A California company has developed a method that uses solar-powered steam to coax oil from the earth, an innovation they say is cleaner and cheaper than using natural gas to generate the steam.
At its pilot plant in Kern County, GlassPoint Solar uses a row of foil mirrors inside a greenhouse to concentrate solar heat
A $17 million renewable energy project designed to tap into the earth’s heat more than 2 miles deep has been suspended because of difficulty drilling through rock formations.
The project, run by AltaRock Energy and partially funded by Google, was designed to drill down to about 12,000 feet, fracture rock at the bottom of the hole, and then circulate water to create steam.
But the company reported that it had encountered “anomalies” in the rock that had prevented it from drilling deeper than 4,000 feet.