BP to Double its Investment in Renewable Energy

November 30, 2005

BP announced on November 28th that it plans to double its investment in renewable energy to create a new power business called "BP Alternative Energy." The new business will manage an investment program in solar, wind, hydrogen, and gas turbines that could amount to $8 billion over the next ten years. In the first phase of that program, BP plans to invest $1.8 billion over the next three years, spread roughly evenly among the four energy technologies. BP currently provides 10 percent of the global market for solar photovoltaic power, with enough manufacturing capacity to produce 100 megawatts of solar devices each year, a capacity that BP intends to double by the end of 2006. For wind power, BP's investment will go towards new large wind power facilities, possibly including a 200-megawatt facility in the United States in 2007. BP's hydrogen investments will go towards a previously announced project in Scotland to generate hydrogen from natural gas, generate power from the hydrogen, and pump leftover carbon dioxide into a depleted oil reservoir. BP Alternative Energy will be based in the United Kingdom and will initially employ about 2,500 people around the world. See the BP press release.