Harnessing the Sun: Innovative Thermal Trap Reaches Over 1000 °C Using Sunlight

In the future solar energy could be used to produce cement or steel, instead of burning coal or oil for this purpose. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a thermal trap that can absorb concentrated sunlight and deliver heat at over a thousand degrees Celsius.

A new thermal trap uses sunlight to reach a temperature of over a thousand degrees Celsius.
The new technology minimizes heat losses making it possible to generate this high temperature efficiently
The approach could help to provide industrial plants with high temperatures and thus make these industries carbon neutral.
Industrial Heat Processes
The production of cement, metals, and many chemical commodities requires extremely high temperatures of over a thousand degrees Celsius. At present, this heat is usually obtained by combusting fossil fuels: coal or natural gas, which emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. Heating with renewable electricity is not an alternative, as this would be inefficient at these high temperatures. Although much of our economy and society will need to become carbon neutral in the coming decades, these industrial processes are likely to continue to be powered by fossil fuels for the near future. They are considered difficult to decarbonize.