GlassPoint Solar, a US maker of solar steam generators for the oil and gas industry, said it plans to break ground on the world’s largest solar power station in Oman later this year.

The ambitious Miraah project is being developed in partnership with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the largest oil producer in Oman and a joint venture between the Omani government and energy giants Shell, Total and Partex.

On completion, Miraah will be one of the largest solar plants in history, producing 1,021 MW of peak thermal energy, said the US company in a statement.

Miraah will use concentrating sunlight to generate 6,000 tons of solar steam each day. The steam will feed directly to PDO’s existing thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations, providing a substantial portion of the steam required at the Amal oilfield in southern Oman.

GlassPoint Solar said the project will help save 5.6 trillion BTUs (British thermal units) of natural gas each year, which can be utilised for higher value purposes in Oman thus boosting economic growth.

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 stated.

The full-scale project will comprise 36 glasshouses, built in succession and commissioned in modules of four. When complete, the total project, including supporting infrastructure, will span an area equivalent to about 360 football pitches.

According to GlassPoint Solar, the project will break ground in late 2015 with steam generation from the first glasshouse module projected to begin in 2017.

By using solar energy instead of burning gas to make steam, Miraah will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 300,000 tons each year. These carbon savings are equivalent of taking 63,000 cars off the road, it added.-TradeArabia News Service