Founded in 2011, Focal Line Solar is a technology company focused on research and development on concentrated solar thermal (CST) troughs for the generation of heat. FLS will bring its proprietary CST technology to market by delivering solar troughs for integration in CST plants.
While developed in the 1980’s, cost-competitiveness with fossil fuels has been the greatest impediment to the widespread adoption of CST technologies. Focal Line Solar has developed CST technology for the industrial and utility markets that makes CST competitive with natural gas in Europe.
Agro-Industrial Applications
According to WBSCD, an estimated 43% of worldwide energy consumption is used to generate heat, primarily in industrial processes, and secondly in buildings. Over 90% of heat used in food processing is still generated from fossil fuel sources.
The food processing industry is a significant consumer of heat :
- Pasteurisation (dairy)
- Drying (pasta, sugar, coffee, spices, etc…)
- Fermentation (beer, yogurt, cheese) & distillation (spirits)
Heat from CST can simultaneously generate cold when coupled with off-the-shelf absorption chillers for processes that require both hot and cold, such as pasteurization.
Enhanced Oil Recovery Applications
As the demand for oil drops proportionately with the update of electric vehicles, oil companies are moving from the exportation of new oil fields to using advanced technologies to extract more oil from old fields. There are four techniques for Enhanced Oil Recovery: thermal recovery, gas injection and chemical injection. According to the US DOE, thermal techniques account for approximately 40% US EOR. California-based GlassPoint is the leader in delivering CST systems for EOR.
Technology
Focal Line Solar has been developing innovative technology to dramatically drop the cost of concentrated solar energy generation. Over the past 13 years, FLS has developed numerous technologies, include granted patents, trade secrets and know-how related to the field.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you wish to know more about Focal Line Solar’s proprietary technologies.
Contact us to know more about Focal Line Solar’s unique, cost-saving technologies for CST energy plants.
About Us
Founder & CTO/CEO
Rough-neck turned clean energy evangelist with 30 years experience in developing green tech. As an energy engineer with California-based AeroVironment worked on the NASA solar aircraft Helios, before starting FLS to address clean energy challenges with innovative and cost- effective solutions.
Director
Michael has worked for 3 startups & co-founded a services company. Starting as battery engineer, he graduated to business development while at San Jose-based Immersion. Michael joined FLS at the start of 2025 to participate in the next exciting phase of FLS.