It's good news for the alternative energy industry for BP to declare it ready for major investment. Said BP chief executive Lord Browne in the BP press release:

“We are now at a point where we have sufficient new technologies and sound commercial opportunities within our reach to build a significant and sustainable business in alternative and renewable energy.”

BP is smart: Forming an alternative energy investment unit is a good way to deflect general criticism of oil companies for not reinvesting their current windfall profits in research.

And clever: Note that they're not investing in alternatives to petroleum, such as biodiesel or hydrogen, that would eat into their profitable oil and gas business. (The hydrogen project BP announced would generate electricity from a power plant in Scotland. The hydrogen would come from natural gas.)

And shrewd: CO₂ sequestration is a good environmental move because it gets rid of carbon -- but it also helps make older oil fields more productive.

The announcement doesn't mention whether nuclear power is one of the "alternatives" in which BP would invest, but there is currently a tremendous amount of industry spin attempting to reposition nuclear as green power.

Related:
Sidebar on deriving hydrogen from fossil fuels

BP's statement says it "may invest up to" $8 billion over 10 years. Meanwhile, their budget for conventional oil and gas projects is almost $15 billion per year.

The investment represents only fraction of BP's annual capital expenditures but is an eightfold increase from the $1 billion spent over the past decade, according to the Associated Press.

Exxon Mobil, meanwhile, dismisses renewable energy and puts its record profits into shareholder dividends.

Find related information from EP:
Wind | Solar | Hydrogen

Traded companies:
BP PLC, NYSE: BP
Exxon Mobil, NYSE: XOM