by Leslie Eastman at legalinsurrection.com
I recently reported that Sweden’s government ditched plans to go all-in on “green energy,” green-lighting the construction of new nuclear power plants.
Yet another climate cult domino has fallen, and this one may be even more significant. Shell is the second largest investor-owned oil and gas company in the world.
It has now booted its head of renewable energy, in a quest to return to its fossil fuel roots.
Shell’s (SHEL.L) head of renewable generation Thomas Brostrom is leaving the company, a spokesperson said on Friday, weeks after CEO Wael Sawan scaled back its energy transition plans.
Brostrom joined Shell from offshore wind giant Orsted in August 2021 to head offshore wind as the company planned to rapidly grow its wind and solar operations as part of a strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions under previous CEO Ben van Beurden.
Brostrom quickly became head of renewables in February 2022 after Elisabeth Brinton stepped down less than two years after taking the reins.
Chief Executive Sawan, who took office in January, announced on June 14 a shift back to oil and gas production while paring back investments in renewables following investor pressure to focus on the most profitable businesses.
Imagine that! A chief executive office responsibly listening to investor concerns, rather than being worried about climate cultists. What is this world coming to?
This is not to say there isn’t any investment in green energy by the international firm, however.
Sawan also introduced a new structure to the company’s top leadership that eliminated Brostrom’s role and split it into regions.
“Thomas Brostrøm has elected to leave Shell to pursue an external opportunity,” the company said.
He will be succeeded by Greg Joiner, currently VP Shell Energy Australia, as head Shell Energy Europe and Emerging Markets Power. Ajay Shah will lead renewable generation in Asia while Mike Parker will head offshore wind engineering.
Shell appears to be taking a step in the right direction to avoid squandering opportunities for exploration, development, and profit.
And they are doing so in the face of opposition from the climate cultists. Shell’s annual meeting in London was disrupted by eco-fascists. Watch:
To meet the demands of these cultists, many firms have gone all-in on renewables without long-term testing and development. The consequences of this decision are starting to become clear.
The offshore wind sector must take action to address a rising tide of mechanical breakdown issues, component failures and serial defects ensuing from the deployment of ever-larger offshore wind turbines. This is according to GCube Insurance (GCube), a leading underwriter for renewable energy projects.
GCube’s new report, entitled “Vertical Limit: When is bigger not better in offshore wind’s race to scale?”, is compiled from 10 years of the company’s claims data and draws on evidence from experts across the offshore wind sector to demonstrate how offshore wind’s risk landscape has significantly shifted, as manufacturers push to develop bigger machines, faster.
Over the past five years, the race to scale turbine technologies has seen the leap from 8MW to 18MW turbines occurring in a fraction of the time it took to go from 3MW to 8MW. While this is a fantastic technological achievement, such rapid commercialisation of ‘prototypical’ technologies is now leading to a concerning number of losses, and subsequently piling financial pressure on manufacturers, the supply chain and the insurance market.
Onshore, a major hail storm in western Nebraska recently put a solar farm out of commission and forced the local community to turn back to traditional power sources.
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