“I asked the Zebra, are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, “Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits?”
— Shel Silverstien
So what do we tell the zebra? As the world prepares for the autumn fashion season, a little birdie has whispered to us that the season is going to see more green. I am not referring to fashion and clothes or colours of the season, but to oil and coal companies that are moving towards green practices. Considering I am dressed in traditional Indian attire, no matter the continent, I don’t think I would qualify to be a fashion guru making seasonal predictions.
Of late, we have witnessed a series of “green” investments – in solar farms, wind farms, and in electric battery storage systems. Is all this because Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, plans to sell off parts of its national oil company and diversify its economy away from petroleum? Or does it come in the aftermath of a United Nations climate change agreement that 195 nations signed? Or is it just that better investment sense is prevailing, at last? Perhaps it is a mix of all these issues. Let’s see what is happening…
The world’s largest coal company, China’s state-owned Shenhua Group Corp., has partnered with Santa Monica, based SolarReserve to bring 1,000 megawatts of solar thermal plants into China. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this week in Washington.
Total of France announced that it planned to spend nearly $1 billion on buying 100-year-old battery manufacturer Saft. Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the deal would “allow us to complement our portfolio with electricity storage solutions, a key component of the future growth of renewable energy”.
The intention is to take advantage of the entire electricity value chain, including batteries, solar power and biogas generation. Total made its first real drive into renewable energy five years ago, with its $1.4bn acquisition of SunPower, one of the largest solar panel makers in the US.
Shell, the Anglo-Dutch group that established a New Energies arm, will have a $200m annual budget for acquisitions. Last month, the group made a bid, with partners, to build two windfarms off the coast of the Netherlands that could generate enough electricity to power 825,000 households.
Norway’s Statoil has also been active, and has outlined plans to spend $1.2bn, in partnership with E.ON, on the German Arkona windfarm in the Baltic sea. “This investment is in line with our strategy to gradually complement our oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions,” said Eldar Sætre, Statoil’s president and CEO.
Closer home, Coal India Limited (CIL), has signed an agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India to install 1,000 MW solar power plants in the solar parks in different parts of India. CIL is, today, the single largest coal producer in the world, operating 81 mining areas, 7 wholly owned coal producing subsidiaries, including a mining company in Mozambique and one mine planning and consultancy company. CIL has already installed over 4.2 MW of solar power projects in two of its subsidiaries to curb carbon emissions.
Increasingly, a growing number of investors and regulators are considering whether untapped deposits of oil, gas and coal around the world, valued at trillions of dollars and controlled by some of the biggest resource companies, will be stranded as nations seek to curb climate change. As I read all this good news, I tell the zebra, perhaps we are now good and have good habits to show for it.
The writer is an author, speaker, trainer, consultant, an entrepreneur and an expert in applied sustainability.
Visit: www.CBRamkumar.com.
