BP taps into solar power

Bloomberg

BP Plc may become the next oil giant to power operations with clean energy. The London-based company is in talks with a solar developer it partially owns, Lightsource BP, to buy power in the US, according to executives at the renewable company. A contract may be signed within six months, Lightsource BP Chief Commercial Officer Katherine Ryzhaya said.
“It’s a no brainer for them to play in solar,” Ryzhaya said in an interview at Infocast’s Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit in San Diego. “They’re doing it for financial reasons.”
BP didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In 2017, the oil giant said it would invest $200 million in Lightsource BP over three years for a 43 percent stake.
Oil majors are turning to wind and solar to run their operations as clean energy becomes cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. last year agreed to contracts to buy 500 megawatts of solar and wind power in in the Permian Basin, the fastest growing US oilfield. More recently, Petroleum Development Oman said it signed a deal to buy solar on the Arabian peninsula.