BP Shuns the Sun, Doesn't See Green in Solar

British Petroleum has rarely been out of the spotlight since the Deepwater oil spill in 2010 that put nearly five million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This week it's back in the news again, with word that the still-in-turnaround energy giant has extinguished its solar power business.

The simple reason, according to The Guardian, is that — despite being one of the world's largest solar companies — BP says it can't turn a profit on selling panels at a time while it spends $20 billion annually on its oil and gas businesses.

Despite its much-ballyhooed aim to move "beyond petroleum," BP has been quietly closing its solar panel factories in recent years, with around 1,750 workers laid off just in the last three years according to the Guardian. "At the same time," the report adds, "the company has gradually retreated from other areas such as carbon capture and storage and shut down its separate London headquarters for BP Alternative Energy."

Where BP is not scaling back its financial investment: sports, as a London 2012 Olympics partner, and the arts.

The London 2012 sponsor recently announced the athletes, British and American, that it will be supporting at the upcoming summer Olympics.

On the cultural front, some British citizens have been lobbying London's Tate Modern museum to end the company’s sponsorship of it. Molasses was poured on the Tate's steps, while others staged a sleep-in inside the Tate with BP-logo sleep masks and blankets featuring anti-BP messages.

Even so, the Tate hasn't ditched BP and its deep pockets. Despite a petition signed by 8,000 Brits asking for the end of the relationship, BP has just extended its sponsorship of British arts giants. The BBC reports that BP has committed £10 million ($13 million) over the next five years to continue sponsoring the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House and Tate Britain.

“Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota said the Tate had been ‘thinking very hard’ about the sponsorship issue,” the BBC reports, and mentioned that the Tate’s ethics committee had discussed the issue in 2010 and 2011.

"The board... thought it was the right thing to continue with BP," Serota told the BBC. "BP have been great supporters of the arts in this country. The fact that they had one major incident in 2010 does not mean we should not be taking support from them."