Google Holds Up a Mirror in Search for Cheaper Solar Power

It's getting to the point where referring to Mountain View-based Google as 'search engine giant' is no longer adequate to describe them. For sure, seeking and delivering relevant online search results quickly and accurately is what put them on the map, but Google has in recent years made a series of moves into the clean energy sector. Google has developed software to improve efficiency of electric hybrid vehicles and has directly supported emerging energy technologies developed by BrightSource Energy and Bloom Energy.

Right now, when Google asks aloud who will succeed in driving down the still-high costs of solar production, we don't know if they're gazing into a mirror. But we do know that they are looking at one. As Reuters has reported, Google engineers have developed a prototype solar mirror designed to be used in a heliostat (an array of mirrors arranged to track the sun's movements and concentrate solar power) that could reduce the capital costs of building a new plant by half.

As one might expect from the first rumblings of a technological breakthrough, the company remains mum on the details behind the development. Reuters reports that Google's focus has been on the materials that create reflectivity as well as the underlying materials that the reflective layer is attached to.

Google says that additional testing is required, particularly as it relates to how well the mirrors will hold up over time in the hot and dusty desert environments that are the most likely candidates for installation. But according to Google's green energy point person Bill Weihl, the company fully intends to move quickly, hoping to have a finished, marketable solar mirror ready for use in as soon as one year from now.

Photo by Sandia National Laboratory via Wikimedia Commons.