Chevron Corp. is taping into solar energy to help drain the sludge-like dregs of crude from an aging oil field by heating it with steam. The Wall Street Journal said in a report that Chevron uses vast stretch of solar panels to create the energy for the steam. Chevron and its partner, BrightSource Energy Inc., in late August began making steam from the sunlight that drenches the San Joaquin Valley in what is by far the largest such facility in the world. Chevron has spent little more than its $28 million contract, but BrightSource has lost at least $40 million on the project and disclosed it will lose much more. If the solar-to-steam experiment doesn't prove feasible, it would be a blow for solar companies aspiring to enter a potentially lucrative market. US solar companies are diversifying their core business of electricity generation to build the economies of scale that they hope will help them compete at a time when the industry is under pressure. Chevron touts the unconventional pairing as a model for oil companies to save money, and solar firms to profit, without the need for government subsidies, while minimizing carbon emissions. Key to determining whether larger projects are viable is how well the mirrors track the sun, how reliably they generate steam and how expensive the infrastructure is to maintain. The technology also has significant limitations: It depends on abundant sunlight and open, flat land. It won't replace the natural gas used to create steam, but augment it. And if Chevron commissions a full-scale project, it is likely to be far from California in a country where gas isn't as abundant. “We're looking particularly in regions around the world where there's good sun but natural gas is either very expensive, or not available in the quantities we might require,” Desmond King, president of Chevron Technology Ventures, said.
