GREENPEACE BUYS NLG 500,000 OF SHELL SHARES IN CAMPAIGN FOR LARGE-SCALE SOLAR FACTORY

14 March 2000

AMSTERDAM -- Greenpeace today announced the purchase of 500,000 Dutch Guilders worth of Royal Dutch Shell shares on the Amsterdam stock exchange (AEX) as part of its campaign to force the company to build a large-scale solar panel factory.

Greenpeace wants to present the proposal for a mega-solar factory at the upcoming Shell Annual General meeting on May 9, with the support of fellow-shareholders.

With the substantial investments in Shell, Greenpeace for the first time will use a new directive on shareholders-participation. Recently AEX started to collect addresses of Shell shareholders and other companies that previously were anonymous. Any shareholder with an investment greater than 250,000 Euros has the right to send proposals, via AEX, to fellow shareholders. Now Greenpeace officially announced to AEX that they have asked for support from Shell shareholders for building a mega-solar factory.

The move follows a similar shareholder motion which will be put to the BP-Amoco annual general meeting next month. A group of 100 British and American shareholders with more than 150,000 shares forced the company's Arctic Ocean exploration plans on to the AGM meeting agenda by submitting a formal resolution opposing BP's controversial Northstar oil pipeline project. This motion also call for the capital freed up from Arctic projects to be invested in an expanded solar manufacturing capacity. BP has a solar subsidiary, Solarex. The hundred shareholders have been gathered together by Greenpeace, the US socially responsible investor Trillium Management Corporation and US Public Interest Group – PIRG.

Solar energy could become competitive in the short-term with conventional electricity, according to a report by business consultants and accountancy firm KPMG, commissioned by Greenpeace. The KPMG report, 'Solar Energy:from Perennial Promise to Competitive Alternative', calculates that one large-scale solar PV factory producing five million solar panels a year (equivalent to 250,000 homes, each with a two kilo watt system) could reduce the cost of solar power by a factor of four making it price competitive for domestic consumers with electricity produced from conventional sources.

A market for this level of production of solar panels would equate to; in the UK less than 0.3 per cent of existing roof area of domestic housing and less than 40 per cent for annual new properties, in the US 20 per cent of new housing and in the Netherlands 2 per cent of existing housing – equivalent to all new housing. The report examined whether large scale commercial production of solar PV cells could make the technology price competitive with conventional electricity and what size investment or government regulation would be required to make this happen.

Experts interviewed by KPMG during the compilation of the report came from Shell Solar, BP Solarex, Spire Corporation of the US(who build and supply PV manufacturing equipment) and the Dutch Energy Research Centre. "The KPMG report demonstrates there are no major technological or financial barriers to creating a large scale solar PV industry. However there is market impasse," said Greenpeace renewable energy campaigner Karl Mallon.

KPMG calculated that the return on investment of a Mega Solar Factory is 15%. This is even more than the average profit of Shell’s activity in oil and gas. To invest in solar power is to invest in a sound company in the long term. Because of global warming, oil and gas need eventually to be phased out.

Investing in solar-power is appealing for Shell and its shareholders. With this message Greenpeace will try, over the coming months, to get as much support from its fellow-shareholders. Greenpeace can supply Royal Dutch shareholders with a special application form to support this initiative. The application form is available from the Greenpeace Netherlands website www.helpshell.nu

Greenpeace used two banks in the purchasing of the shares. ASN bank provided Greenpeace with a loan and the shares were purchased through Triodos Bank. The risks are fully covered by the purchase of options, as an insurance against fall in prices. No profit can be made on the shares. Right after the shareholders meeting Greenpeace will sell the shares.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Jon Walter, press officer +31 20 523 6608 Sander van Egmond, +31 20 5249 538 or +31 6 21296895.

Visit www.helpshell.nu