Google Planning To Develop Solar Technology; To Cut Costs By Two-Thirds

Media reports reveal that Google plans on developing a new mirror technology for solar power plants that will reduce costs from 12 to 18 cents a kilowatt hour to just under 5 within two or three years. Google hopes to have an in-house version of the technology ready within the next few months.

Google is hoping to cut the cost of making heliostats (fields of reflective mirrors), and is looking at "very unusual" materials for the reflective surface and the substrate that the mirrors are mounted on.

Google currently builds its own servers due to the high expenses of commercially available servers. The company claims that it has been waiting for more economically feasible and realistic options in the alternative energy field. The move toward developing its own technology is said to result from Google’s frustration with the lack of innovative investment ideas in the solar sector.