Why some oil companies are investing in renewables

If electric cars are adopted by mass-market buyers in years to come, that will lead to notably lower oil consumption. So what are oil companies doing to prepare for that possible outcome?

|
Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters/File
A view of the ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, Texas.

If electric cars are adopted by mass-market buyers in years to come, that will lead over time to notably lower oil consumption.

So what are oil companies doing to prepare for that possible outcome?

Some continue to doubt whether electric cars will constitute a serious threat to their business in the coming decades—but others are branching out into fields beyond fossil fuels.

ExxonMobil takes a fairly dismissive view of electric cars, predicting in a recent report that they will only account for 10 percent of U.S. new-car sales in 2040.

Consequently, Exxon hasn't shown much interest in investments related to electric cars or renewable energy.

But some of the oil giant's European competitors appear to be preparing for a future where fossil fuels play a reduced role in transportation and energy.

French oil company Total purchased solar-panel maker SunPower in 2011, and last year purchased battery maker Saft in a deal estimated to be worth $1 billion.

Total has said it plans to use Saft battery packs for energy storage, which would complement the SunPower solar-panel business.

Many analysts believe pairing renewable-energy sources with energy storage is key, because the ability to store electricity for later use addresses the intermittent availability of wind or sunlight.

Total is also considering installing electric-car charging stations at some of its fuel stations in France, while Royal Dutch Shell has already committed to adding charging stations at certain locations in the U.K. and The Netherlands.

Both oil companies are also members of the Hydrogen Council, a consortium of 13 companies established to promote fuel cells.

Norwegian oil giant Statoil has interests in several offshore wind farms, and is testing a floating wind turbine called HyWind.

The company has used its expertise with offshore oil platforms to aid these projects, and claims to have achieved a 30-percent cost reduction between 2011 and 2017.

BP is also looking to ramp up its wind-energy portfolio, about 15 years after its ill-fated "Beyond Petroleum" effort.

A combination of low oil prices in the early 2000s and the relative immaturity of renewable-energy technologies caused that first attempt to sputter.

Whether large oil companies end up with smaller businesses or simply shift their focus from oil to natural gas remains to be seen.

This story originally appeared on GreenCarReports.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Why some oil companies are investing in renewables
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2017/0206/Why-some-oil-companies-are-investing-in-renewables
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe