Our businesses and organisation
Financial data
Projects
Outlook
New Energies
We formed a New Energies business in 2016. We pursue two main areas of opportunity.
The first is new fuels for transport – such as advanced biofuels, hydrogen and charging for battery-electric vehicles. These activities are designed to benefit from our existing oil products and retail business.
The second is power, including from low-carbon sources such as wind and solar, as well as natural gas, the cleanest-burning hydrocarbon. Our approach focuses on meeting commercial, industrial and residential customer needs, bolstered by our activities in electricity generation, trading and supply, as well as our ability to optimise supply and demand.
Digital ventures complement our activities in both new fuels and power.
New Energies companies are subject to Shell’s control framework. We are working to bring them into compliance with Shell’s control framework in a fit-for-purpose manner.
New fuels
Biofuels
We continue to invest in new ways to produce biofuels from sustainable feedstocks such as waste and cellulosic biomass from non-food plants. In 2017, we completed construction of a demonstration plant at the Shell Technology Centre Bangalore, India. This plant will demonstrate a technology called IH2 (a trademark of the Gas Technology Institute) that turns waste into transport fuel. In addition, we continue to look for opportunities to invest in third-party technologies and to collaborate in scaling these up for commercialisation.
Hydrogen electric
Shell is taking part in several initiatives to encourage the adoption of hydrogen-electric energy as a transport fuel. In Germany, the government is supporting the deployment of a national network of hydrogen fuelling stations across the country by 2023. We are working on this project with our joint-venture partners in H2 Mobility Germany – Air Liquide, Daimler, Linde, OMV and Total. At the end of 2017, Shell already had nine hydrogen filling stations at its retail sites in Germany.
In the UK, we are partnering with ITM Power to make hydrogen fuel available at three retail sites in the south east of the country. The first station was inaugurated in February 2017 at our Cobham retail site.
In the USA, we also have two hydrogen stations in Los Angeles, California. In 2017, we began working with Honda and Toyota, and with the support of the California state government, to build seven new stations in Northern California.
We are assessing the potential for similar projects in Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA.
Charging for battery-electric vehicles
In 2017, we acquired Netherlands-based NewMotion, a company with one of Europe’s biggest networks of EV charging points. It operates more than 30,000 private electric charge points in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK. It also provides 100,000 registered charge-card users access to over 50,000 public charge points in 25 European countries.
In 2017, we also signed an agreement with charging operator IONITY to offer high-powered charging points in 10 European countries, starting with 80 of its biggest highway stations, which will allow EV drivers to travel long distances. IONITY is a joint venture between BMW, Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen, which was formed to create a network of 350-kilowatt chargers alongside major highways in Europe.
Power
Shell aims to develop an integrated and signficant power business, over time. To achieve this, we will continue to grow our power generation and trading capabilities and expand our marketing offers to more customers.
We are also working to deliver more electricity generated by renewable energy, including developing wind and solar projects and selling power from renewable sources.
Shell first entered the onshore wind business in the USA in 2001. Today, we have interests in six onshore wind power projects in North America and two offshore wind projects in Europe.
Our share of capacity from wind power projects in the USA is more than 400 megawatts (MW).
In the Netherlands, we have an interest in the consortium that was awarded the concession by the Dutch government in December 2016 to develop the Borssele III and IV offshore wind farm projects, which are to be located 20 kilometres off the Dutch coast. In January 2018, Partners Group signed an agreement to join the projects, diluting our interest in the consortium from 40% to 20%.
Also in the Netherlands, we have a 50% interest in the Noordzeewind joint venture with Nuon, which has been set up for the development, construction and management of the Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm. The farm comprises 36 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 3 MW.
We are exploring ways to deploy solar technologies to lower the carbon intensity of our operations.
We are also looking at how best to combine wind and solar power with our existing business and capabilities.
We are developing a solar power plant at our Moerdijk chemicals site in the Netherlands, with construction planned to begin in 2018. The plant is estimated to provide an approximate peak capacity of 20 MW of renewable power. The power produced will be used by the Shell Moerdijk site.
In December 2017, we signed an agreement to buy First Utility, a leading independent UK household energy and broadband provider. The transaction was completed in February 2018.
In January 2018, we announced an agreement to acquire a 43.83% interest in Silicon Ranch Corporation, a leading US developer, owner, and operator of solar assets. The transaction was completed in March 2018.
A Silicon Ranch solar farm, Georgia, USA.
Digital ventures
Digital ventures complement our activities in both new fuels and power.
In the Netherlands, we have developed a fill-up-and-go system which allows drivers to pay online for fuel from their vehicles. This secure payment system saves drivers time.
In the USA, the Fitcar™ app transforms a regular car into a “connected car” and provides maintenance alerts and information on the engine, the location of nearby services and tracks users’ driving style, helping drivers save money, stay safe and take care of their vehicle.
We have developed an app, called Farepilot, that helps self-employed drivers to identify high demand areas to swiftly find their next fare and potentially save fuel. We have invested through Shell Technology Ventures in tiramizoo, a German start-up whose online technology connects retailers with customers.
We are collaborating on an online tool that efficiently schedules local deliveries in over 150 towns and cities in Germany and Austria. This approach improves customer service, lowers costs and, if widely adopted, could reduce urban traffic and, in turn, help improve local air quality.
Going forward, we are exploring services we could offer to home energy users. We have already developed a digital programme which helps customers in the UK bring all their energy bills together in one place and finds ways for them to save money.
Our approach to digital ventures involves exploring a range of options, and moving on swiftly if we conclude that a venture is not commercially viable.
