American company Heliogen has managed to concentrate solar energy to temperatures of more than 1000 degrees Celsius ? hot enough to provide a fossil-fuel-free way to make concrete.
The company creates ultra-high heat using a precisely aligned array of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a single target ? a technology it describes as a "multi-acre magnifying glass".
Its breakthrough means that in the future solar thermal energy could be used for industrial processes that currently require the burning of fossil fuels.
Chief among these is the production of cement, which requires high temperatures to form a composite from a mix of materials such as limestone, chalk and slate that are then ground into a powder.
Heliogen creates ultra-high heat using a precisely aligned array of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a single target As the key ingredient in concrete, cement is behind an estimated eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, leading to calls for architects to switch to other materials.
But Heliogen's technology could create the ultra-high heat required for its production via the sun, lowering concrete's carbon footprint. Around 50 per cent of cement's CO2 emissions come from the chemical reaction of converting calcium carbonate into calcium hydroxide, however, so those would remain.
The company's founder and CEO Bill Gross said Heliogen technology represented "an opportunity to make meaningful contributions to solving the climate crisis".
"We've...