Meeting the world's growing demand for energy will require a broad mix of energy sources and unprecedented advances in technology.
Technology can help us find and commercialize new crude oil and natural gas fields in complex environments and recover more resources from existing fields. It also can help us advance emerging energy with the goal of developing new resources while reducing our environmental footprint.
In California, Chevron is working to safeguard the state's future through continued investment in energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, renewable energy and conservation.
We established an advanced energy development alliance with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a federally funded research and development center managed by the California Institute of Technology. This strategic partnership enables Chevron to use JPL technologies to improve well performance.
Our partnership with University of Southern California helped create a "digital oil field" at our Kern River operations that is safer, cleaner and more productive. That pioneering effort led to a global program that allows Chevron to remotely manage thousands of pieces of equipment at operations on six continents.
Chevron continues to enhance reliability through innovative reservoir management technologies. Wireless downhole systems were installed in our wells in the San Joaquin Valley in 2011 to provide dynamic information on the fluid level in each well.
We continue to build on more than four decades of research and development into new and unique catalysts that allow us to use a wider range of crude oils in manufacturing. At our Richmond Base Oil Plant, we commercialized the next-generation ISODEWAXING® catalyst unit in 2011.
We continue to explore new technologies that can make renewable forms of energy more efficient. In Coalinga, we completed and commissioned the world's largest solar-to-steam generation project. There, more than 7,600 mirrors focus sunlight onto a solar boiler that produces steam. The steam is then injected into reservoirs to increase crude oil production. The project produces about the same amount of steam as one gas-fired steam generator.
We are testing and evaluating emerging solar technologies at our 740-kilowatt photovoltaic project in Bakersfield. Project Brightfield is built on the site of Chevron's decommissioned Bakersfield refinery.
Chevron Technology Ventures identifies, develops and commercializes emerging technologies that have the potential to transform energy production and energy use. By supporting early-stage innovation, we give small businesses a gateway to a global customer and the potential to build future engines of growth for California.
We are a global partner of the Cleantech Open, which encourages clean technology innovation and small business development. Our collaborative partnership has helped bring emerging technologies together with companies in California to create products that answer some of the world's energy problems.
We believe energy efficiency is the cheapest and cleanest form of "new" energy the world has. Chevron Energy Solutions (CES) has developed approximately 200 projects in California that enable public institutions to increase energy efficiency, save taxpayer money and lower greenhouse gas emissions. CES installations provide more than 20 megawatts of solar power for California, making it one of the largest solar power installers in the state.