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French oil company buys major share of Sun Power

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by Dave7, Apr 29, 2011.

  1. Dave7

    Dave7 Junior Member

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    French oil company Total SA buys majority shares of SunPower!
    Good that Total SA is using their capital and credit to fund continued SunPower expansion. Perhaps Total knows something about oil reserves compared to projected consumption?
    Sun Power modules are superior to any others . If they were ever to lower their price and increase production, they could dominate the market. I wonder if that is possible now. Sad that it was not a US based company that bought in.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704473104576293310772606394.htm
     
    #1 Dave7, Apr 29, 2011
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    they must see the writing on the wall.
     
    #2 bisco, Apr 29, 2011
  3. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    Do you honestly believe that's going to happen now an oil company own them? :(

    Perhaps it will - the day after hell freezes over :eek:
     
    #3 GrumpyCabbie, Apr 30, 2011
  4. tripp

    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    Actually, it makes much more sense that an oil company would do this than say, a coal company. Oil isn't used to generate electricity so much. There are definitely cases where that's not the case (a lot of island nations import oil for this purpose), but in the main, oil is used for petrochemical, road base, and transportation, not electricity generation.

    It's a good move because the trend seems to be that countries are nationalizing their mineral assets and this is marginalizing the oil corps. As their stable fields decline, they're going to find it harder and secure steady revenue from oil fields in far flung and often dodgy places. Solar has a HUGE upside, particularly in less developed countries where there isn't a well developed power grid.

    Personally, I'd like to see these companies getting more involved in geothermal, as there's an obvious connection between oil exploration/production and geothermal power generation.
     
    #4 tripp, Apr 30, 2011
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