Renewable Energy

Energy’s titans will experience a dead cat bounce

21 May 2020

The virus-led crude price crash is upending petrostates and oil majors alike. Incumbent leaders with storage capacity and low costs might seem to be the winners as smaller competitors flounder. But they’ll fall victim to the longer-term behavioural shifts prompted by Covid-19.

Carmakers’ green future gets revved up by Covid-19

18 May 2020

The virus has added pollution fears to climate-change concerns. That should be a boon for electric vehicles when production restarts. But cheap oil makes gas guzzlers look even more economical. State incentives like trading in clunkers for EV discounts would help tip the balance.

Tesla pits electric-power hope against experience

14 May 2020

A big battery upgrade could soon make Model 3s as cheap as gas guzzlers, Reuters reports. That’d be a big leap ahead for electric vehicles and could also shake up utilities. But the infrastructure needs work. And boss Elon Musk has a history of overpromising and underdelivering.

Corona Capital: Air travel, Starbucks

14 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Airlines’ experienced hands offer warning; Starbucks begins dance with landlords.

Trucks inch towards electric-vehicle critical mass

5 May 2020

Automakers have invested heavily in electric cars. But selling enough to justify needed infrastructure remains a chicken-and-egg problem. Putting batteries into the haulage fleets of Amazon, UPS and others could vault to a solution. A new report shows how utilities can help, too.

Tesla bulls switch on autopilot

16 April 2020

Elon Musk’s carmaker is now worth over $130 bln, its stock price having doubled from its coronavirus low in just four weeks. A stronger balance sheet, a reopened China, and its technology edge are all grounds for optimism. But yet again investors are ignoring hazards ahead.

Three Gorges will bridge its renewables IPO gap

15 April 2020

The Chinese state giant plans a $3.5 bln offer for its clean energy unit. Raising funds before the phase-out of subsidies for wind and solar projects is smart even if it will take the outfit more time to be cost-competitive with coal. A strong parent will help support the sale.

Strong dollar hits renewables when they’re down

30 March 2020

Plunging oil prices have already made wind and solar power less attractive. But a coronavirus-led weakening of emerging market currencies also pushes up the dollar cost of new projects. That puts a brake on growth just when the opposite is needed to hit carbon reduction targets.

Oil price war bolsters case for U.S. renewables

24 March 2020

The Saudi-Russia black-gold spat has drilled a hole in American energy suppliers’ finances and the country’s hopes for energy independence. Bailing out fossil-fuel companies is an option, but a more decisive switch to cleaner energy could make self-sufficiency an attainable goal.

GM’s electric plan gives Musk a fresh challenge

4 March 2020

Boss Mary Barra unveiled an industry-leading 400-mile-range battery and $20 bln to invest in new tech by 2025. Sure, her estimated electric car sales will only have GM crawling towards its “zero emissions” goal. But it poses a more serious threat to Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Ford boss may find he’s victim of Darwinism

4 February 2020

Jim Hackett was supposed to turn around the Detroit automaker’s fortunes. After almost three years in the driver’s seat, he’s finding success elusive: Ford ended 2019 with a surprise loss. Tesla’s surging valuation and overhauls at other rivals pile on even more pressure.

Tesla shareholders are zooming away from reality

29 January 2020

A second successive quarterly profit has them turbo-boosting shares again. Car sales and prices are up, but costs are about matching them even before investment. The tax rate’s rising, too. Only more rapid growth or widespread autonomous driving justify its value. Neither exists.

Guest view: How to cut the ESG disclosure overload

7 January 2020

The data Fortune 500 companies provide on environmental, social and governance risks can be overwhelming, hard to compare and lacking much financial use. Geoffrey Heal and Shiva Rajgopal of the Columbia Business School lay out a plan to clean up the informational morass.

Guest view: Cities are $24 trln green opportunity

17 December 2019

Metropolises account for 70% of global carbon emissions. That puts them at the forefront of the battle to keep global warming to a minimum, argues Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief behind the 2015 Paris accords. But cities cannot do it alone.

Nomura aims for more sustainable Wall Street role

11 December 2019

Japan’s biggest brokerage has tried for decades to build an enduring U.S. investment bank. Its latest attempt involves buying renewable-energy boutique Greentech Capital. It’s a small but focused deal in a growing market. That should increase the odds of Nomura making it work.

Shell’s Eneco fail flags Big Oil’s tricky pivot

25 November 2019

The oil group lost out to Mitsubishi’s 4.1 bln euro bid for the Dutch utility. Paying up for small European players is easy for Japanese bidders with a low cost of capital. Less so for old crude producers trying to shift to low-carbon energy, while saddled with wary shareholders.

Vestas buttresses Denmark’s wind-power primacy

7 November 2019

The Copenhagen-listed turbine maker’s order books have bulged to 33 bln euros. More importantly, margins are withstanding the buffeting of subsidy removals, unlike at rival Siemens Gamesa. Alongside operator Orsted, tiny Denmark is king of the $1 trillion wind business.

Oil bosses have a love-hate relationship with wind

30 October 2019

With fossil fuels increasingly frowned on, rapid growth in renewables should appeal to greenish majors like Total and Royal Dutch Shell. Oil’s much higher returns are a reason to demur. Yet plunging offshore wind costs and the risk of price falls give them little choice.

The Exchange: Lord John Browne

23 September 2019

The former BP boss-turned-renewable-energy-supporter-turned-gas baron stops by to discuss “Make, Think, Imagine,” his new book that’s part an explanation of and part an ode to the benefits of engineering. As UN Climate Week kicks off, he also discusses his take on global warming.

Climate strikes give governments cover to act

20 September 2019

Millions are downing textbooks and tools to demand more action against global warming. People power fueled a mass aversion to plastic. And many ideas and financing vehicles to enable the climate fight already exist. The worldwide protests allow politicians to take a tougher line.