When it comes to power generation, there are some truisms. Unless we develop new engine technology, we are going to need fluid (liquids or gases) fuels or batteries to run our cars. But, the bulk of commercial and residential energy demand beyond transportation is for heating and cooling our buildings. There is no reason that this need be met by liquid fuels. Given the stationary aspect of these needs, hydropower, solar, wind, and other technologies make perfect sense as the source of this energy.
So, what Chevron is doing in Coalinga (San Joaquin Valley, CA) is pretty cool. This oilfield, in operation for 120 years or so, is now being operated to extract heavy crude oil (very viscous oil)- which has been extracted for years by burning natural gas to produce steam. That’s an expensive concept- and one with a fairly large carbon footprint.
No more. Now, Chevron is extracting the oil via steam- but not with conventional power plants. Instead, it has a 29 MW thermal solar to steam facility. The plant was designed by Chevron Technology Ventures, which is an arm of the behemoth energy company that aims to identify and perfect technology concepts that can be employed throughout the firm. This facility uses 7644 mirrors (each pair of 10 by 7 foot mirrors is mounted atop a 6-foot pole) to reflect and concentrate the rays atop a 327 foot tall solar tower and was built by BrightSource Energy. This is a BIG plant. The solar field encompasses some 65 acres on 100 acre project space. (There is another solar to stem plant in the Middle East- Oman- which was built by GlassPoint Solar. It is a much smaller facility- but it was built first. )
As you can see from the picture, the mirrors follow the sun’s movement, and capture the solar energy in the form of heat. The heat is reflected from the mirrors to the solar receiver atop the tower, where water is boiled to produce “process steam”. (Process steam is superheated steam, steam heated beyond water’s boiling point, therefore carrying more energy than regular steam.) The heat exchanger is at the bottom of the tower, where the process steam is comingled with water from the oil production to produce saturated steam, which is then it is injected underground. Once the steam has cooled and converted back to water, it’s returned to the heat exchanger to product more process steam.
As a comparison, this power plant is 1/3 to 1/10 the size (power wise) of the Dominion Energy power plants in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but two to four times the size of the power plants that local municipalities operate in the Commonwealth. (Most electric generating facilities develop their power from steam production.) Hopefully, this solar to steam project will lead to many others- and not just for enhanced oil recovery.
I always like reading your blogs. I might not understand all of it but I come away with new knowledge that excites me.
Shawn recently posted..No Green Eyed Monster Allowed!
Thanks, Shawn.
And, if you feel I failed to explain something well enough, please ask! I will endeavor to fix what I clearly failed to do in my post!
Thanks.
Roy
Solar to steam…wow, what a concept! I think it’s great what Chevron is doing and hope it catches on! Thanks for this article, Roy!
Morgan recently posted..10 Ways To Showoff Your Social Networks
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Morgan.
Yes, this excited me too! Instead of the conversion losses to electricity (which I admit we will solve eventually), this plant shows we can generate electrical power now! What I didn’t say is not only the size of this plant a little small, the size of the land area is not out of line for other plants of similar generating capacity. Now, all we have to do is reduce our transmission losses between the plant the home/factory and we can develop viable alternatives to liquid fuels for power generation!
Roy
With all this solar power, 2 thoughts need to be solved – 1 is pollution which may prevent the sun from being seen as I have seen in parts of the world like China and the other is storage since the sun only shines so many hours a day and a year.
I think wind and solar power are wonderful and the new technology for harnessing both are wonderful but what we are doing on the planet may make this impossible. Now I saw something the other day about using garbage to generate power rather than land fill.
Roberta recently posted..Stuck Waiting for…..?
I admit it’s been a while since I worried about pollution haze affects, Roberta, but from what I recall (in the still relevant study from 1976) from Hoyt Hottel’s work, pollution haze does block irradiation from reaching the panels, but not by much. Perhaps if we keep destroying our environment, this will become a larger issue. And, to be honest, since the bulk of the air pollution problems stay local (say 90%), while the rest of the world is affected, the community that does the least will be punished the most…
And, don’t get me started on using garbage to generate power- that was one of my theses! So long ago one would have thought every community would have one operational in the subsequent four decades!!!!
Roy