Big Oil is investing into the future……..and the future is WIND!!!
Lately, Chevron has increased the share of its venture funds going into renewable energy to 33% from 18%. It has provided seed capital for BrightSource Energy Inc., an Oakland, Calif., company that turns solar energy into steam, and Southwest Wind Power, a Flagstaff, Ariz.-based company that builds small-scale wind turbines that can be placed on top of light poles.

Trond Unneland, managing executive of Chevron Technology Ventures, says demand for energy in the future will be greater than oil and natural gas can meet. “We believe we need energy from every source: oil and gas, geothermal, solar,” Mr. Unneland says. “They don’t compete” with one another, he adds.

In one of its earlier moves, Chevron Technology Ventures in 2002 invested in Codexis Inc., a Redwood City, Calif., company that develops catalysts for the pharmaceutical and biofuels industries. One of this company’s most promising research avenues is working on a way to turn biomass into transportation fuel — a focus that puts the company squarely in the midst of the emerging renewable-energy industry