FREMONT — Solar company GlassPoint has found a business that seems to drive counter to the green ethos — it helps oil companies pull crude from the ground.

The solar start-up has found a way to lower the cost of pumping oil, using sunlight instead of burning natural gas. It also can dramatically reduce carbon emissions through a technology based on mirrors, pipes, steam and the humble greenhouse.

GlassPoint, a private company with strategic investments from multi-national oil companies, is building one of the world’s largest solar plants in Oman. The 740-acre, 1 gigawatt plant set in a desert oil field is expected to generate 6,000 tons of steam daily when completed.

“We have the opportunity to make a difference very, very quickly,” said company CEO Rod MacGregor. GlassPoint is hoping to unlock a $114 billion market for solar enhanced oil recovery.

The field of solar enhanced oil recovery is relatively new. GlassPoint started its first pilot project in 2011. Another Bay Area company, BrightSource, also built a pilot program in California around the same time.

Ken Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice’s Baker Institute, said some solar panels have been deployed for limited electricity production at established well sites. Solar thermal plants typically use molten salt to trap heat and produce steam overnight, which helps remove heavy oil, Medlock said. It also frees up natural gas reserves for export or other uses.

The process could make it cheaper to pump more hard-to-reach oil and increase the world’s supply.

Not everyone is sold.

Franz Matzner, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Beyond Oil program, said the system doesn’t get rid of pollution, land degradation and the negative health impacts associated with petroleum production.

Matzner said the only advantage is that it’s “a sign of solar’s advantages over oil and coal and gas.”

MacGregor believes the company can have a huge impact on reducing carbon emissions. MacGregor and fellow entrepreneur Pete von Behrens were searching for a tech solution to global warming when they founded GlassPoint in 2009. The co-founders asked themselves “Where can you make the biggest difference?” They focused on oil production, where about a dozen companies control 80 percent of the world’s oil fields.

“When they act, they act at huge scale,” MacGregor said.

Nearly 70 percent of the world’s remaining reserves are hard-to-pump heavy oil. Pulling it out of the ground is energy-intensive. GlassPoint estimates that if 2 percent of the gas used in oil recovery were replaced by solar power, it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than the world’s entire electric vehicle fleet.

Oil companies typically pump deposits of heavy oil by injecting steam produced by gas generators into the ground, warming the oil and allowing it to be pumped up through different wells.

The GlassPoint proposition to oil companies: there’s got to be a better way. The market for solar enhanced oil recovery includes fields with heavy oil, good sunlight and either high gas prices or limited availability.

“At the end of the day, we heat up rock,” said von Behrens, the chief technology officer. “Using a high-quality fuel, like natural gas, to heat up rock is kind of a waste.”

The company’s design consists of curved mirrors tracking the sun and reflecting light at water-filled pipes. The pipes heat up to almost 600 degrees and produce steam. The steam is pumped into the oil field during the day, loosening the crude. At night, gas steam generators take over.

The GlassPoint system includes another twist — the solar equipment is enclosed in glass houses based on greenhouse designs. The structures shield the system from dust storms and high winds, and allows the equipment to be made of lighter materials. Automatic cleaners roll across the tops of the greenhouses to keep the windows clear.

The first GlassPoint project worked with Berry Petroleum, an independent producer with operations in Kern County. It was the world’s first solar enhanced oil recovery field. MacGregor said the 300 kilowatt project was a technical success, but as natural gas prices dropped it become less viable.

The pilot project drew interest and investments from Royal Dutch Shell, French energy conglomerate Total and the sovereign oil fund of Oman. The Fremont-based company has attracted more than $80 million from investors.

In July 2015, GlassPoint was awarded the contract for a 1 gigawatt facility in Oman. The project, called Miraah for the Arabic name for “mirror,” is expected to be partially completed next year.

BrightSource, based in Oakland, also developed a pilot program in California for Chevron about 5 years ago. It built a 29 megawatt solar thermal facility in Coalinga, Ca. The research project operated from 2011 to 2014, until falling natural gas prices also made it obsolete.

BrightSource vice president Joe Desmond said the pilot program showed that a large scale solar enhanced oil recovery plant, in the right economic climate, could reduce emissions and cut costs for oil producers.

“The economy is still going to require fossil fuels for some time,” Desmond said. If solar systems can reduce emissions from oil extraction, he said, “that’s moving in the right direction.”

GlassPoint also believes the transition to renewable energy will require alternative energy companies to work with traditional oil producers. “It’s not a niche,” MacGregor said, “in terms of scale.”