The big bank and the big oil company show widening corporate interest in renewable energy
By Steven Mufson Washington Post – June 23, 2020 at 9:00 a.m.
Wells Fargo will buy electricity generated by solar plants from Shell Energy, a move that demonstrates widening corporate interest in renewable energy even among some of the strongest supporters of fossil fuels.
The deal is modest: Wells Fargo says its share of the plants’ combined capacity, purchased from three locations in Virginia and one in California, would add up to 62.7 megawatts and would meet about 8 percent of its global energy needs.
But it carries symbolic value. Wells Fargo, the second-biggest lender to fossil fuel companies over the past four years, is buying carbon-free electricity from Shell, a company that’s been in the oil business since the 1880s. The deal also shows the appeal of solar projects even in the midst of the punishing economic downturn brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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Shell Energy, a unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, which entered into a long-term contract to buy power from the solar plants’ developers, will resell some of the energy to Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo contract for solar energy from California will last seven years, and those from the Mid-Atlantic will last six years and seven months.
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Curt Radkin, senior vice president and corporate properties sustainability strategist at Wells Fargo, said that the bank has “a pipeline of additional transactions that we’re hoping to bring to closure.”
The continued push for renewable projects comes amid the economic downturn. In April, Wells Fargo set aside $3.1 billion for potential losses and said its quarterly profit fell nearly 90 percent.
Wells Fargo has been a target of climate activists, who point to a Rainforest Action Network report that said the bank had provided nearly $200 billion of financing for fossil fuel firms and projects since the Paris climate agreement was signed in December 2015.
