Bill Gates-Backed Startup Uses AI to Create Solar Rays Hot Enough to Melt Steel

Like a kid burning holes in their toys using a magnifying glass, solar furnaces essentially do the same thing on a much grander scale. The larger an array of reflectors you can build, the bigger the sun-focusing lens you get. But a new startup is promising a better way to build solar furnaces using AI to reduce their footprint while boosting their power output. In recent years the price of solar energy has dropped dramatically, and it’s estimated that the cost of building plants like Nevada’s Eagle Shadow Mountain Solar Farm, which officially begins generating power sometime in 2021, is actually cheaper than just operating existing coal or natural gas plants. Harnessing the immense energy of the sun is an obvious alternative to relying on fossil fuels to generate power, but in order to generate the temperatures needed to create molten salt, which is what solar plants like these use to create steam to turn electrical generators, temperatures of around 600 °C are needed, which requires a vast array of reflectors (or heliostats), and a big chunk of land on which to install them.