From BP (Beyond Petroleum) To BS (Beyond Solar) - Company Axing CCS, Solar Units

[hatrack]

BP has taken the axe to its solar power business, saying it "can't make any money" from Bselling panels at a time when it continues to spend $20bn annually on oil and gas developments.

The energy group, which once promised to move "beyond petroleum", was an important player in solar but has over the last three years gradually closed its panel factories and made around 1,750 workers redundant. At the same time, the company has gradually retreated from other areas such as carbon capture and storage and shut down its separate London headquarters for BP Alternative Energy.

Mike Petrucci, chief executive of BP Solar, wrote to his remaining 100 staff last week, saying "the continuing global economic challenges have significantly impacted the solar industry, making it difficult to sustain long-term returns for the company."

A spokesman for the wider group said the plunging value worldwide of solar panels – partly as a result of low-cost competition from China – had convinced BP that it had no future in a "commoditised" business. But the spokesman said BP was fulfilling its previous commitment to spend $8bn on renewable power up to the year 2015 and was continuing to forge ahead with onshore wind in the US and biofuels worldwide.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/21/bp-axe-solar-power-business

[Kolesar]

1. BP abandoned the dozens of solar cell integrations on their gas station sunshades

They deployed a huge number of them and never started them. They are functional, but BP never connected them to run the electricity needs at their gas stations.

There are a number of these installations near where I live.