January 16, 2008
Another oil major invests in renewable energy
After finally resolving the dispute over Kashagan (a fair result financially, although not a kind one for corporate reputations), Eni was able to move on to happier news today with its announcement of a $50m investment in to solar energy research at MIT.
Italian business leaders have long resented the fact that cloudy Germany has a much better-developed solar power sector than they do, so it is an obvious interest for a company looking for a future beyond its established strength in oil and gas.
This route is becoming a well-trodden path, with all the oil majors including BP and even ExxonMobil investing in R&D for alternative energy. The question one has to ask, though, is whether they will benefit very much from it in the end. History shows that it is hard to realise the full potential of a new business that competes directly against your traditional core activity. Just look at IBM and Xerox.
We have not yet found the Microsoft and Apple of the energy world, but somewhere, they are probably out there.
I went through your article. I think the next energy gaients will be from china And India. Many companies like Reliance power from India and china are working hard to make it possible.
Posted by: ravi | January 16th, 2008 at 2:42 pm | Report this commentWhat is shockingly ignorant is the lack of urgency from the local governments watching billions of euros going every year OUT to the Middle East Kingdoms, where they use the European and USA consumers money to buy their best companies,look at Dubai,UAE,Kuwait,etc., buying antique classic paintings and huge chunks of stock in key companies! ,what is it going to take for Brussels and Washington DC to shake out the Oil Lobby and start opening solar panels-concentrators factories, advance batteries and plug-ins in most of the 150.000 gas stations in EU or USA each ( aprox., USA has 172.000),hydrogen pumps for fuelcells,ethanol E-85 pipes and pumps,turbines all along the Atlantic underwater in the 3 potential electricity making techs. , what are they waiting for ? to see Europe go slowly bankrupt and transfering all its wealth to the Middle East ? what are they waiting for ?
Posted by: blogger | January 16th, 2008 at 6:17 pm | Report this commentIt is interesting to note the increased focus on alternative sources of energy. There are two of them: Conventional & Non-Conventional. Now that technological processes have improved over the years, I guess there will be a run for the conventional alternative sources of energy with Coal and Natural Gas taking front stage for CTL & GTL. Although the GHG emissions still remains a concern for CTL but with improved technology we have come a long way to reduce the carbon emissions.
This is where I foresee a shift from crude oil to coal and natural gas. We have a bright example in the form of SASOL (the South African giant which produces 40% of the country’s fuel needs from Coal). SASOL has 50 odd years of CTL history and its ambitions for GTL are no hidden secret. Lets look at the 1st ever GTL plant Oryx in Qatar, built at a low Capex of $29,000/bbl, which monetizes the Kingdom’s natural gas reserves. There is a long list of CTL/GTL projects in US (the Saudi Arabia of Coal reserves, China, India and Australia.
Sustained high crude oil prices, lets say above $75/bbl, should provide opportunties for CTL/GTL projects to open up.
To sum it up, I wonder, do we have the Microsoft of energy world in SASOL???
Posted by: Tanweer Bukhari | January 21st, 2008 at 6:11 pm | Report this commentBut Sasol emits 70m tonnes of GHG pa and uses 100MWh pa
Posted by: DenC | January 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 am | Report this commenta) European leaders can invest 3 billion euros in technology for capturing carbon monoxide in the coal-to-gas-to-liquid and solve the problems,when Europe still has 30 billion tons of coal,makes a lot of sense.
b) with massive sand oil and shale oil in Canada and northern USA, the solution is to work together to avoid toxic leaks to ground water and cut costs.
c) after all, no one got cancer from these 2 options, a and b, as the thousands of cancer cases from uranium mining, which the Industry won’t even acknowledge , shame !,and not to mention nuclear waste recycling, although P.Bush now has approved in the USA ‘09 Budget 5.5.billion to clean up the nuclear waste mess, we’ll see what’s left after D.C. gets done with it…
d) but where is the intention of the political in Brussels? are they installing solar panels and turbines in their own roofs? are they pushing electric bicycles and cars ? hydrogen fuelcells ? Light Rails from everywhere to everywhere? E-85 ethanol autobahn races at 200 km/h.?
e) Chena Hotsprings in Fairbanks Alaska is pushing a 400-kilowatt power plant with geothermal water at just 165-degrees Fahrenheit, as reported in Popular Mechanics this month, but what is Europe and the USA really doing with their massive geothermal sites?
so the problem is political and the grip of the Oil Lobby, the Dracula in this picture…
Posted by: blogger | February 13th, 2008 at 10:14 pm | Report this commentThis is all well and good but where are the engineers and the human capital going to come from to fuel this growth ? We need to start investing in a trained work force to drive this . Can the market provide in a timely fashion ? Not without a kick start from local governments .The UK Nuclear industry is just waking up to this fact . This would be a simple step for EU and the US governments to put into effect . For those of us in the recruitment business we realise the crunch ahead.
Posted by: Jonathan RE | March 26th, 2008 at 2:34 pm | Report this commentthere are companies out there and one of them is the one I am involved with, Axial Vector Energy Corp in US. The website provides lots of interesting facts and ideas about the technology.
Posted by: Arash Masom | April 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 am | Report this commentShell is also promoting renewables in its new scenarios. [http://www.shell.com/static/aboutshell-en/downloads/our_strategy/shell_global_scenarios/shell_energy_scenarios_2050.pdf]
Progress, the company says, is in the hands of politicians; only politicians can ensure the necessary funding for renewables. “A price is applied to a critical mass of emissions giving a huge stimulus to the development of clean energy technologies, such as carbon dioxide capture and storage, and energy efficiency measures”, recommends Shell’s chief executive.
Posted by: Slightly Optimistic | April 5th, 2008 at 10:02 am | Report this commentDear Sirs,
Just take a look at this:
www.nrel.gov/analysis/forum/pdfs/2003/summary_03.pdf
http://commonhorizon.blogspot.com/
Yours,
Gonzalo
Posted by: Gonzalo | April 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm | Report this commentI would suggest the pro renewables should look at the bwea web site, and learn how to calculate the actual KW output of a wind machine, one eighth at half speed, one twenty-seventh at one third speed. Then look at ceefax 404 and calculate the actual output of those 30 sites. Solar is easy, at winter max demand time the sun is long since gone. I think of all those screens going dark, and I have upped my investments in standby technology. But I have had 30 years of responsibility for public electricity supply.
Posted by: Bill Hyde, DFH, C. Eng, FIET | May 1st, 2008 at 6:22 pm | Report this comment