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BP has a lot of money, and they want to focus a big chunk into cellulosic ethanol. So, they're partnering up with Verenium and giving the company $90 million over the next year and a half in order to gain some of Verenium's technology and hopefully speed up commercialization of cellulosic ethanol. Looking towards sugar cane, miscanthus, and energy cane, they're hoping to scale up biofuel's availability from these and other sources. The $90m will go towards helping put up low-cost production facilities across the US, and will give BP licenses to intellectual property of Verenium. BP's president Sue Ellerbusch said that this partnership positions BP as having the best technology in cellulosic ethanol production and makes them leaders in the area. Not surprising since they're forming other partnerships that help them corner the biofuel industry, including partnerships with DuPont, Tropica BioEnergia and D1 Oils. BP's fuel sales during 2007 accounted for 10% of the global biofuels market. So they're serious about making sure that biofuels become more easily available.

Led by China, the developing nations of the world now consume more energy than the industrialized countries, according to the 2009 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. BP released its annual review of world energy use on June 10, noting that industrialized countries reduced their energy consumption by 1.3% in 2008, led by a 2.8% drop in the United States, marking the country's steepest single-year decline since 1982. That decrease was counterbalanced by increasing energy use in developing countries, which caused global energy consumption to increase by 1.4%.

Solar power will not be able to compete with conventional energy until there is a breakthrough in the technology, BP's chief executive has said, in a further sign of the company's move away from renewables towards oil and gas. BP has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in making solar cells and components, but in the past six months it has been closing factories around the world, and announced a sharp cut in its investment in alternative energies, such as solar, from $1.4bn last year to $1bn (£658m) this year. Tony Hayward, chief executive, yesterday told a conference in California: "I think solar is probably the most challenged of all of BP's alternative energy interests." He added: "It is not going to make the transition to be competitive with more conventional power, the gap is too big."