Utilities investing strongly in renewable energy — NextEra Energy, Xcel Energy and Duke Energy among them — have outperformed their peers, returning 33.7 percent, 31.1 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively, compared to the industry’s 13.3 percent return in the past year, according to a report from OilPrice.com.
The suggested lesson appears to be lost on Big Oil, which is currently spending less than 1 percent of capital expense dollars on zero-carbon renewables, according to a January report from the International Energy Agency. To give you some idea, The Economist reported that some $80 billion in capital expenditures by Europe’s seven biggest listed energy companies during 2019 saw only 7.4 percent (less than $1 billion each on average) go to clean energy. UBS has calculated that capital spending on renewable energy, power grids and batteries will need to rise globally to $1.2 trillion a year on average from now until 2050, which is more than double the $
