Last week’s headline in the Wall Street Journal, “Total Eclipse: Oil Giant Sees Its Future in Electricity” no doubt caused many renewable energy advocates to fan themselves like antebellum Southern belles. “More than any other oil major, Total sees electricity as a hedge against oil’s eventual decline and is assembling a new business around it. Last summer, it paid $1 billion for a French maker of industrial batteries.”
Similarly, aWood Mackenzie study found growing oil industry investment in renewables.” Major oil and gas producers will put more of their capital into wind and solar developments as returns from renewables are poised to exceed some hydrocarbon projects.”
