周二，一家默默无闻的清洁能源公司Heliogen脱颖而出，该公司表示已发现一种途径可以利用人工智能和镜面充分反射阳光来产生1000摄氏度以上的极高热量。
实质上，Heliogen发明了一个太阳能烤箱——并且这个烤箱的温度能达到太阳表面四分之一的温度。
这一突破意味着，收集到的太阳能首次可以用于制造水泥，钢铁，玻璃和其他需要高温处理的工业过程。换句话说，无碳太阳能可以替代化石燃料，这可是清洁能源革命中尚未触及的经济重碳排放区。
“我们推出的技术可以打击化石燃料的价格，而且不会有二氧化碳的排放。”Heliogen的创始人兼首席执行官Bill Gross在接受CNN Business采访时说： “这才是我们一直追求的使命”
此外，Heliogen还得到了亿万富翁《洛杉矶时报》所有者帕特里克·顺雄（Patrick Soon-Shiong）的支持，Heliogen认为，这项专利技术将能够大大减少工业中的温室气体排放。以水泥为例，根据国际能源署的数据，生产水泥的二氧化碳排放量就占全球排放的7％。
比尔和他的团队现在已经能够充分利用太阳能”Heliogen董事会上陈颂熊对CNN Business说：“人类的潜力是巨大的。 ...商业潜力深不可测。”
传统的太阳能利用屋顶的面板来吸收太阳的能量，与传统技术不同的是，Heliogen在聚光太阳能发电技术上进行了改进。然而，这次改进也并不是使用了什么新技术，只是利用镜子将太阳光反射到单个点上。
过去，集中式太阳能已用于发电，并以有限的方式为工厂提供热量。它甚至能够提供石油钻探所需要的动力。
然而，问题在于，过去所收集到的太阳能没有足够高的温度来生产水泥和钢铁。
清洁能源投资银行Greentech Capital Advisors的合伙人Olav Junttila说：“您终结了无法真正提供超级热量系统的技术的局面。”该公司过去曾为集成太阳能公司提供咨询服务
Secretive energy startup backed by Bill Gates achieves solar breakthrough
New York (CNN Business) - A secretive startup backed by Bill Gates has achieved a solar breakthrough aimed at saving the planet.
Heliogen, a clean energy company that emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday, said it has discovered a way to use artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius.
Essentially, Heliogen created a solar oven — one capable of reaching temperatures that are roughly a quarter of what you'd find on the surface of the sun.
The breakthrough means that, for the first time, concentrated solar energy can be used to create the extreme heat required to make cement, steel, glass and other industrial processes. In other words, carbon-free sunlight can replace fossil fuels in a heavy carbon-emitting corner of the economy that has been untouched by the clean energy revolution.
"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, told CNN Business. "And that's really the holy grail."
Heliogen, which is also backed by billionaire Los Angels Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, believes the patented technology will be able to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry. Cement, for example, accounts for 7% of global CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.
Bill and the team have truly now harnessed the sun," Soon-Shiong, who also sits on the Heliogen board, told CNN Business. "The potential to humankind is enormous. ... The potential to business is unfathomable."
Unlike traditional solar power, which uses rooftop panels to capture the energy from the sun, Heliogen is improving on what's known as concentrated solar power. This technology, which uses mirrors to reflect the sun to a single point, is not new.
Concentrated solar has been used in the past to produce electricity and, in some limited fashion, to create heat for industry. It's even used in Oman to provide the power needed to drill for oil.
The problem is that in the past concentrated solar couldn't get temperatures hot enough to make cement and steel.
"You've ended up with technologies that can't really deliver super-heated systems," said Olav Junttila, a partner at Greentech Capital Advisors, a clean energy investment bank that has advised concentrated solar companies in the past.