Solar energy and fossil fuels don’t have to compete. GlassPoint Solar and Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) recently announced plans to build one of the world’s largest solar plants to provide steam for thermal EOR. When complete, the plant will generate up to 1 GW of energy.

Miraah (meaning “mirror” in Arabic) will be located in South Oman near the Amal Field, which requires steam injection to produce heavy and viscous oil. The steam is currently generated by burning natural gas, and the two companies anticipate
that applying solar power will save 5.6 TBtu/y, an amount that could provide residential electricity to 209,000 people.

Already the two companies have built a pilot facility at Amal to test the commercial viability of solar steam. The facility has produced 50 t/d of steam and is capable of producing 7 MW/d. The pilot facility will continue to operate alongside the full-scale development.

When complete, the new facility will generate 6,000 t/d of steam and will comprise 36 glasshouse modules covering 3 sq km (1.2 sq miles). It will use GlassPoint’s concentrating solar power technology, which uses large, curved mirrors to focus sunlight on a boiler tube containing water. The concentrated energy boils the water to produce high-quality steam, which is fed to the field’s existing steam distribution network.

A self-cleaning glasshouse encloses and protects the solar collectors from wind, sand and dust storms. The wind-free environment allows the mirrors and other components to be thin and lightweight. This produces significant savings over exposed solar thermal systems.

“This is one tiny step for the oil and gas industry, but it will be one of the largest solar projects in the world,” said John O’Donnell, vice president of business development for GlassPoint. “It’s all available technology, and it’s completely automatic. It operates itself.”

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