據7月24日Investing.com報道，在加利福尼亞州陽光普照的克恩山谷，雪佛龍公司利用該州的一項清潔能源計劃來降低石油開采成本。

該公司稱，自今年4月以來，太陽能電池板已經為雪佛龍的日產7981桶油田的油泵供電。這個29兆瓦發電站由高盛可再生能源有限責任公司(Goldman Sachs)旗下Solar Star Lost可再生能源有限責任公司所有，旨在為油田提供80%的電力，相當于減少4000多輛汽車的碳排放。作為交換，雪佛龍將獲得所謂的低碳燃料標準信用額度，以當前價格計算，每年價值約400萬美元。

雪佛龍公司發言人Veronica Flores Paniagua表示：“電力是Lost Hills油田最大的運營支出之一，因此擁有太陽能將是一個重要因素，有助于降低這些成本，并維持計劃中的油田壽命。”

隨著時間的推移，可再生能源的成本“大幅”下降，使其應用于油田更加經濟，雪佛龍管道和電力公司可再生能源總經理Telisa Toliver在一次采訪中表示：“我們希望復制這種商業模式。”

雪佛龍最大的太陽能油田“Lost Hills”項目標志著該州實行了10年之久的低碳燃料標準計劃的命運出現了不同尋常的轉折。碳交易計劃的目標是到2030年減排20%，其主要目的是用乙醇和生物柴油取代汽油和柴油。但也開始惠及當地的石油公司，環保人士稱，這一發展可能會破壞該項目引進更多可再生燃料的計劃。

生物多樣性中心的加州氣候政策主任布萊恩·諾維基（Brian Nowicki）表示：“我們不應該把太陽能電池板放在石油鉆井平臺旁邊，而應該把太陽能電池板放在更多的太陽能電池板旁邊，這是我們真正開始向清潔能源過渡的方式。”

十多年來,加州一直在面對氣候變化主導者和美國最大產油國之一的現實, 礦物燃料仍然主導著加州的能源結構，油輪上使用的大部分石油都是從遙遠的沙特阿拉伯和伊拉克進口的。

6月初以來，加州空氣資源委員會批準了三項油田太陽能項目，雪佛龍項目是其中之一。這些公司包括Grade Water and Power LLC、E&B自然資源管理公司和Rotterdam Ventures Inc。它們正受益于該計劃早期加入的一項規定——允許石油開采商通過太陽能或碳捕獲和儲存等所謂的“創新原油生產方法”獲得信貸。

在6月之前，自2016年以來，只有另外兩個項目——由Seneca資源公司和Holmes Western石油公司獲得了LCFS信用，這兩個項目都涉及在油田使用太陽能。

王佳晶 摘譯自 Investing.com

原文如下：

Chevron Is Installing Solar Panels — To Produce Oil More Cheaply

In California’s sun-drenched Kern Valley, Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) has found a way to use one of the state’s clean-energy programs to cut the cost of pumping oil, to the chagrin of some environmentalists.

Since April, solar panels have been powering oil pumps at Chevron’s Lost Hills 7,981 barrel-a-day oil field, according to the company. The 29-megawatt site, owned by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Renewable Power Llc.-controlled Solar Star Lost Hills Llc., is designed to provide the field with 80% of its electricity, equal to taking more than 4,000 cars off the road. In exchange, Chevron will earn so-called low-carbon fuel standard credits worth about $4 million a year at current prices.

“Electricity is one of Lost Hills field’s largest operating expenses, so having solar will be an important factor to help keep those costs down and maintain the planned oil field life,” Veronica Flores-Paniagua, a Chevron spokeswoman, said in an email.

Renewable energy costs have fallen “substantially” over time, making its application to oil fields more economic, Telisa Toliver, Chevron Pipeline & Power’s general manager for renewable power, said in an interview. “We see this business model for us as something we hope to replicate,” she said.

The Lost Hills project, Chevron’s largest solar-powered oil field, marks an unusual twist in the fate of the state’s decade-old Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program. The carbon-trading plan, designed to cut emissions 20% by 2030, has mostly been used to supplant gasoline and diesel with ethanol and biodiesel in vehicles. But it’s starting to benefit local oil companies as well, a development that environmentalists say may subvert the program’s intent of ushering in more renewable fuels.

“Instead of putting solar panels alongside oil rigs, we should be putting solar panels next to more solar panels,” Brian Nowicki, California Climate Policy Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said by email. “That’s how we start truly transitioning to cleaner energy.”

For more than a decade, California has struggled to reconcile a leadership role in the fight against climate change with the reality of being among the biggest oil-producing states in the U.S. Fossil fuels still dominate California’s energy mix, with most of the oil that’s used imported in tankers from as far away as Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The Chevron project is one of three oil-field solar projects approved for LCFS credits by the California Air Resources Board since early June. The companies, including Grade Water and Power LLC., E&B Natural Resources Management Corp. and Rotterdam Ventures Inc., are benefiting from a provision that was added to the program in its early years allowing oil drillers to qualify for credits through so-called “innovative crude oil production methods” such as solar or carbon-capture-and-storage.

Before June, just two other projects -- by Seneca Resources Co. and Holmes Western Oil Corp. -- were approved for LCFS credits since 2016, both involving the use of solar power at oil fields.