$130 million investment scooped up by eSolar, a company whose basic solar power strategy -- using sunlight-reflecting mirrors to generate steam -- was all but abandoned in the 1980s, and has recently recently caught investors' attention again.

The money, from Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, and venture capital firms Idealab and Oak Investment Partners, will go towards the construction of eSolar's first functioning solar power plant.

"ESolar's long term is to become a viable replacement for all fossil fuel," said Robert Rogan, a Cal Tech Ph.D. and eSolar's executive vice president for corporate development. "The reason Google invested in us is that they saw the potential of this technology to beat the cost of using coal."

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