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Google to Fossil Fools: Here Comes the Sun
by Stacy Feldman - Dec 21st, 2007
in
Now that Google has helped to deliver $1 a watt solar panels from Nanosolar, how do you top that?
Answer: E-Solar's thermal power plant.
Google is investing big in this Pasadena-based solar pioneer, and here's why.
E-Solar has developed a “market disrupting” solar thermal power plant technology that can serve the renewable energy needs of the big utilities.
It’s utility-scale power from the sun. And it’s cost competitive with coal and other traditional dirty fuels.
Here's how it works: E-Solar takes a traditional power plant and replaces the front end. It swaps out heat from dirty fossil fuel with solar heat to create the steam that powers the generators. Same process. Just a different, cleaner, renewable source: the sun. And it's not your run-of-the-mill solar generator:
Unlike photovoltaic systems which use semiconductor materials to directly convert sunlight into electrons, solar thermal systems use the sun's heat to create steam to power electric generators. These zero-silicon systems are an efficient alternative to large-scale photovoltaic solutions. And with generating capacities of 25 MW to 500 MW, the E-Solar plants are competitive with fossil fuels.
With that kind of large-scale generating capacity, E-Solar could really be on to something. A staple for the nation's utility giants, perhaps?
Worth the wager, at least in Google's eyes. Which is no small thing.
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