Letter from Shell CEO

From: Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive
To: All Shell employees
Date: 22 January 2008 Subject: Shell Energy Scenarios

Dear Colleagues

In this letter, I’d like to share reflections about how we see the energy future, and our preferred route to meeting the world’s energy needs. Industry, governments and energy users – that is, all of us – will face the twin challenge of more energy and less CO2.

This letter is based on a text I’ve written for publication in several newspapers in the coming weeks. You can use it in your communications externally. There will be more information about energy scenarios inthe months ahead.

By the year 2100, the world’s energy system will be radically different from today’s. Renewable energy like solar, wind, hydroelectricity and biofuels will make up a large share of the energy mix, and nuclear energy too will have a place.

Mankind will have found ways of dealing with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. New technologies will have reduced the amount of energy needed to power buildings and vehicles.

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PG&E signs first U.S. agreement to buy ocean energy

December 18, 2007 (Reuters) – Utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company became the country’s first utility on Tuesday to agree to buy renewable electricity made by the ebb and flow of ocean waves. The energy will be captured by several buoys bobbing 2.5 miles off the California coast and then transmitted to shore by an undersea cable. At peak times, the electricity will light at least 1,400 homes.

“This is a first,” said Robert Thresher of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy. “It implies that someone with money and experience is willing to invest and take a chance on this technology, which could be as popular as wind technology in only a few decades.”

There is enough ocean wave energy surging off U.S. coasts to match the power generated from the country’s hydroelectric dams, which account for 6.5 percent of its electricity use, said Roger Bedard, a specialist at the Energy Power Research Institute.

Harvesting the Power of Ocean & Tidal Energy

August 1, 2007 – (RenewableEnergyAccess.com) – A small team of engineers based in Cornwall, England, have made a breakthrough with the development of a turbine that they claim could solve the commercial viability of tidal power. Known as the Osprey turbine, the technology can be used to create electricity offshore at sea — or in tidal rivers and inland waterways.

The Osprey turbine is a vertical axis free flow device which produces power independently or as part of a larger system. Power output is expected to be from 1 kW up to 5 MW in a multiple system. It is the brainchild of Fowey-based FreeFlow 69 Ltd., research and development consultants in renewable energy, which is headed up by Pat Cooke.

The team conceived the unique turbine concept while working on design and development for their offshore Ocean Hydro Electricity Generator (OHEG), a concept using tidal energy to create electricity 24 hours a day. Following successful testing of a model rotor, a reduced-scale model prototype has been developed to assist in the design of a full-scale prototype.