Royal Dutch/Shell plans to renew its Renewable Energy investment program with a further $500 million to $1 billion in investment over the next five years.
LONDON, England 2002-03-08 [SolarAccess.com] The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant’s existing five year $500 million spending plan is due to end this fall. Though significant for the clean energy sector, the $100 million a year investment is small in relation to Shell’s annual capital spending budget, which exceeds $10 billion. In a summary prepared for a presentation to analysts, Shell Renewables said the continued investment would focus mainly on solar power, through a joint venture with German engineering group Siemens, and wind power. Shell Renewables said it had joined the “top tier players in the solar PV industry” with a 15 percent market share through its Siemens Solar venture. “The key objective for the solar business is to grow in line with the market, currently growing at around 25 percent a year, Shell said. In the wind business, Shell is focusing on developing and operating wind farms, and selling so-called “green” electricity. Shell said it was currently participating in two trial projects totaling 8 MW of wind generating capacity, and that projects were being evaluated in the UK, Netherlands, Morocco and the USA totaling 400 MW.
