The global energy giant ExxonMobil recently dropped a tantalizing hint that it is gearing up for a significant investment in renewable energy, but don’t get too excited. The company’s interest is apparently limited to deploying low cost renewables to help run — and potentially grow — its massive oil and gas operations in Texas.
ExxonMobil has much to answer for when the topic is climate change, environmental destruction, and the creation of the global refugee crisis, but it is finally waking up to the full bottom line advantages of killing off coal. Last year Bloomberg noted that ExxonMobil has been funding scores of renewable energy programs, and now the company has upped the ante with $20 million in funding for a new energy initiative managed by Stanford University’s Precourt Institute for Energy.
Over the past decade, coal has been increasingly replaced by cheaper, cleaner energy sources. US coal power production has dropped by 44% (866 terawatt-hours [TWh]). It’s been replaced by natural gas (up 45%, or 400 TWh), renewables (up 260%, or 200 TWh), and increased efficiency (the US uses 9%, or 371 TWh less electricity than a decade ago). (more…)