Shell 'looks at options' for renewable power unit stake sale - Recharge
Shell 'looks at options' for renewable power unit stake sale | Recharge
Oil giant Shell is looking at sale options for its renewable power business, reports claimed.
Shell is considering a possible part-sale of its green power operations to an external investor or separation of the business into a more independent unit, said Bloomberg citing sources with knowledge of the issue.
The UK-based oil and gas supermajor has over the last few years taken up positions in renewables and green power ranging from offshore wind – including floating – to energy storage.
The company has this year been the subject of a refocusing on its core oil and gas operations under new CEO Wael Sawan, who has said that its upstream hydrocarbons business is centre stage.
Several high-profile renewable energy executives have recently left the business, including Thomas Brostrom, the former Orsted high-flyer who was recruited to lead Shell’s push into offshore wind.
Amid a disparity between the returns on offer from renewables and a revived fossil sector, oil and gas groups more broadly appear to be sharpening their focus in renewables around an integrated strategy that feeds into wider ambitions in areas such as operational decarbonisation, hydrogen production and EV charging.
BP and TotalEnergies were the two winners in Germany’s huge 7GW offshore wind tender announced last week, with the former stressing integration as a key aspect of its business case.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.