I remember all the hoopla when the helios logo replaced the old shield trademark 
, in about 2002.
Now dealing solely in fossilized solar power.
Posted on 12/20/2011 11:46:59 AM PST by thackney
Oil giant BP is preparing to exit the solar industry entirely.
BP is preparing to wind down its BP Solar unit and sell-off the stakes it has in various projects around the world.
A document announcing the decision to the 100 employees who will be affected says changes in the solar industry have left BP unable to achieve sufficient margins in the sector.
It says the decision is made with regret after a “near 40-year commitment to solar energy”.
A BP spokesman confirms the move and says that over the last six months "regrettably we have come to the decision that we can't make solar viable for BP".
The spokesman says BP will engage with its various solar partners around the world and would aim to exit projects "in a way that leaves them viable".
The UK group had already pulled back from module manufacturing to concentrate on project development.
In July it shut its factory in Maryland, US, ending a process that saw some 460 US jobs cut over two years.
It had earlier axed manufacturing capacity in Spain.
In an interview with Recharge last autumn, Katrina Landis, chief executive of BP Alternative Energy said: “The Chinese have effectively commoditised manufacturing of PV panels. You simply cannot compete with China’s ability to produce PV panels that have the quality required to satisfy Western customers.”
BP’s interests in other clean-energy sectors, prominently wind and biofuels, are unaffected, says the spokesman.
greenie weenies that is..:)
anyone keeping track of that ,what was it 20 billion they gave Obama ?
Perpetual motion subsidies are another 15 or so years off after we produce another generation of dumbed down cattle.
I won't soon forget all the gloom and doom forecasts from the Obama people about the BP oil spill. According to them it was Katrina squared.
So I was a little surprised to see an upbeat TV commercial touting 2011 as the biggest and most profitable tourist season the Gulf states have ever experienced. It shows a bunch of happy people eating, playing music, dancing and getting ready for an even bigger tourist season in 2012.
Guess who the sponsor is? BP, of course. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I noticed that.
Duh.
+++++++
Darn. Beat me to it. Freepers are really fast. They just get it.
The solar industry hasn’t found its Wright brothers yet. Like the electric car. Each lacks the technological breakthrough that would make it feasible economically.
The solar industry hasn’t found its Wright brothers yet. Like the electric car. Each lacks the technological breakthrough that would make it feasible economically.
I remember all the hoopla when the helios logo replaced the old shield trademark , in about 2002.
Now dealing solely in fossilized solar power.
Peak oil just got pushed back decades. This has been happening regularly since 1920. The more we find out about geology, the more oil we find. And the odd things is that we still don’t know how the stuff is produced. The Earth may be producing it as we sit.
Solar is currently entirely dependent upon government subsidies to break even. The EU is bankrupt. Given a choice between eliminating subsidies for solar and laying off government employees, solar will lose. BP is just seeing reality here.
Perhaps you don't know how it is produced. But Petroleum Geologist know why you only explore traps in sedimentary basins and wells drilled elsewhere are only dry holes.
Poor PC oil company with their flowery logo.
I guess smoozing with the leftists doesn’t pay off?
But we don’t know how the oil in those places is formed. One thing is sure. If the East Texas field was found by accident, that proves that yesterday geology is yesterday’s geology.
I think it's plankton:
Sun-> ocean-> photosynthesis-> seabed slime-> tons of pressure-> oil
ie: The ocean is a giant oil production machine. Oceans cover 71% of the Earth.
No, you may not but other do.
Start here.
http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=oil_home
If the East Texas field was found by accident
The East Texas oil field is a stratigraphic trap in the Eagle Ford-Woodbine group of the Cretaceous sedimentary layer. Because of the known geology in the area they continued to search that area for years even after the first attempts did not find oil.
I guess I was too narrow with the watches/calculators reference. I also notice a number of pedestrian/traffic signs that juice up in the sun so they can flash at night - I wonder what the cost is when they add the solar panel and circuitry vs just leaving a non-flashing sign. The niche of utility is there, but it's not a do-all as the greenies try to persuade us it can be - maybe someday.
Except they weren’t searching. The facts you relate are ex post facto. Meaning: if you know you have stumped your toe after you stump your toe. . None of the Shell geologists had a clue of what they were dealing with until the independents started poking hole sin the ground. Ironically, they knew more about the deep formations they are now exploring than that did the sands in which oil was. Had been drilling in the La fields of course and the East Texas field lay to the west off the map. Anyway, a better place to look at is the appalachian fields, with their proximity to other “fossil” deposits. The deeper these fields get, the more one wonders how the deposits got there.
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