www.bpalternativenergy.com

Alternative Energy is the catalyst for BP to take a set of new technologies, investigate their possibilities, explore the opportunities for investment, collaboration and development, work with policy-makers to promote and reward low-carbon solutions and ultimately meet the demand for cleaner and secure energy.

This is why BP – through BP Alternative Energy – is investing in a portfolio of new solutions, technologies and business models. We already have substantial businesses in solar, wind and gas-fired power and we are developing our work on advanced biofuels and in the area of carbon capture and storage. These draw on our historical and growing base of research and engineering skill sets, including our expertise in carbon sequestration and bioscience.

In each case, we’re serving customers in today’s marketplace at the same time as working on innovations for the future. In solar power, for example, our task is not only to scale up our manufacturing capacity and reach more customers today, but to develop new, more efficient solar cells for tomorrow. Similarly, in biofuels, we’re blending and distributing today’s bio-components, such as ethanol and biodiesel, but we’re also investing in research to explore advanced biofuels that will provide more environmental benefits and use crops other than those which are also used for food. In carbon capture and storage, we’re creating the potential for the generation of cleaner power from fossil fuels. In doing so we seek to demonstrate the wider application of a technology that can be used in many types of industrial plants and which could enable countries such as the US, China and India to use their massive supplies of coal in a much more sustainable way.

These are big challenges and we can’t go it alone. These businesses need specialist technology and new approaches if they are to grow to scale. , So we need to combine our skills and experience with the talent and capability of many partners. We also need to engage with governments, as they hold the policy keys to unlock the potential of secure, low carbon energy – for example by setting a price on carbon and rewarding low-carbon solutions.

Alternative Energy: a portfolio of businesses and technologies

In 2005 we said our aim was to spend $8 billion on clean, secure alternative energy solutions over a ten year period. We’re ahead of plan to meet that commitment – in fact the growth of good business opportunities means that we’re now planning to invest at nearly twice that rate – and we’ve since developed each of our businesses in new ways.

BP Solar is a leading global business, building on a thirty year track record, which has more than doubled its manufacturing capacity since BP Alternative Energy was launched. With more expansion planned in India, Spain and the US, the business is on track to grow its annual manufacturing capacity to over 700MW over the next few years. We’re marketing solar solutions to consumers and businesses around the world and investing in a series of research projects to investigate ways of making more efficient solar cells.

In Wind we are developing a large portfolio of projects, working with partners to deploy advanced turbine technology. In the US, we’re building major wind farms and we have the opportunity to develop almost 100 projects with a potential total generating capacity of some 15,000MW. We’ve also built our first project in Asia.

In Gas-fired power we have stakes in some 12,000MW of generation capacity in Europe, USA and Asia. Natural gas produces electricity with half the carbon footprint of conventional coal fired plants.

In Hydrogen we are working with partners to develop hydrogen-fuelled power projects that use fossil fuels such as coal or gas, but capture and store the carbon dioxide (CO2), thus offering vast potential to generate clean power. For example, our project in Abu Dhabi plans to produce both clean electricity and provide a means of enhancing the recovery of oil by injecting the captured CO2 back into a an oil field, where it will sweep out additional oil and be ultimately stored.

In Biofuels our business in conventional products such as bio-ethanol is already substantial, accounting for about 10% of the world market. However, as well as providing today’s biofuels, we’re also developing tomorrow’s. In the UK, for example, we plan to invest around $400 million with partners in two plants – one being a world-scale bioethanol plant and the other a research and demonstration plant for biobutanol – a new type of biofuel. We are investing $500 million over 10 years in the Energy Biosciences Institute to explore options for advanced biofuels and other applications of biotechnology to energy. And we’re also investing in new types of feedstock.

Our Distributed Energy business has already made headway in providing energy consumers in the developing world with viable and sustainable energy solutions. Together with our partners, we have created a sustainable business model in India serving more than 200,000 households with our biomass stove and pelletised fuel cooking solution and are working to extend and broaden our range of energy offers to include heating and lighting in other Asia and African geographies.

In our Emissions Asset Business we are working with others to capture the value of carbon emission reductions and support the development of further low-carbon projects.

To find our more please visit www.bpalternativenergy.com.

 

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