Bill Gross at CERAWeek – Heliogen's Sunlight Refinery: green hydrogen competitive with fossil fuel

Less than a minute in, and this video is already full of bull. The industrial revolution was about manufacturing processes, not energy. And in my opinion, farming is a more important business than is energy. Energy is awesome; no need to lie about it.

What a load of crap. Four minutes in, and still no video of a process that makes hydrogen. If you can't film it, it's almost certainly bullshit.

Amazing video, many thanks for sharing!
Could you please add time lines for your golas every 2 years this decade? I mean, when can people pump hydrogen almost everywhere in Europe, Canada, usa, etc

nice

Bill already has a plant operating. This is awesome! Alberta, Canada has plenty of sunshine and desert climate conditions. We had better get in on this technology before we're left in the dust and commit our current fossil fuels maintenance work force toward cleaning up the mess it's made.

Great video...! I hope you succeed!!!!!!

Great ideas, pity they are still pushing the "Carbon dioxide is bad for the planet" myth.

He is not explaining transportation eficciency compare to oil....can you pipe hydrogen...?

Please talk the mining companies in Western Australia into refining their metals with concentrated solar furnaces!
They have the perfect overlap there of sunlight and minerals... :)

Very interesting. Have the cost of transporting water over vast distances been included in your calculations? Deserts sounds like the ideal place with lots of sunshine, but they also tend to be far away from water. I don't know if the required amount of water for electrolysis is that great.
And on a sidenote. Please don't say that you create electrons. You don't. You make electrical energy.

Wow very interesting

This video doesn't explain anything at all

Sure you can have high temperature sunlight

But the cost of turning that heat into eletricity isn't going to be cheap

Then the cost to turn that electricity into hydrogen isn't going to be cheap

Then the cost to pipe that hydrogen across continents isn't going to be cheap

This doesn't solve anything

More likely if a hydrogen future exists is to use solar PV and make hydrogen from that and pipe that into the cities rather than send the electricity over cables

Or to use wind turbines and make hydrogen and pipe that into the cities rather than send eletricity over cables

A solar farm with trackers can have 30% capacity factor

Add 1 day battery storage & double the number of panels and you then have 60% capacity factor

So solar power with just 1 day battery storage could get humanity to 60% solar 40% other (hydro nuclear biomass fossil fuels)

If the batteries cost $100/KWh and can cycle 10,000 times that is just 1 cent / KWh for the storage cost. But since you are only storing about half of the electricity the per unit cost is closer to 0.5 cents


So there is a pathway to 60% of primary energy usage coming form solar PV and Batteries at an affordable price point

No need to worry about hydrogen storage for at least another 20 years

Also where the sun isn't strong there is good wind eg in Europe they have access to 60% capacity factor offshore wind sites so they can go to 60% wind without having to do mass hydrogen storage

Still pushing a centralized (non-democratic, capitalistic) system, to be expected from the likes of Bill Gates, instead of a decentralized prosumers system linked to a smart grid. The powers that be will not relinquish their privileges without a fight from the lower class (the emasculated). Time to rise and raise hell! Of course, nuclear fusion could also be a complementary solution, even if centralized, alongside other renewable energy sources, but you'd have to make sure that it's a public utilitity.

Isit possible to transfer the concentrated light with fiber optic?

This is a great breakthrough. Hydrogen and ammonia are the future. We must thank USA scientists for this innovation

This is incredible! Let’s get this goin ASAP.

Nuclear energy is a million times more energy dense than fossil fuels. renewables are substantially LESS energy dense than petroleum. You wanna talk Moore's Law? What happens when reactors get the levels of fuel burn-up that other power sources have? (~20-40%)?? Nothing will be remotely able to compete. Not oil. not solar. not wind. NOTHING.

Color me skeptical. What about the considerable energy required to manufacture and construct these refineries? How long to pay back that energy input? Cost and energy required to move water to the desert? Hydrogen is notoriously difficult to transport; since it's such a small molecule, containers or pipes that prevent leaks are expensive. Then there's the issue of new powerplants to burn that hydrogen to produce power, and the cost and energy input for their construction. Also, the way the history and background science is presented here is not correct. Seems like the intended audience must not be very technically literate. Don't get me wrong, it would be great if this can be made to work economically--I just think it's probably much further off than Bill Gross suggests.

I hope you're right!
I'm really hoping for a plentiful green fuel.

this is a breakthrough

How effective will this be in tropical climates like those in the Caribbean?

