A couple of years ago, BP exited the solar business. At the time, it said it would continue its wind and biofuels businesses, but now, it’s getting out of the wind business too.
The company plans to sell $5.2 billion worth of wind assets in the US – its stakes in 16 wind farms in nine states, totaling 2600 megawatts, reports Bloomberg.
It will also sell projects in various stages of development including 2,000 megawatts poised to begin construction.
Operating wind farms are worth $1.5 million to $2 million per megawatt, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
"BP has decided to market for sale our U.S. wind energy business as part of a continuing effort to become a more focused oil and gas company and re-position the company for sustainable growth into the future," spokesperson Mark Salt told Bloomberg.
So much for BP’s "Beyond Petroleum" PR image that it cultivated for so many years. When it started that campaign in 1997, it was the first big oil company to take climate change seriously.
It was an early leader in solar, but gave that up as the industry grew and BP had a hard time differentiating from competitors.
Why bother when oil is such a great business? It just agreed to pay the biggest criminal fine in history – $4.5 billion for the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The wind business sale will pay for that.
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