Huge parabolic mirrors catching the sun’s rays could crisscross America’s deserts soon, thanks to a breakthrough that may greatly lower the cost of solar power.

A small solar company has teamed with scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop massive curved sheets of metal that have the potential to be 30 percent less expensive than today’s best collectors of concentrated solar power.

The SkyTrough Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrating Collectors will be longer than football fields and look like fun-house mirrors, but could be the game-changers in solar energy’s bid to out-muscle gas and coal in providing electricity for America’s homes.

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