Turnbull invests in revived solar steam tech with gigawatt scale project in Saudi Arabia

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has become a shareholder in US-based solar steam company GlassPoint, which has recently landed a contract for a massive 1.5 gigawatt hour thermal storage project in Saudi Arabia.

The investment in GlassPoint, which also has an operating facility in Oman and a small plant in California, came after the company was rescued out of liquidation by investment giant Blackrock earlier this year.

Turnbull and the former chief operating officer of Alcoa, Tomas Sigurdsson, were both named to the company’s advisory board in a press release overnight, with the goal to take GlassPoint’s technology to a range of industries, including mining, metals and manufacturing, looking for paths to net zero.

Turnbull told RenewEconomy that his investment was small in the scale of GlassPoint, but significant for him. He declined to reveal the actual size but said it came in a recent funding round.

He said he was attracted to the technology because “there is no silver bullet for zero emissions … we can’t electrify everything.”

GlassPoint has addressed some of the problem others solar thermal technologies had experienced because its reflectors are housed in greenhouses, away from dust and wind, and he said there were opportunities in Australia.

“Anywhere where steam is used and there is good solar irradiation,” Turnbull said. “And Australia is not short of sun.”

In an earlier statement, Turnbull said: “The world can’t meet its net-zero pledges unless industrial players make enormous leaps in decarbonizing operations.

“Consider that it’s common for large industrial plants to require more energy than many cities, much of which goes to thermal processes. Solutions like GlassPoint, which help hard-to-abate industries reduce emissions up to 80% and are available today, will play a major role in combating climate change.”

In June, GlassPoint signing a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabian mining company Ma’aden to develop the world’s largest solar process heat plant – 1.5GWth (thermal) – at its alumina refinery in Ras al Khair, where it hopes to cut emissions by 50 per cent.

It already operates a 350MWth solar heat plant at an oil refinery in Oman, where it generates steam for enhanced oil recovery.

Its technology involves large curved mirrors that are placed inside greenhouses and which then focus sunlight on pipes, heating up the water inside so it boils and produces steam.

Founder and CEO Rod MacGregor says that solar thermal steam is more expensive than gas, but the cheapest way of getting emissions-free heat.

GlassPoint built its first pilot plant in 2011, and the Oman plant in 2017, and had the backing of Oman’s sovereign wealth fund, as well as the venture arm of Royal Dutch Shell and venture firms RockPort Capital, Nth Power and Chrysalix Energy.

But it went into liquidation in 2020 – following a number of other solar thermal aspirants that went the same way (BrightSource, SolarReserve, Ausra) – after failing to raise money for a major California project, and was revived this year by MacGregor, with the support of Blackrock, the world’s biggest asset manager.

MacGregor told Canary Media last month that the company is now focused on “steam purchase contracts”, similar to off take agreements for electricity.

“The business model is different, the market is different and the environment is very different than it used to be. We’re very much in a net-zero world now,” MacGregor told Canary Media.

In his statement overnight, MacGregor said: “Leaders of Malcolm and Tomas’ caliber joining our advisory board signifies a massive vote of confidence for GlassPoint.

“Their expertise and deep understanding of industrial market dynamics and clean energy will be invaluable in serving our mission of decarbonizing process heat at scale. I look forward to working with them to meet soaring demand for a proven solution that helps companies achieve net-zero commitments.”