Oil companies using steam-driven enhanced oil recovery now

have a cheaper and greener option.

Instead of using natural gas to generate the steam that is
injected into reservoirs to force oil to the surface, GlassPoint
Solar, a Fremont, California-based company has developed a
new technology that utilizes solar power.
Using a combination of lightweight mirrors which are housed
inside a glass house, GlassPoint’s technology utilizes sunlight
to produce the steam, a method which is produces five times
more steam per acre that a traditional solar tower facility, Rod
MacGregor, GlassPoint’s CEO told Breaking Energy.
Using steam that is derived from solar technology can generate
up to 80% of the total annual enhanced oil recovery project
needs in sunny regions and lowers the amount of natural gas
used by a matching percentage.
GlassPoint’s first glasshouse was constructed in February and
is now being used by Berry Petroleum to extract heavier oil
from itsmore than 100-year-old field in McKittrick, California.
GlassPoint says it can help oil companies cut costs because its
solar-powered steam is cheaper than natural gas. Although
natural gas is relatively cheap these days, selling for about $4
per thousand cubic feet (mcf), it adds up quickly for companies
producing millions of barrels of oil annually.
“We are the first and only [company] that can produce heat at a
lower cost than heat produced by burning natural gas,”
MacGregor said. “The amount of gas used worldwide for EOR
(enhanced oil recovery) is immense, [while] most heavy oil
producing regions are also blessed with great sunshine. Steam
for oil recovery is our whole business and we do it at a lower
price than current methods.”
Churning out more oil cheaply is attractive to Berry, whose
strategy since 1909 is to acquire heavier oil properties.
“Today Berry Petroleum wants to acquire small, heavy oil
properties that have been left behind by large companies
because they are simply too small to impact their businesses.
While Berry applies sophisticated technologies like 3D seismic
and horizontal drilling in its heavy oil operations, we cannot
fund new technology, so that’s why partnering with GlassPoint
makes sense,” Berry’s President and CEO Robert Heinemann
told Breaking Energy.
GlassPoint’s technology allows oil companies to boost their
profit margin by generating more proved reserves. By
producing 20% of their steaming needs from solar, operators
can increase their ultimate recovery fraction by 12%, depending
on the formation, MacGregor added.
“In this demonstration test, Berry provided the oil field and the
infrastructure and GlassPoint believed enough in their
technology that they built the plant to prove the concept and
determine the economics of the project,” said Heinemann. “We
are interested in this solar steam generation project because
any technology innovation that can lower our cost to generate
steam and lower operating costs can potentially make the small
heavy oil reservoirs remaining in California more economic.”
Solar EOR can definitely “improve” the costs since steam
“represents up to 60% of the cash production cost for heavy oil
projects, said Pavel Molchanov, a Raymond James energy
research analyst.
While Glasspoint’s early-stage technology is just now being
commercialized, solar EOR allows companies to hedge against
long-term natural gas price increases, he said.
Solar-generated steam is a “creative example of ‘green’
technology coming to the aid of a traditionally carbon-intensive
industry,” he said.
While MacGregor declined to detail the cost of the glasshouse,
he said that the company’s customers purchase the solar
equipment while GlassPoint funds the construction. Last
October GlassPoint received an injection of $3.5 million from
Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, a Vancouver-based
cleantech venture capital firm. Chrysalix’s limited partners
include Shell, Total and Kuwait Petroleum.
In the next few weeks, GlassPoint plans to announce another
installation for an oil company in the Middle East, he said.
Another project is slated to be announced later this year with
more to follow in 2012, MacGregor said.
GlassPoint is “growing very quickly” by generating revenue,
although MacGregor declined to disclose specific figures.

Engineers already have taken wind turbines offshore to produce alternative energy, and
now a Vienna, Austria-based startup is allowing for the same with solar panels.
Heliofloat Gmbh, spun off from research developed at the Vienna University of
Technology, is aimed at deploying large platforms of solar panels, also called Heliofloat,
on bodies of water.

Heliofloat is a lightweight platform that can be in the range of 20 meters to 200 meters
long that can not only produce energy by harvesting solar energy, but also could help
conserve water in places where there are shortages by reducing evaporation.

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Heliofloat platforms are lightweight and designed so there is no wave-induced moving of

the system, making it a “swimming” platform rather than a “floating” one.
(Source: Heliofloat Gmbh)
 Designers call the system a “swimming” system rather than a “floating” one because the
core of the technology is to decouple wave movement from platform movement, said
Roland Eisl, general manager of Heliofloat. “So if you imagine you are on one of our
platforms you would not see the platform moving up and down,” he said. “There is no
wave-induced movement of the plate.”

The platform’s lightweight design means it can be fabricated locally in emerging

economies, but its resistance to waves and storms makes it durable and nearly
impossible to sink, according to its developers.

The platform has a top level that’s constructed from truss or a pneumatic structure that’s
supported below by pressurized air chambers in cylindrical flexible membrane skirts. The
flexible membrane and the air cushion reduce the wave excitation to a minimum.

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“It’s the construction itself with skirts and a lightweight plate that does the work for us,”
Eisl explained, adding that the energy from the platform can be transferred via cable
similarly to how it’s done in any power production facility.

Heliofloat can be deployed wherever customers would like, he said, and more than one
platform can be connected to create offshore floating solar-power grids.

The company is currently seeking investors to bring the first preindustrial Heliofloat
platform to water, Eisl said. The platform will be in the range of 20 meters by 20 meters,
which makes it applicable for lakes. In the future the company plans to deploy offshore
platforms with sizes of 200 meters or more, he said.

Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer who has written about technology and culture
for more than 15 years. She has lived and worked as a professional journalist in
Phoenix, San Francisco, and New York City. In her free time she enjoys surfing,
traveling, music, yoga, and cooking. She currently resides in a village on the southwest
coast of Portugal.

On oil and gas platforms, a flare system is used to burn excess and
unusable gas and oil. This system is normally installed on the bow or stern of
the topside structure to limit hazardous working conditions such as exposure
to high temperatures or heat radiation. In general, when burning gas and oil,
continuous flaring systems reach a maximum temperature of approximately
1200 °C and a heat flux of over 400 kW/m2