A common theme running through the high-level speeches at CERAWeek by IHS Markit was the ongoing need to implement renewables into the energy mix while continuing efforts to cut down on carbon emissions. Farming fossil fuels and applying wider use of renewables seems like ideological polarities, but there are several companies that see that challenge as an opportunity.

One such company is GlassPoint Solar, which, in addition to finding widespread uses for renewable energy, is tackling the challenge in how to cost-effectively cultivate heavy oil, a key element in producing the world’s estimated reserves. According to the 2015 article, “Application of Neutron Activation Analysis for Heavy Oil Production Control,” about 70% of the world’s remaining oil reserves are estimated to be heavy oil.

GlassPoint Solar reconstitutes the process of steam injection from the traditional method of heating natural gas to unlock overly viscous oil by instead harvesting solar energy to create, along with those traditional methods, enough steam to heat a heavy oil reservoir.

GlassPoint Solar was founded in 2009. John O’Donnell, vice president of business development, said the company’s maiden project was in 2015 at its Miraah solar facility in Oman, which will eventually produce more than 1,000 MW of thermal energy production. Last year GlassPoint was awarded a contract to build a similar facility in Kern County, Calif., one that will produce 850 MW of energy.

By foregoing the large-scale use of natural gas for EOR, particularly in a place like Oman where natural gas is needed for a variety of uses, GlassPoint’s system is addressing issues on two fronts.

“In Oman there is a lot of competition for the available natural gas between oil recovery, which is using a very sizable fraction of all the gas in the country today, and other applications, [such as] power generation and other kinds of industrialization,” O’Donnell said. “The solar supply can unlock gas supplies for those uses. We’re creating permanent energy production assets that don’t have a decline curve.”

He explained that GlassPoint’s system only works in places around the world with consistent sunshine throughout the year—locations typically within about 40 degrees north and south of the equator. So, for instance, locations in Canada’s heavy oil fields likely would not be strong candidates for solar steam injection, O’Donnell said.

Although O’Donnell didn’t cite specific cost savings for such a project, he said that solar steam production offers “substantial” savings. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the use of solar power for projects calling for greater than 300 MW of energy has decreased from about $0.36/kWh in 2010 to about $0.10/kWh in 2017.

O’Donnell said several heavy oil operators are either aware of the work GlassPoint is doing or are engaged in conversations at different levels with the company about its technologies.

“There are other producers that are looking at our track record, so we see bright opportunities for several other projects around the world based on our successes of building these first large projects,” he said.

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