GlassPoint is to develop one of the world’s largest solar power projects in Oman.
Miraah will produce 1,021 MW of peak thermal energy which will be used for enhanced oil recovery at the Amal fields in the south of the country, saving on 5.6 trillion Btus of natural gas each year.
Concentrating sunlight will generate 6,000 tons of steam each day to feed directly into the EOR operations of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), a joint venture between the government, Shell, Total and Partex.
The mega project dwarfs all previous solar EOR installations and is more than 100 times larger than the pilot project built by GlassPoint for PDO in 2012.
It will comprise 36 glasshouses, built in succession and commissioned in modules of four.
When complete, the total project area, including supporting infrastructure, will span three-square kilometers, an area equivalent to about 360 football pitches.
The project will break ground in late 2015 with steam generation from the first glasshouse module projected to begin in 2017.
By using solar instead of burning gas to make steam, Miraah will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 300,000 tons each year. These carbon savings are equivalent of taking 63,000 cars off the road.
