BP sells its US Onshore Wind Business

BP announced Monday that it plans to sell the U.S. Onshore Wind Energy business. The assets did not align with its growth plan.

BP has announced that it will soon begin the process of selling its wind assets. bp Wind Energy is a company with interests in ten operating onshore wind power assets spread across seven U.S. States.

William Lin, BP’s executive vice-president for gas and low-carbon energy, said in a press release that he believed the business would be more valuable to another owner.

In the last year, several offshore wind companies have canceled or attempted to renegotiate contracts for power projects planned in the U.S., citing rising materials costs, high rates of interest, and disruptions in supply chains.

The London-listed firm said that bp Wind Energy assets, with a total net generating capacity (net generating power) of 1.3 gigawatts are not in line with BP's growth plans for Lightsource bp.

BP announced that it would be taking full ownership of Lightsource bp in November, Europe's leading solar energy developer. The agreement to increase its renewable energy capacity should be completed by the end the year.

Lightsource bp, the company said Monday, will integrate its development of onshore renewable energy into Lightsource.

Sources at the company said in June that BP's new chief executive Murray Auchincloss had also imposed a hiring ban and halted new offshore wind project as he placed a renewed focus on oil and natural gas amid investor unhappiness over its energy transformation strategy.

This is a dramatic reversal of the path taken by Bernard Looney, the predecessor to the CEO. He had accelerated the move away from fossil-fuels. This has weighed down on BP shares, as profits from renewables have shrunk while those from oil and natural gas have soared following the COVID-19 outbreak and Russia's invasion in Ukraine.

Orsted, a Danish renewable energy company, reported impairment losses of 3.9 billion Danish crowns (581.59 millions dollars) for the second quarter. This was partly due to delays with a major U.S. off-shore wind project.

(source: Reuters)