Concentrated Solar Power for Petro Chemical Plants

For decades, U.S. oil production has focused on what is easiest to extract. What many people don’t realize is that a massive amount of oil is still sitting underground in fields that have already been discovered and developed. Current proven reserves in the United States are around 46 billion barrels, but technical assessments from government and industry sources suggest that tens of billions of additional barrels remain trapped in mature onshore reservoirs.

In most oil fields, traditional production methods only recover a portion of the oil originally in place. Once natural pressure and water injection have done their job, a large share of valuable hydrocarbons is left behind in the rock. This is where Enhanced Oil Recovery, or EOR, becomes critical. By introducing heat, gases such as CO₂, or other recovery agents into the reservoir, operators can mobilize oil that would otherwise never reach the surface.

Advanced EOR programs have shown the potential to raise recovery rates from roughly 30 percent to well over 50 percent in the right formations. On a national scale, that translates into tens of billions of barrels of additional domestic production. The opportunity is not about drilling more wells in new locations. It is about extracting more value from assets that already exist.

Solar Enhanced Oil Recovery

One of the biggest challenges with thermal EOR is energy cost. Generating steam for injection requires enormous amounts of fuel, often natural gas. Over the life of a project, fuel can become one of the largest operating expenses and a major driver of emissions.

Solar Enhanced Oil Recovery offers a smarter alternative. Instead of burning fuel to create steam, concentrated solar thermal systems use focused sunlight to generate high-temperature heat directly. This heat can be converted into steam for injection, cutting fuel consumption while maintaining the temperatures needed to mobilize heavy oil.

The 9M Solar Concentrator is particularly well suited for Solar EOR applications. Its design delivers high thermal output at a low cost per unit of energy, making it practical for large-scale field deployment. By integrating solar thermal systems into EOR operations, producers can reduce operating costs, stabilize long-term energy supply, and significantly lower the carbon footprint of oil production.

A Smarter Way to Increase Recovery

Concentrated Solar Power is more than a renewable add-on. In thermal recovery operations, heat is the engine of production. Delivering that heat efficiently and affordably directly improves recovery performance and project economics.

For petrochemical facilities and upstream producers looking to improve margins while preparing for a lower-carbon future, solar thermal technology provides a proven and scalable solution.

The next major gains in oil production will not come from new discoveries alone. They will come from better recovery, smarter energy use, and technologies that turn sunlight into real production value.