BP exits U.S. wind business

Financial Times • Posted: Thursday, April 4, 2013

Oil and gas giant BP PLC has put its wind power operations in the United States up for sale, abandoning most of its renewable energy efforts.

The company is one of the largest to generate wind power in the country, operating facilities that can produce 2,600 megawatts.

BP was the only large fossil fuel company with a wind operation, but now it will focus on oil and gas.

When the company first got involved in wind power, it argued that there was a relationship between the renewable power source and natural gas, which would be needed when wind dropped.

It is estimated that BP’s wind power holdings, the 12th-largest in the country, are worth about $1.5 billion.

If the sale is a success, the company’s effort to rebrand itself as “beyond petroleum” will consist of only its sugar-cane ethanol business in Brazil and some research. The company exited the solar business earlier this month (ClimateWire, March 8; Ed Crooks, Financial Times, April 3)