GlassPoint Solar uses the sun's heat to extract oil
The solar industry is usually on the oil industry’s case -- sniping about dirty energy and whatnot -- but the two sides came together Thursday in an unlikely alliance.
Fremont-based company GlassPoint Solar unveiled a demonstration facility that uses solar technology to coax petroleum out of an old oil field in Kern County.
In a process that usually involves heated natural gas, the sun will heat water to create 750-degree-Fahrenheit steam, which will seep into the underground rock. There, it will reduce the viscosity of the thick crude oil stubbornly residing in the well.
GlassPoint claims that its pilot plant is the only solar oil removal mechanism. Roughly 40% of the oil drawn out in the state relies on the natural gas method. The company claims that it could eventually take over 80% of that burden -- and at cheaper rates, even though natural gas prices are currently low.
The facility, which took less than seven weeks to build, sits on less than an acre. GlassPoint erected a glass greenhouse over reflective troughs -- made with lightweight aluminum foil like the type used for soda cans -- that concentrate sunlight to make steam.
The technology, GlassPoint says, could eventually be used in oil fields in the Middle East. In Fresno County, BrightSource Energy is already working on a similar project set to wrap up this year.
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-- Tiffany Hsu
Photo: GlassPoint
This is like fornicating for virginity. Stupid to the bone.
Posted by: Stephen Knutson | February 26, 2011 at 11:14 AM
The "solar industry" IS THE OIL INDUSTRY unless you count installers of rooftop solar. Chevron and BP own BrightSource. It is only the greenwashing of Big Solar by Big Enviros and the media that perpetuates some sort of mythical separation between Chevron Solar and Chevron Oil. These are not "good guys" "saving the planet." They are Big Energy killing the planet for money, same as the Old Boss.
We should be discussing a more interesting story, relevant to Los Angeles - residential rooftop solar in LA is proven again to be HUGELY less expensive (and less emissive, water wasting and vulnerable to weather and security threats) than "power tower" CSP in our healthy remote deserts (aka Bright Source aka Chevron), even BEFORE any incentives, transmission costs, transmission losses or reduced output of remote desert systems at the hottest times (as in, when power is needed most):
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/02/home-solar-pv-cheaper-than-any-concentrating-solar-power-plant?cmpid=WNL-Friday-February25-2011
They even use the higher estimated price (so the price differential could be substantially larger), and this is for AMERICAN MADE PANELS, so extremely low GHGs, no toxic waste dumping or slave labor, and hundreds more US jobs!
When will the LAT run that story? Bright Source/Chevron doesn't need more media adoration - they are already buying off legislators and Big Enviros left and right - WE the people need some ink, though, and the people of LA deserve to know that every single Big Solar project is totally ripping them off and they can do much MUCH better by joining together with neighbors and other residents and buying installation contracts in bulk. Open Neighborhoods and 1 Block Off The Grid are 2 places to start.
We can't just keep expanding our sprawl into healthy wilderness areas while the existing built environment bakes in the sun and is IDEAL for clean, non-deadly, affordable energy production. We need the property value improvements, the saved water and reduced GHG emissions, no more eminent domain and more and better jobs - LOCAL democratically-owned solar is the answer!
Looking forward to seeing more writing in this column about this subject!
Posted by: save the deserts! | February 25, 2011 at 05:06 PM