BP has named Alistair Vickers as the new head of its wind business, replacing Laura Folse who retires at the end of March.
Vickers – currently Houston-based senior vice president, technical functions, at the oil and gas giant – will take charge of a US-based onshore wind business with a net capacity of about 1GW.
One of Folse’s final major contributions to BP’s wind business was to oversee the sale of 430MW of Texas capacity and lay plans for a major repowering of the group’s remaining fleet.
The company has also embraced the potential of storage, signing a deal with Tesla to deploy battery technology at one of its US wind farms.
While its wind operation has stayed entrenched in US onshore, the group has deepened its interests in renewables, notably via its 2017 deal for a stake in solar developer Lightsource – now Lightsource BP.
BP has yet to join fellow oil and gas groups Equinor, Shell and Total in taking a position in offshore wind, but the group’s CEO Bob Dudley said last year that the sector was now “of more interest” to the company.
