Bakersfield, California. Once known for its abundant oil, is still a thriving city--the eleventh largest in California. And while Bakersfield enjoys a beautiful climate, a city doesn't sustain double digit growth with sunshine alone. Or can it?
According to this Forbes blog, a new company called Glasspoint is setting up shop in an old oil field of Bakersfield. Actually, what Glasspoint is setting up is more like a greenhouse than a shop.
The company recently built a half-acre greenhouse-looking structure that combines renewable energy with typical fossil fuel power. It all comes together in an incredibly clever way.
The glass structure contains a multitude of solar reflecting mirrors made of aluminum, all hanging by wires. As the sun passes overhead, the mirrors are shifted to best focus the sunlight onto hanging pipes filled with water. (Anyone who's ever used a "solar shower" will be familiar with the idea.) The water boils into steam, and the steam is then injected into the ancient oil field to push up aged crude oil.
The whole process works similar to hybrid automobiles. By combining renewable energy (or at least potentially lower-impact, in the case of automobiles) with traditional power generation, a unique hybrid approach begins to take hold.
Glasspoint's service is meant not to compete with traditional solar power, but rather the way oil is already harvested. Traditionally, oil companies use the steam process to force out oil from deep underground; to do so, they use natural gas. Glasspoint's business is predicated on replacing natural gas in both more environmentally friendly and less expensive ways. The first goal is obviously met--in optimal circumstances. The second goal is also met--apparently the Glasspoint glass houses will cost about half as much as gas to operate.
There are a few problems with Glasspoint's project, though. To start, the initial installation is about half an acre; to properly power the oil field it's situated on, it would take about 100 acres of such houses. The cost power a larger field (like the one owned by oil giant Chevron) is estimated at $700 million to cover 3,200 acres.
As oil supplies become depleted, it takes more energy to extract the oil. It makes sense that you'd want to spend as little energy as possible to produce more energy. Other oil producing nations like Oman, Qatar, and even Spain are looking to solar-powered oil extraction. American reserves are supposed by many to be economically unfeasible, but if the cost to extract oil can be reduced, our supplies could be said to increase quite a bit. Let's hope the sun keeps shining on beautiful Bakersfield.
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