"BP is trying to reinvent itself as an energy company in the age of
climate change. The company is shrinking its oil and gas business,
revving up offshore wind power and developing solar and battery storage.
It is even considering installing electric car charging kiosks at its
gas stations, part of a drive to eliminate or offset its carbon
emissions to a net zero level by 2050."
-----
I think this very encouraging and perhaps will be a trend for most of
the large energy companies. It's clear that oil, coal, and gas will
cease to be a major industry. It's just not clear exactly when. This
kind of investment into wind and solar could do more than practically
any government incentives or mandates. And if the early investments pan
out, that should only accelerate the overall investments.
Side note: if the US government were to expand interstate rest areas
into something like the French model (I don't know if that model exists
in other countries), that would help even more. The French autoroute
stops have the ubiquitous gas stations but also a few shops, some fast
food, and sometimes restaurants, all confined together so you can easily
walk to any of them. It's a shoe-in to put EV charging there. Not so
much on the US interstates.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/09/15/bp-climate-change-transition/
...
Now, BP, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, is aiming to
ride the waves of disruption instead of being crushed under them.
...
BP is giving it a try. On Thursday, the London-based oil giant said it
would spend $1.1 billion for a half ownership in Equinor’s wind projects
off the shores of Massachusetts and New York, with the hope that the
partnership will build more offshore wind projects in a global market
expected to grow from 30 gigawatts now to more than 200 gigawatts by the
end of the decade.
...
It’s just a start. The oil and gas company’s chief executive Bernard
Looney, a drilling and production engineer, said on Aug. 4 that it aims
to boost spending on low carbon projects from $500 million a year to $5
billion a year by the end of the decade. Even that larger figure,
however, would be barely 40 percent of BP’s overall capital spending
budget.
...
The company has also said it would consider installing electric vehicle
recharging stations at many of the more than 7,000 retail gasoline
stations in the United States. The company has already purchased
Britain’s largest electric vehicle charging network and another network
in China. And it plans to help cities and utilities buy packages of
renewable energy and storage.
...
Sanyal said that BP expects returns on renewable investments in the
range of 8 to 10 percent — a solid, stable performance but perhaps
falling short of the oil industry’s traditional returns. BP recently cut
its dividend and Royal Dutch Shell slashed its dividend for the first
time since World War II, a blow for shareholders, especially British
pension systems that rely heavily on Big Oil’s checks.
...
The company has more than 50 utility-scale projects under construction,
including a $1.3 billion installation for the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power that generates solar energy and then stores it. The
projects rely on power purchase agreements, where the developer owns the
solar panels and keeps a percentage of the payments for the electricity
produced.
...
As a result, he expects big oil companies to “gravitate towards the more
challenging projects,” which include offshore wind where their
experience with drilling platforms would help. They could also take on
very large projects in challenging countries such as in sub-Saharan
Africa, where major oil companies already have experience, he said.
----------
Peri
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