Shell explores electric vehicle charging, energy management businesses
AMSTERDAM, Sept 28 – Royal Dutch Shell is working on developing new energy technologies like ‘smart’ electric vehicle charging and models to reduce customers’ energy use, the head of the oil company’s new energies division is set to say on Thursday.
Shell intends to invest up to $1 billion a year through its New Energies division by the end of the decade as the oil company adjusts to an energy market that is moving towards more electrification, decentralised energy use and cleaner fuels.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs has predicted that oil demand could peak as early as 2024 due to the roll out of electric vehicles, lower economic growth, plus rising fuel prices.
Against this backdrop, Shell is starting to ramp up involvement in technologies that are changing the market.
“The exciting challenge for New Energies is turning these possibilities into commercial successes,” Shell’s Mark Gainsborough, executive vice president of New Energies, will say in a speech in Amsterdam on Thursday.
He will say the company was already starting to provide fast-charging for electric vehicles at its petrol stations and that it is also working on developing ‘smart charging’ to help even out demand on the electricity grid.
“We are also co-developing models to help customers manage their energy use better,” he will say.
Shell’s New Energies division is also involved in building offshore wind farms and in installing solar panels at its own sites.
Source: Reuters
