In mid-May, the oil company British Petroleum (BP) announced that, over the next ten years, it intends to boost its sales of solar energy equipment from US$ 100 million to US$ 1 billion a year.
Altho…
In mid-May, the oil company British Petroleum (BP) announced that, over the next ten years, it intends to boost its sales of solar energy equipment from US$ 100 million to US$ 1 billion a year. Although the UK company does not yet see solar power as a commercially viable alternative to fossil fuels, it believes that, with public support and investment, considerable progress towards this end can be made in the next decade. During a speech at Stanford University, California, US, scheduled for BP“s chief executive, John Browne, was expected to announce the opening of the company“s first US solar equipment factory. The factory, at Fairfield, California, is scheduled to open later this year and will produce a new kind of glass-based voltaic panel which is reportedly cheaper to make than traditional silicon-based panels. BP created its solar energy subsidiary in 1981 and is now the world“s third largest operation in the sector, with factories in Spain (Madrid) and Australia (Sydney), and joint ventures in Thailand (Bangkok), Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) and India (Bangalore).