The fossil fuel behemoth formerly known as British Petroleum has been ridiculed by some environmental critics for the new name it adopted several years ago, Beyond Petroleum, given the negligible size of its alternative-energy division. But detractors can’t laugh any longer: On Tuesday, BP announced that it would funnel a whopping $8 billion of R&D funds into clean-energy innovation—eight times the $1 billion it spent in this area over the past decade.

CEO Lord John Browne plans to bring aboard several hundred new employees to populate a brand new corporate division that will consolidate the company’s development of solar, wind, fuel cells, and low-emission gas-powered turbines. It represents yet more encouraging evidence that fossil fuel giants are becoming diversified energy companies.

Image credit: BP