Oil major to focus on clean power
Posted: 12 April 2006
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BP’s $8 billion Alternative Energy programme will focus on power generation starting this year.
Tony Hayward, BP’s chief of exploration and production said: “This new business will be built on our experience in running gas-fired power plants and producing and marketing solar panels. Over the next three years we plan to triple our solar manufacturing and also to increase our wind power capacity more than ten-fold.”
Power generation, according to Hayward accounts for over 40% of man-made greenhouse gases emissions, the biggest single source. Transport accounts for just over 20% of emissions.
The power sector is also experiencing rapid growth, driven by economic development and the demand for rising living standards, particularly in Asia. It is estimated that around half of the power capacity that will be required by 2030 has yet to be built and this is the area where technology can be applied most cost-effectively to reduce emissions, he added.
After the carbon storage project in Salah gas production site in Algeria, BP will also develop a hydrogen-fuelled power plant in Scotland together with Scottish & Southern Energy.
“This will be the first project at this scale in the world. The plan is for North Sea gas to be reformed into hydrogen and carbon dioxide, with the carbon dioxide being piped underground to help prolong the life of a mature oil field,” Hayward said.
“Earlier this year, BP and Edison Mission Group plans to build a similar plant in C alifornia. Together these two plants are designed to generate enough power for over 800,000 homes and eliminate over five million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to removing over a million cars from the road,” he added.
Hayward commended the increasing recognition of environmental and social factors in creating shareholder value saying the real problem lies not on the issue of whether the world has enough energy resources.
He said: “I don’t believe that access to hydrocarbons is the primary problem. The major test is the environmental one. And it is a test we have to pass for the sake of future generations.”
Posted by Editor Offshore Arabia Magazine
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