BP dismisses Alternative Energy sale speculation

A senior executive at BP has today dismissed recent press speculation that the oil giant is preparing to offload its Alternative Energy division, insisting it is "still very much a core part of BP's growth strategy".

Speaking at Library House's UK Technology Innovation & Growth Forum earlier today, Justin Adams, director of technology strategy, venturing and innovation at BP, said that "contrary to press speculation" the company saw its cleantech investments as central to its long term strategy.

Earlier this month a flurry of reports predicted that BP was looking to divest its Alternative Energy division after chief executive Tony Hayward said that the full value of the division was not being recognised in the company's share price and that it was looking to grow the unit "primarily for its equity value".

Adams dismissed the speculation, insisting there is a growing realisation across the cleantech sector that many investments will only deliver returns in the long term. He warned that company's and investors currently flooding into the sector needed to appreciate that some investments would take decades to reach fruition.

"People are right about the direction of the market, but the time scale to returns will be far longer than many traditional technology investment areas," he warned. "At the moment everyone is ploughing into the market looking for the Google of cleantech, but that has driven the value of some companies far higher than they should be… It'll be a vast market sector, but people need to be patient and appreciate it is a different market profile."

He added that solar remained one of the most attractive areas for investment, predicting that in many parts of the world solar cells will soon be able to compete with retail electricity prices on cost.

He also insisted that it was far too early to write off the biofuels sector, despite current concerns about its environmental sustainability. "The convergence of biotechnology with [the] energy [sector] will throw up all sorts of opportunities that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of yet," he said. "The first generation biofuels have not applied any technological advancement at all – it's basically a 3,000 year old technology."