2009-05-29 - by Jonathan Fahey, from Forbes.com
Engineering giant ABB wants to clean up dirty industries with smart electric grids and motors.
In the middle of the wind-whippped north sea, British Petroleum is sprucing up a 25-year-ole platorm that taps one of the world's biggest natural gas fields. BP is ripping out the gas turbines that use some of the methane below to make electricity for the platform. Instead, BP is piping electricity in through an undersea cable from hydroelectric plants on the Norwegian mainland, 180 miles away. It might seem odd for BP to shun the fuel at hand in favor of a long-distance solution. But this is the new economics of carbon - - Norway heavily taxes it, and BP wants to be green.
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