Shell aims to be global power leader

Shell expects to be the world’s biggest power company by the early 2030s, catering for everything electric from transport to home energy systems.

It’s already invested in German battery storage manufacturer Sonnen, one of the largest United Kingdom energy suppliers First Utility and some EV charging firms.

Australia will be included in Shell’s global ambitions, its integrated gas and new energies director Maarten Wetselaar says.

He says in 20 to 25 years people will be using electricity as their sole energy source for mobility, home heating or cooling and anything else.

Wetselaar believes homes will have their own power plants, including solar panels, storage batteries and smart technology to manage it.

He also sees a future in generation such as wind and solar farms and associated battery storage.

Yet, in an earlier speech at CERA Week in Houston, Texas, Wetselaar suggests the future of transport fuels is a balance between different fuels, traditional and new, depending on customers’ needs and local availability.

He says transport needs to radically reduce emissions to limit global warming and improve the quality of the air.

“The challenge for electric battery cars is that they are not yet as user-friendly as cars with an internal combustion engine. This is likely to change in the future, but for now, they take longer to charge, cannot drive as far and are more expensive. And that is just passenger cars. This does not even include trucks, let alone ships and airplanes. None of those can be easily electrified yet. The world needs many different energy solutions if it wants to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is as true for transport as it is for other sectors.”

Wetselaar says rather than a single solution, a new and evolving balance between different fuels will depend on customers’ needs and local availability.

“This is why Shell is investing in electric car charging, for example with the acquisition of charging company Greenlots here in the USA in January.”

It’s investing in other new transport fuels too.

Shell’s Raízen joint venture in Brazil produces one of the lowest-carbon biofuels available and is starting to develop advanced biofuels from waste.

Shell is also helping build infrastructure needed for hydrogen to grow as a transport fuel, in California, Canada and Europe.

“Electric cars, biofuels and hydrogen all have great potential,” Wetselaar says. “But it will take time before they can gain enough of a share of the market to substantially reduce emissions from transport. Time the world, quite frankly, does not have.”