Mini heliostats

Commercial R&D company Otherlab is showing off a completely new approach to heliostats, the sun-tracking mirrors used to concentrate sunlight to generate electricity. Rather than large and expensive steel trackers, the company has designed these water-filled plastic trackers. By changing the flow of the water in the three "legs" of the tracker, a central control unit can change the pressure inside and redirect the mirrors to face the sun. The idea is that several of these smaller units could be placed on a steel plate flat on the ground, which Otherlab expects to be cheaper.