An eSolar "heliostat"

When coal-spewing utilities make significant investments in solar power you know that the energy world is shifting under our feet:

The agreement calls for NRG to invest $10 million in Pasadena-based eSolar for the right to use the startup’s technology to develop and operate three solar power projects in California and the Southwest that would generate 500 megawatts of greenhouse gas-free electricity. NRG ranks as one of the nation’s dirtiest utilities, spewing 70 million tons of carbon dioxide annually from its coal-fired power plants, according to a 2007 Fortune Magazine story. But the Princeton, N.J.-based Fortune 500 company has sought to clean up its ways under CEO David Crane, pursuing carbon-capture technology and moving to build nuclear power plants.

eSolar is one of the early projects that got money from Google–$130 million to develop new solar technology.  This technology uses mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays and heat water, which makes steam, which turns a turbine, which makes clean, carbon free electricity.  Concentrated solar power is nothing new, but the way eSolar goes about it is.  The mirrors are small, mass produced and extremely efficient.  They are controlled by stepping motors–again, small and efficient–to allow the mirrors to track the sun all day.

This is extremely cool stuff.

This video is a talk that eSolar founder Bill Gross about the technology he developed–and about his life as an inventor.  I was watching this video on my iPhone on the subway the other day and it is so captivating that I went two stations past my stop before I realized where I was.

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