Heliogen Makes Solar Tech Breakthrough
Interactivism client Heliogen made history by achieving temperatures above 1,000°C with concentrated solar — a potential breakthrough for industrial manufacturing.
Solar tech startup Heliogen, a client of Interactivism, announced a major breakthrough in solar energy technology last week. They are the first to achieve temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) using concentrated solar energy — a potential game-changer for carbon-heavy industrial manufacturing such as cement and steel production.
Heliogen is backed by former Microsoft chair Bill Gates through his Gates Ventures firm, Swaroop “Kittu” Kolluri through his venture capital firm Neotribe, and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong through his investment firm Nant Capital.
Our Work with Heliogen
Interactivism is helping Heliogen with UX design, data visualization, and informatics design. A particular challenge was designing for a brand identity that makes solar technology feel industrial rather than consumer-focused.
Petra Wennberg, Co-founder and Partner at Interactivism, stated: “Everything from brand identity to data visualization has to serve Heliogen’s goals directly.”
CEO Bill Gross noted: “The world has a limited window to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” He emphasized that addressing the 75 percent of energy demand beyond electricity represents a crucial opportunity.
Heliogen is targeting temperatures exceeding 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,732 degrees Fahrenheit) to enable hydrogen fuel production through water molecule splitting — potentially eliminating fossil fuel dependence entirely.
Idealab, the technology incubator, was the birthplace of both Heliogen and Interactivism.