Friday, November 29, 2019

Shell -- EVs -- PG&E -- And All That Jazz -- November 29, 2019

Shell: thinking about side the box -- getting ready for a carbon-free world (LOL):
Faced with this conundrum, Shell has promised to halve its net carbon footprint by 2050 from the 2016 level. It has gradually moved away from oil toward lower-carbon gas and has been adding electricity to its product mix. It is also applying its trading and retailing expertise to products other than oil and gas. With 45,000 stores—more than Starbucks or McDonalds—Shell serves 30 million customers daily.

In recent years, the company also has invested an average of between $1 billion and $2 billion annually on small-scale experiments in new energy sources including power, biofuels, solar, wind, batteries and hydrogen. Most don’t make a profit, but don’t cost too much relative to the more than $20 billion a year that Shell generates in free cash flow.

The experiments give the company information about new markets and the opportunity to shape customer expectations and regulations as they develop. More speculatively, they could also provide a first mover advantage in lower-carbon businesses that might eventually deliver the big profits oil and gas investors expect.
But what I haven't seen yet, is even one EV charging station at Shell stations. What am I missing? So, let's check. Maybe I am missing something. There it is, over at shell.com:
Shell is excited to launch our electric vehicle program that will advance adoption of electric vehicles in California through the deployment of EV charging infrastructure at commercial, retail, public and government locations as well as multi-unit residential dwellings.

Shell is supporting the transition to electric vehicles by looking at how EV charging can be successfully integrated to the power grid. We have developed a new EV smart charging service called Shell RechargePlus that allows the charging of vehicles to be shifted to times when it would be most beneficial for the power grid and that will provide cost advantages for customers.

This new service is available to you when you select Shell as your service provider within the Pacific Gas and Electric Company EV Charge Network Program when you participate under the “EV Charge Owner” option.
Y'all know PGE -- the company that is blamed for starting some of worth wildfires in California's history.

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Snopes To Fact Check?

I thought this was a joke -- that Newsweek was going to publish a story reporting that President Trump would be golfing over Thanksgiving.


But, according to talk radio here in Texas, Newsweek had the story all written -- that President Trump had spent the Thanksgiving holiday golfing in Mar-a-Lago, holding the story until the "facts, dates, specifics" were filled in.

Apparently the "news" outlet had to scramble to write the "real" story once it was learned that he was in Afghanistan -- the first trip he has ever made to Afghanistan. 

2 comments:

  1. Shell should buy PG&E. Not sure why you never see fires outside of PG&E's infrastructure in other states?? Chinese wire?

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    1. PG&E built out the infrastructure too quickly to accommodate wind and solar energy coming from remote areas; cut costs by not tree-clearing where transmission lines went (and in some places may have been prohibited from tree clearing). I'm not aware of any other state that mandated renewable energy so quickly that required infrastructure beyond which providers could do it safely.

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