturing processes superfluous, the company says.

According to the Californian start-up, which is supported by Bill Gates and which employs technicians from Caltech and MIT, among others, this breakthrough is possible through the use of ‘advanced computer vision software’. Using these image recognition systems, Heliogen was able to precisely align a row of solar mirrors to accurately focus sunlight on a single target.

Until now, commercial systems to bundle sunlight have not progressed beyond temperatures of 565 degrees Celsius, Heliogen says. According to the company, that temperature is insufficient for many industrial processes; much higher temperatures are often required, for which the burning of fossil fuels is still often used.

According to financier Bill Gates, industrial processes for making steel, cement, petroleum distillates and other materials are responsible for more than a fifth of all emissions. For example, the cement sector is responsible for seven percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Ultimately, Heliogen’s discovery could mean that fossil fuels no longer need to be used.

The company says it has a roadmap to achieve temperatures of up to 1500 degrees Celsius with this method in the long term. With such temperatures it would be possible to split CO2 or water, so that synthesis gas or hydrogen could be made in an environmentally friendly way.

This technique is not new, however. It is based on parabolic mirrors that closely follow the incoming sunlight and aim it at a target, usually molten salt or a liquid, which is for example on a tower. This is heated and fed to a heat exchanger, after which the heat is used to generate steam, which drives a steam turbine.