Major oil companies could shift more than a fifth of their drilling investments to renewable energy as wind and solar grow rapidly over the next two decades, the research firm Wood Mackenzie says in a new report out this morning.
But as The Houston Chronicle reports, the firm says modern wind and solar projects are too small to replace those companies’ fossil fuel operations.
In recent years, European oil majors like Shell, BP and Total have poured billions of dollars into renewable energy projects from West Texas to the North Sea, acknowledging solar and wind will have a bigger role in the energy mix in decades to come.
Wood Mackenzie says it believes with today’s technology, wind power will grow 6% a year and solar will expand 11% a year over the next two decades. The research firm says technological breakthroughs could dramatically alter its projections, meaning renewables could grow faster than it expects.
