[PaulKeeble]

Shell at one point started doing that in the UK, they installed a number of offshore wind turbines. Then they sold them and doubled down on oil.

What I think is really weird in the world today is the power companies don't seem interested in selling more power. A parallel branch of Wind and Solar companies are doing all the installations and running the power but not to the extent of bringing new capacity online, its all purely for replacing the old coal and gas systems. Quite a lot of companies are having to buy their own installations and run them so they can have their new data centre.

[aurareturn]

  What I think is really weird in the world today is the power companies don't seem interested in selling more power.

They do. It's just not as lucrative as oil so they sell the business and go back to oil. Say an oil company has $100 to spend on new energy. A new oil field nets them back $500 over 5 years. Wind nets them $200 over 5 years. Why would they invest in wind other than for PR?

China has to import 70% of its oil so it needs to focus on renewables. If the US doesn't produce enough oil for its own needs, it too would be building solar and wind at scale I presume. But the US is a net oil exporter.

[m000]

For oil companies, smooth transition to renewables == lost profits.

They'd rather see world go through an energy crisis which will make their profits skyrocket, before we eventually de-fossilize.

[metalman]

oil is a huge mistake at this point, as any country that is investing in a solar/wind/renewables GRID, is watching there costs go into freefall, not just freefall, but costs that are disconected from energy markets built on consumable fuels and therefor stable and predictable. many countrys are figuring out that energy stability = societal/cultural stability and are slowly backing away from the chaos and ongoing disaster of oil/carbon

[qcnguy]

It's because renewables aren't what customers naturally want, that's why grids have to be forced to take their output using preference schemes and subsidies.

The financial modeling also relies heavily on the assumption of government preference (hard if there is a huge lobby who hates your guts) and wind speeds holding constant (wind speeds are falling and this is blowing holes in wind farm finances).

[eldaisfish]

electricity customers want one thing - cheap, reliable power. Where it comes from does not matter unless there is a price on carbon emissions.

The electricity grid is not "forced" to accept anything. Places like Texas show that economic incentives work for renewable energy. In fact, economic incentives are stronger than disinformation.