South African team may have solved solar puzzle even Google couldn't crack

Pioneering technology to deliver the cheapest, small-scale concentrated solar power plants in the world could revolutionise the renewable energy market

It is a problem that has so far stumped even Google's brainy engineers - how to generate cheap solar electricity using a small-scale array of mirrors to concentrate the sun's energy.

Now a team at a South African university - led by a former Intel strategic planner - believes they have cracked it. Once they have completed a prototype system in October they have big plans for rolling out the technology.