Heliogen: the Bill Gates backed startup hoping to use mirrors to power heavy industry

A breakthrough in concentrated solar power – and potentially for industrial green energy – was claimed last November from an unexpected source. A hitherto unknown company, Heliogen, announced its arrival with the revelation that it had been able to concentrate solar energy to achieve a temperature of over 1000°C, on a commercial scale, for the first time.

This, the company claimed, meant it could replace fossil fuels in critical industrial processes such as cement, steel or aluminium manufacture, and potentially for thermally splitting water to produce hydrogen.

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Concentrated solar power uses mirrors or lenses to focus sunlight from a large area on to a receiver. Heliogen founder and chief executive officer Bill Gross said that by “commercial” Heliogen meant that the temperature was combined with sufficient power – between 250 and 400kW – for industrial purposes. The company is aiming to increase this figure to between 1MW and 10 MW.