Occidental Petroleum Corp. on Oct. 3 started up its 16 MW Goldsmith field solar facility in Ector County near Odessa, Texas, which will directly power an enhanced oil recovery field operation in the Permian Basin.
First Solar Inc. manufactured the 174,000 photovoltaic panels in the 120-acre field and is under contract from Occidental subsidiary Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, or OLCV, to operate the facility.
OLCV also signed a 12-year power purchase agreement with a joint venture between Macquarie Green Investment Group and Core Solar LLC for 109 MW of solar energy, beginning in 2021, which will be used in its Permian operations.
"The solar facility and long-term solar power agreement further enable us to realize cost efficiencies and reduce the carbon intensity of our operations through the use of lower-carbon electricity, which together are ultimately expected to eliminate more than 160,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year," OLCV President Richard Jackson said in an Oct. 3 news release.
