(Photo Credit: Baker Hughes)Houston-based energy technology company Baker Hughes signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) in collaboration with Energy Edge Consulting and EDF Energy Services to power 170 facilities in Texas with 100% renewables.
Baker Hughes, formerly BHGE, offers products and services across the oil industry value chain. In an announcement on Wednesday, the company said its new PPA covers energy from Apex Clean Energy’s 500-megawatt White Mesa Wind project in Texas, and the Talitha Energy solar project in Jim Wells County, Texas, being developed by 7X Energy.
Earlier this year, Baker Hughes committed to reducing its carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in half by 2030 — and achieving net-zero carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions by 2050. The company expects this new PPA to eliminate 12% of their global carbon equivalent emissions and cut 1.2 million metric tons of CO2e emissions over the agreement’s 10-year term.
“Texas represents our largest region for energy use,” said Kevin Wetherington, Baker Hughes’ chief health, safety, environment and quality officer. “We see this commitment to Texas-generated renewable power as an important step in our progress toward net-zero emissions, and we have many more projects underway to continue to reduce our global emissions.”
The company has changed a lot over the past five years, transitioning from providing oil-field services to the upstream segment of the oil and gas market to a more diversified range of products and services, the Motley Fool’s Matthew DiLallo pointed out in September.
“Baker Hughes is committed to becoming more socially responsible,” he wrote. “It wants to become a better steward of the environment by inventing technologies that reduce its customers’ impact as well as enable them to use resources more wisely.”
Baker Hughes isn’t the only oil and gas industry player looking to renewables. Two years ago, California oil and gas producer Aera Energy announced plans with GlassPoint Solar for a project that would use solar steam and solar electricity to power oilfield operations. The Belridge solar plant could begin producing steam and electricity as soon as 2020, according to GlassPoint. This year BP started investing $100 million in GHG-reduction projects and Chevron turned to solar to help power its oilfield in Kern County, California.
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