* Laura Folse retires after 3 years in role - memo
* Al Vickers, upstream executive, to take over role
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - The head of BP's windenergy business Laura Folse will retire at the end of month,three years after taking the role, according to an internalemail seen by Reuters.
Folse, who joined BP in 1982, will be replaced by AlVickers, currently head of technical operations across BP's oiland gas, or upstream, business, the memo said. He will beHouston based.
BP's wind division includes 11 onshore wind farms in theUnited States and is one the biggest renewable energy businessesamong the world's top oil and gas producers. It has a generatingcapacity of approximately 1,800 megawatts.
"Laura has been instrumental in significantly increasing theperformance of the business, driving a culture of safety andcompliance, and leading the industry in operational andindustrial metrics," Dev Sanyal, BP's head of alternativeenergy, said in the email, provided by a company spokesman.
London-based BP, and its European peers including RoyalDutch Shell and Total, are trying to rapidlygrow their renewable operations as economies seek to reducetheir greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change.(Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by David Evans)
