Solar Power from “Balloons”

Tom Schueneman of CleanTechnica.com reported this week about a new technology from Cool Earth Solar of Livermore, CA. Cool Earth Solar's CEO Rob Lamkin explained the need for a large amount of collecting surface in order to replace hydrocarbon based energy with solar energy. They claim they have the ability to collect gigawatts of power as opposed to megawatts.

The technology uses something resembling an eight-foot-tall balloon called a "concentrator". It has a transparent upper and a reflective lower hemisphere. When inflated the shape focuses the sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell at the focal point. This design doesn't include any new technology, yet produces up to 400 times the electricity that a cell without the concentrator would product.

Cool Earth Solar is working on a demo "balloon farm" that would generate a quarter million watts. Within a year they hope to have 10-30 megawatt plants.