Bill Gates’ Support for Heliogen’s Breakthrough May Fight Climate Change

On Tuesday, Heliogen, a clean energy company, announced its new technological project backed up by Microsoft co-founder and investor Bill Gates. Heliogen’s apparatus consists of a simple, yet powerful device- the mirror. The company has figured out a way to arrange the mirrors on the device to reflect sunlight to generate extreme heat temperatures. The essence of their project is to generate large amounts of energy, equivalent to the use of burning fossil fuels for energy. The concept of concentrated solar power to replace the burning of fossil fuels is not new, but the issue lies in the ability to generate high temperatures Many companies have adopted the concept but were unable to generate such intense heat. The device can reach temperatures up to 1500 degrees celsius- a significant amount of heat that can be used to split hydrogen molecules from other compounds without the use of carbon emissions. As a supporter for solving the issue of climate change, Gates said that he is excited to be part of a “promising development in the quest to one day replace fossil fuel”. Other investors such as Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon- Shiong has high hopes for the technology’s ability to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In an interview with CNN, Shiong said, “The potential to humankind is enormous. … The potential to business is unfathomable.” Despite these implications, Heliogen and its partners could potentially be the ones to solve the world’s largest issue with their new breakthrough technology.