GlassPoint Solar Inc.
GlassPoint delivers the lowest-cost solar energy to power industrial processes. We are operating and developing some of the world’s largest industrial solar projects in the United States and Middle East. Industry is the largest user of energy worldwide—and the vast majority of industrial energy use, 74, is consumed in the form of heat, not electricity. That’s where GlassPoint is focused. We offer turnkey solar thermal facilities, fully integrated with industrial processes. By harnessing sunshine to produce steam, instead of burning natural gas or other fossil fuels, GlassPoint is helping industry leaders reduce production costs while eliminating carbon emissions throughout the value chain. GlassPoint designed its enclosed trough technology to overcome the operating challenges found in remote industrial locations and to deliver the lowest-cost steam.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Solar Energy
- Market Focus:
- Globally (various continents)
About Us
By harnessing sunshine to produce steam, instead of burning natural gas or other fossil fuels, GlassPoint is helping industry leaders reduce production costs while eliminating carbon emissions throughout the value chain. GlassPoint designed its enclosed trough technology to overcome the operating challenges found in remote industrial locations and to deliver the lowest-cost steam.
We’ve forged partnerships with energy leaders and strategic investors including Royal Dutch Shell, Aera Energy, Petroleum Development Oman and the State General Reserve Fund of Oman, the country’s largest sovereign wealth fund. Together, we’re working to lead the industrial sector toward a cleaner, lower-carbon future.
Our Values
We’re a global team excited by doing things no one has ever done before and are committed to making a difference. Our SHARP core values are what unite us and keep us moving in the same direction.
Safe
The safety of our employees and those around them is our highest priority. We also strive to ensure the safety and security of the assets and facilities entrusted to us by our customers.
Happy
GlassPoint strives to create a rewarding and fulfilling workplace. We are here to change the world and have fun while doing it.
Agile
Speed and agility provide us with a competitive advantage because they allow us to react more quickly to changes in the environment in which we work.
Responsive
We are responsive to our customers’ needs, and their primary need is for low-cost energy. We are focused on continuously reducing the cost of the solar energy delivered by our systems.
Principled
GlassPoint aspires to the highest ethical standards and maintains an honest, open and transparent culture. We value diversity within our workforce and respect one another equally, irrespective of race, gender or culture.
Markets
It takes energy to make energy
The easy oil has already been recovered. Mature fields are depleting and oil extraction is becoming more expensive and energy intensive. 70% of the world’s remaining oil is thick, vicious crude, known as heavy oil. The leading method of producing heavy oil is steam injection, a type of thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) that injects steam into a reservoir to heat the oil making it easier to pump to the surface. Thermal EOR has proven to triple well productivity, recovering significantly more oil from today’s resources.
To produce the steam for EOR more than 1.4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas is burned each year—that’s more than 10% of all liquefied natural gas (LNG) traded globally. This number continues to increase each year as more heavy oil fields are developed.
The oil industry is the next major solar market
The majority of heavy oil can be found in regions with ample sunshine, such as the Arabian Gulf. Most Gulf countries are also faced with critical gas supply shortages. By using solar to generate steam, oil operators can reduce EOR gas consumption by up to 80%. The gas saved can instead be exported as LNG, used for power generation or redirected to the private sector to power new industries and create jobs.
GlassPoint is focused on deploying solar EOR in markets with heavy oil and abundant sunshine that lack affordable fuel for generating steam.
Oman – Oil production in Oman consumes nearly a quarter of the country’s total gas supply. EOR projects are competing for limited gas resources, while demand for power generation and industrial development are on the rise. Deploying solar EOR can free gas for these higher value applications, while generating in-country value through local manufacturing.
Kuwait – Heavy oil projects underway in Kuwait and the Neutral Zone will represent some of largest steam flooding projects worldwide. To produce steam for EOR, Kuwait—which has already been importing gas for years—will need to significantly increase its gas imports or use expensive petroleum fuels. Using solar energy to generate steam will reduce the country’s reliance on imported energy.
California – Thermal EOR accounts for nearly half of California’s oil production. GlassPoint offers the lowest cost steam to produce California’s heavy oil—lower cost than steam made from burning natural gas. Considering 60% of the cost of operating a heavy oil field is fuel purchase for EOR, solar steam can deliver significant savings.
Additional markets that could benefit from solar steam deployment include Saudi Arabia, Western China, Venezuela and Indonesia.
Market
The Oil Production Challenge
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts an increase in global oil demand of 2% per annum, but production from existing capacities is shrinking at double that rate. An enormous gap is opening-up between the amount of oil that is required and the amount of oil that is currently in production. That means, by 2015, the oil industry will have to add new production capacity equal to double the current production of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer of oil. By 2035, eight times Saudi Arabia’s current production will need to be brought online in order to satisfy the world’s demand for more oil. To fill this gap, oil operators worldwide are investing in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is the future of oil p...
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is the future of oil production
The number and size of new oil discoveries has been declining for decades, so where is the additional oil going to come from? If new discoveries are not the answer, then more oil must be produced from existing fields. The most common way to boost oil production from an aging field is by injecting high-pressure steam, known as thermal EOR . Over the next few decades, a lot more thermal EOR will be applied to the world’s oil fields.
Normally, the steam required for EOR is produced by burning immense amounts of natural gas. With gas now a valuable energy commodity, oil producers would much rather sell the gas than burn it to heat up the ground. In many oil producing states, especially in the Persian Gulf region, there is a shortage of natural gas. Of the six countries in the GCC, only Qatar is a net gas exporter. All others are importers of gas.
Solar steam is the future of EOR
Most of the world’s oil fields are in sunny locations, like the Middle East or California, creating the possibility of producing steam for EOR using concentrated sunlight. Unfortunately, the high price of solar steam has limited its use for EOR to a small number of experimental installations, such as the one created in Southern California by ARCO in the 1980s.
GlassPoint has developed a solar steam generator specifically for EOR that produces steam at costs competitive with steam produced by burning natural gas. By breaking this price barrier, GlassPoint has created the market for solar EOR, allowing operators to reduce costs, reduce emissions and save gas for higher value applications.
GlassPoint’s solar EOR solution is cost-competitive with natural gas today
After the development of a successful prototype unit in China in 2010, GlassPoint’s solar steam generators are being deployed at oil fields worldwide. In February 2011, GlassPoint unveiled the world’s first commercial solar EOR project at a 100-year old oil field operated by Berry Petroleum in McKittrick, California. Then, in August 2011, GlassPoint announced the award of a contract with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to build a 7 MW solar steam generator for EOR at an oil field in Southern Oman. PDO is a joint venture of The Sultanate of Oman, Shell and Total.