In the future, fossil fuels will be history. We don’t know yet when this will happen, but we hope it’s pretty soon as the planet is affected by global warming and pollution. So, if there will be no oil and coal, we need renewable energies like solar or wind power. Today, we will talk about Cool Earth, a company which has developed a technology which can be deployed at affordable prices.

Their technology is based on balloon-shaped concentrators which will be used to build power plants very fast and at low costs. These inflated solar concentrators measure 8-feet in diameter and they consist of a plastic film material. The balloons feature a transparent upper hemisphere and a reflective lower hemisphere, and the light will concentrate on photovoltaic cells that will generate 300 to 400 more electricity than cells that don’t feature an inflated concentrator.

Although it’s made of regular plastic, the concentrator is very resistant and aerodynamically stable thanks to the so-called “architectural principles of tensegrity”. According to Cool Earth, the solar balloons will not be damaged by dirt, birds, insects or any other factors, and they also stated that the photovoltaic cells will remain as efficient as ever.

In conclusion, we really hope that Cool Earth is right when they say that the costs will be reduced to $1 per watt and that one inflated solar balloon will produce 500 watts. We are waiting for them do deploy one and then as many concentrators that we need to forget about fossil fuels.