BP pulls out of UK wind power - and also CCS competition
Friday 07 November 2008
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| BP has changed its view of wind power in the UK, and now sees America as the most attractive investment opportunity for wind farms |
BP has confirmed that it will not take forward plans to develop wind farms in the UK, suggesting that opportunities are "more attractive" in the United States.
And, as the oil giant confirmed its new direction to New Energy Focus this morning, he revealed that BP is also pulling out of the UK's competition to set up a carbon capture and storage plant to demonstrate technology to remove greenhouse gas emissions from coal power generation.
The new strategy for BP emerged yesterday as Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind announced that the company was pulling out of wind development activities in China to focus on North America.
A spokesman for BP verified claims published in the Guardian newspaper this morning that it was pulling out of UK wind projects in favour of America.
David Nicholas said BP, which is a "sustainability partner" of the London Olympics in 2012, only had a "certain amount of money to spend" on wind power projects and that the United States offered a "compelling case" for the investment to be made there.
The oil company's decision to focus wind development efforts in North America matches a similar decision by its rival Shell earlier this year.
"Attractive"
BP sees the wide open spaces and windy conditions of the United States as particularly attractive because it says onshore wind farms of up to 2,000 turbines at a time can be built.
This July, BP launched a partnership with US wind turbine manufacturer Clipper to develop a massive 5GW wind farm in South Dakota - which will see 2,020 of Clipper's giant 2.5MW "Liberty Bell" wind turbines installed.
Mr Nicholas explained: "We have decided to focus on the States because we already have a very large portfolio of projects there and the joint venture with Clipper. It's a most attractive place for these projects, with very good economies of scale."
The company confirmed it will not take forward projects like the planned Isle of Grains wind farm in Kent, which is relatively tiny in comparison to the possibilities of American wind farms with planning permission granted in 2007 for just six turbines.
The BP spokesman said worldwide, the company was focussing its efforts on solar power and biofuels as well as the US wind programme.
In the UK, he said it would still be going ahead with the planned £200 million biofuels plant being developed with Associated British Foods in Hull. BP has a 45% stake in the project that could be producing 420 million litres a year of bioethanol from wheat by late 2009.
Carbon capture
BP won't be moving forward with the CCS competition.
However, BP's spokesman also revealed that the company is pulling out of the UK's competition to set up the world's first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage facility to remove carbon emissions from a coal power station.
The company had been one of four groups of companies shortlisted for the competition, along with consortia led by E.ON, Peel Energy and ScottishPower.
The competition aims to set up a 300-400MW demonstration plant showing how 90% of emissions from a coal-fired power generation unit can be captured and stored underground. It is thought the successful bidders could gain £1 billion of government support for the plant.
Mr Nicholas said the company had told the government of its intention to withdraw from the CCS competition. "We prequalified as a lone player, with the intention of finding partners for the project, but after six or seven months work we do not believe we can put together a winning consortium. BP won't be moving forward with the CCS competition."
Elsewhere in the world, BP is working with Rio Tinto to set up a "hydrogen power station" in California that would use CCS technology to remove carbon from petroleum coke and coal as the facility generates 400MW of power.
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