🔎 What’s going on?
Last week, a clean technology company, Heliogen announced that it had achieved a major breakthrough by generating 1000°C+ heat from concentrated solar energy.
🌞 Wow, sounds impressive. Why is that a breakthrough?
Heliogen is based on existing concentrated solar power (CSP) technology. That’s where hundreds of mirrors in a field are all angled to reflect sunlight onto a single tower. Inside the tower, heat from the sun turns fluid (usually oil, molten salts or water) to steam, which runs a turbine to generate electricity.
Heliogen goes beyond current CSP technology in two ways: 1) it uses artificial intelligence computing to train and control hundreds of mirror on a single point. Ensuring the mirrors are always perfectly aligned (to the millimetres) generates even more heat and power. 2) this concentration of light generates > 1000°C heat which is almost double of what existing CSPs can create (about 565°C). Ultimately creating a very very hot oven!
Reaching ultra-high-temperature heat (1000°C+) opens up new applications (and markets) for Heliogen Heat. For example, many industrial processes require peak temperature to make materials such as cement (1450°C), steel (1600°C), glass (1700°C).
❓Why should I care?
Cement and steel are widely used as construction materials around the world. Every year, cement production alone contributes to 6% of the UK’s emissions and 8% of global emissions. 1 kg of carbon dioxide is produced for every 1 kg of cement produced. Whilst steel production contributes to between 7% to 9% of global emissions.
🙌 Woah, that’s a lot. Where do we need to be?
Currently, fossil fuels are used to generate industrial heat required to manufacture cement, steel and glass. Replacing fossil fuels with HeliogenHeat can drastically reduce energy costs and carbon emissions.
👤 What can I do about it?
Whilst new technologies are being developed across these heavy industries and we are still a long way away from commercially available low-carbon cement, concrete and steel options. Meantime, employ the 3Rs principle: reduce, reuse and recycle wherever possible.
Steel has a great property in that it can be recycled and reused continuously, so when possible, always opt for recycled steel than virgin (new) steel.
Similarly, for cement and concrete, opt for what’s known as Recycled Aggregate. Aggregate is a term used to describe crushed materials such as concrete, gravel, stone, sand and bricks. Demolished buildings create construction waste which is now turned into recycled aggregates instead of being sent to landfills. For example, here’s one place in the UK where you can send your construction waste and turn it into recycled aggregate: Hintonswaste and where you can purchase them: Thompson Quarries, Cemex. To learn more, check out this article on how to reuse and recycle concrete.