Google Open Sources Heliostat Software and Data from Its Green Energy Project

Google has announced that it is open sourcing code and publishing data under a liberal license from its Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C) project. The project has been abandoned in Google's new quest for focus.

One tool that has been open sourced is HOpS, heliostat optical simulation, which does exactly what its name suggests. It was designed to make it easier to design heliostat layouts, i.e. the way in which the many mirrors that make up such a system have to be laid out for maximum efficiency.

In another batch of data and software that is becoming public, Google is releasing a Matlab-based software designed to be used to control heliostats.

All this software and data may prove useful to scientists working in the field, though it is a very narrow niche.