Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the world’s richest man is backing a startup that has achieved a solar breakthrough which has the potential to save the planet. Heliogen, a clean energy company which has been in stealth mode until recently, was in the limelight early this week after it said that it has discovered a way to use AI (Artificial Intelligence) and a field of reflecting mirrors. How will this save the planet? According to media reports, the company has found a way to reflect so much sunlight that it can generate extreme heat level above 1,000 degrees Celsius. Until now, this was possible only by the use of fossil fuels such as coal. In fact, the temperature which Heliogen tech can achieve is about a quarter of what is found on the surface of the sun.
“I’m pleased to have been an early backer of Bill Gross’s novel solar concentration technology,” Bill Gates said in a statement, CNN business reported. “Its capacity to achieve the high temperatures required for these processes is a promising development in the quest to one day replace fossil fuel”, Bill Gates added.
With this, it will be for the first time in human history that concentrated solar energy can be used to create the extreme heat required in production of cement, steel, glass and other industrial processes. This is also going to curb carbon emissions from fossil fuels considering oil, coal and cement are the world’s three biggest culprits behind emissions.
“We are rolling out technology that can beat the price of fossil fuels and also not make the CO2 emissions”, Bill Gross, Heliogen’s founder and CEO, said, CNN Business reported.
Meanwhile, the Microsoft founder has surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the richest person on the planet. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bill Gates has a total fortune of $109 billion as of Saturday.
Also published on Medium.