Google Looks to Lower Solar Power Costs

Google, the search engine that can find anything you want on-line, is looking to help make sure you have an affordable and renewable power source.

The San Jose Business Journal reports that Google is researching ways to reduce the cost of solar power with new mirror technology it is developing.

“We’ve been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on,” Reuters reports that the search company’s energy chief Bill Weihl said Wednesday at a San Francisco alternative energy summit.

Google engineers are focusing on solar thermal technology which uses the sun rays to produce steam that turns a turbine. Mirrors are used to focus the sun’s rays with this technology.

Weihl said Wednesday that Google  wants to reduce the cost of making the fields of mirrors that track the sun by at least a factor of two to four.

The company is within months of having something it can show internally and then it must be tested.

“We’re not there yet,” Reuters reported Wiehl as saying. “I’m very hopeful we will have mirrors that are cheaper than what companies in the space are using…”