Bill Gates Backs Start-Up Poised To Generate Energy From Extreme Sun Heat - Press Release

Bill Gates is among the first investors of Heliogen, an innovative Californian start-up that has developed a technology for transforming solar heat into extreme temperatures to potentially supply enough clean energy for the industrial production to run without fossil fuels, the company said in a press release on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2019) Bill Gates is among the first investors of Heliogen, an innovative Californian start-up that has developed a technology for transforming solar heat into extreme temperatures to potentially supply enough clean energy for the industrial production to run without fossil fuels, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.

Heliogen positions itself as the first company poised to commercially replace fossil fuels with carbon-free, ultra-high temperature heat from the sun up to 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,732 degrees Fahrenheit), enough to power critical industrial processes without carbon emissions. On Tuesday, the company announced its official launch and simultaneously the first breakthrough it succeeded in concentrating solar energy beyond 1,000 degrees Celsius.

"I'm pleased to have been an early backer of Bill Gross's [Heliogen CEO and Founder] novel solar concentration technology. Its capacity to achieve the high temperatures required for these processes is a promising development in the quest to one day replace fossil fuel," Gates said, as quoted in the press release.

According to the world's wealthiest man, the existing industrial processes for the production of steel, cement and other materials account for a fifth of all emissions today and there have not yet been any breakthroughs in replacing them with affordable, zero-carbon versions.

"With low-cost, ultra-high temperature process heat, we have an opportunity to make meaningful contributions to solving the climate crisis," the press release quoted Gross as saying.

As the Heliogen CEO explained, effective technologies for clean energy have been developed and integrated into the electricity systems, but electricity represents less than a quarter of global energy demand. His company can potentially do "a leap forward" in addressing the remaining 75 percent, specifically when it comes to the use of fossil fuels and transportation, Gross added.

Other investors of the innovative tech start-up include venture capital firm Neotribe and investment firm Nant Capital, on behalf of its chief, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.

The technology behind Heliogen uses advanced computer vision software to hyper-accurately align a large array of mirrors to reflect sunlight onto a single target. Extreme temperatures can then be used to split carbon dioxide particles from the water and produce 100-percent fossil free fuels like hydrogen or syngas.

Before Heliogen, the technologies existed that were designed for the generation of heat up to 565 degrees Celsius sufficient for power generation, but not enough to cover critical industrial processes. Temperatures higher than that have been traditionally achieved by burning fossil fuels.