A newly announced project at California’s Belridge oilfield will bring solar and fossil fuels together in the state’s biggest solar project.
The partnership, between Belridge field operator Aera Energy and solar thermal power company GlassPoint, will feature a 26.5-megawatt photovoltaic array and 850 megawatts of solar thermal power capacity. It’s slated to come online in 2020.
Aera, which is jointly-owned by majors Shell and Exxon, produces almost a quarter of California’s oil and gas. GlassPoint currently has two running projects, in Oman, that are tied to oil extraction operations.