What is the volume of carbon release and other pollutants created in the extraction, smelting, refining, casting, milling, assembly, and installation, as well as maintenance, of all the metals/glass and other materials that are used in your industry and how does that stack up against your energy production over working lifetime? That's the only real number that matters after all

I know that rocks are cheap, but phase change materials (such as salts at the temperatures generated by this system) not only store a lot more energy per volume using the latent heat, they also release that energy at a specific temperature. Using the sensible heat of rocks on the other hand stores energy by changing the temperature of the rocks, which means that processes driven by sensible heat storage has to be able to operate over a significant temperature range.

Also there are a lot of industrial processes that require high temperatures. This type of system with the higher maximum temperature of other types of concentrated solar collectors could be directly used to drive those processes that require the higher temperatures.

When I started this video I thought "it's just the Spanish power tower"...and then you explain why it's really not "just another power tower". This is incredible. Amazing amazing work- I wish I could be involved.

Great info. is it a public co.?

Now all you need is a few billion £££

I would love to know how you guys actually make hydrogen at this place. :) Does the heat get directly used to creating hydrogen? Or is heat converted to electricity first, to then make hydrogen? That latter feels less efficient, so I'm sure you've guys have come up with something completely brilliant!

I was personally expecting relatively small, AI robot, that drive around with a long arm and clean the mirrors and refuels itself. Around the clock. Like those automated, small lawnmower machines. The less people that are needed for maintenance, the more efficient it gets.

My Dream is to work with renewable energy.

One very important a little side note if you hook up the fella out in New Mexico he's a scientist to build a small particle generator particle accelerator rather on his little ranch there and he's making hydride I'm sorry hydrite I think and he puts it in some tanks that are about the size of a SCUBA tank and he's been running his Corvette getting concentrated hydrogen into those tanks using the hydrite the only problem is it's illegal for him to make this substance but you can't get it from the government because it's a material that is used in the implementation of nuclear weapons unfortunately so it's a controlled substance somehow we just have to get over that because is Corvette with those I don't know how many tanks he has in the hatchback of his Corvette it's not a very big space but that Corvette goes 300 miles without a refueling and of course you know how big the motor is on a Corvette imagine if there's a motor that's way more efficient or perhaps considering the possibility of using fuel cells and one of the new efficient Electric Motors all right just something to think about I know ammonia is another possibility this other thing really works incredibly well I do believe I heard some little thing Through the Grapevine that maybe Toyota is working with that hydrite alright then just something to consider or look into thank you so much

BUY THIS STOCK THIS WILL BE THE FUTURE .

Why do you have shot glasses under your mirrors?

How can I invest in this?

Should put sterling engine for that heated rock will continuous AC supply

Brilliant!
The first ice free arctic in human history is projected for fall of 2022. This means the melting permafrost surrounding the arctic will melt faster as will the Greenland glaciers. The methane producing microbes are set to have a field day.
This has the potential to raise the temperature of the planet beyond the threshold of all but extremeophiles.

I suggest we take the duff from the closest forests floors and cover large swaths of the permafrost. The seeds contained therein will grow, sucking up all the water and preventing erosion while locking the carbon in the ground.
This will prevent the methane producing microbes from running rampant. Seedlings will provide grazing for herbivores and habitat for insects which in turn will draw birds and eventually amphibians.

Again; take the duff from the forests in danger of fire and spread it across the permafrost.

12 reasons why.

1. Less fire
2. More forest
3. Prevents erosion
4. Prevents methane production
5. Sequesters carbon
6. Produces oxygen
7. Habitat for insects/birds/herbivores in 2-4 years
8. Habitat for entire food chain in 10-20y
9. Provides green jobs
10. Arrests Global Warming
11. Provides hope
12. Just might save our biosphere.

I have no Idea how to implement such a grand design but if my reasoning is sound I suspect you might.

All the best.
Jason

Can you harness and concentrate the reflect on the tower for getting it as hot as possible.

Honestly their innovation is so damn simple I wonder why the fuck no one has tried this before. People spent billions on solar panels and wind energy when all you had to do was use magifying glass on the rocks???...

Bill is a genius. Now we just hydrogen powered freight trucks, eventually personal vehicles and the world is changed

Thanks for explaining it well, I wasn't sure how this would work...but where does the hydrogen part come from? Is there another company?

I feel like this is snake oil. If Heliogen can do all this, where are the orders for it? There should be a five year backorder for these refineries, but there is not.

I’m invested, very convincing haha

a small modular plant would be useful for Lunar activities, if it could fit in a starship payload

Only way for a Solar Company to get most funding is to disguise itself as a "Tech" company. Very clever...

this is really a brilliant idea but will this not increase the words temperature mostly in the longer period of the reflection of the mirrors
under correction

Highly interesting & informative. Have interview this week in this field, video very helpful.

How can one invest in heliogen ?

Solar energy is still going to cook the planet like a solar hotdog cooker. Utility Global is making hydrogen without electricity, mate.