Australia’s Woodside Petroleum is partnering with Pasadena-based technology player Heliogen to build a commercial-scale demonstration facility in California using the latter’s “breakthrough” solar technology.
Woodside confirmed Monday it had granted Heliogen a limited notice to proceed to begin the procurement of key equipment for the 5-megawatt demonstration facility that will use Heliogen’s artificial intelligence enabled concentrated solar technology.Woodside describes Heliogen’s technology as a modular, turnkey, AI-enabled concentrated solar energy system that aims to deliver clean energy with nearly 24/7 availability.
The demonstration facility will utilise advanced computer vision software that precisely aligns an array of mirrors to reflect sunlight to a single target on the top of a solar tower, thereby enabling low-cost storage in the form of high-temperature thermal energy.
Heliogen claims its baseline system will provide industrial-grade heat capable of replacing fossil fuels in industrial processes including the production of cement, steel, and petrochemicals, while it can enable power generation through the addition of a supercritical CO2 turbine, and green hydrogen fuel production in combination with an electrolyser.
Heliogen chief executive, and founder, Bill Gross said the company’s technology had the potential to transform heavy industry by “turning sunlight into a zero-carbon source of heat, power and hydrogen that is nearly always available”.
“Although costs of large-scale solar are falling, conventional solar technologies are not yet cost-competitive with fossil fuels in most energy markets due to their intermittent availability,” he added.
“Heliogen’s technology aims to close this gap through the use of AI, software and thermal storage. As the energy sector is ripe for applications of green hydrogen fuels and decarbonisation strategies, Woodside is an ideal collaborator for our breakthrough solar technology, which will support the operational characteristics of heavy industry.” - Upstream - link - Josh Lewis - link - more like this - link
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