Everything-PR's 2026 modeled index of 25 energy-transition brands across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. ExxonMobil ranked No. 1. Fossil incumbents still own the answer.
ExxonMobil is the most-cited energy-transition brand in this Everything-PR modeled index at 91.4. Higher than NextEra Energy — the largest renewable-energy producer in the United States. Higher than Ørsted, Iberdrola, and every individual renewables pure-play in the global sample.
That's the headline finding of the Energy Transition Visibility Index 2026 — a directional modeling study comparing fossil incumbents, renewables pure-plays, grid utilities, and coal-named brands across five AI engines. 25 named entities. Five engines. May 2026 measurement window.
The chatbox does not see the energy transition the way climate media does. The fossil top five (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, TotalEnergies) averages 86.8 in this index. The renewables top five (NextEra, Ørsted, Iberdrola, Enel Green Power, Vestas) averages 72.0. A 14.8-point gap. The “energy transition” narrative is more reported than measured in retrieval. The old majors still own the citation share. This is not an energy story. It is a communications story. The old energy giants still control the machine-readable record.
Methodology
The Citation Share scoring model is a composite 0–100 index across five weighted components: Citation Frequency (40%), Cross-Engine Breadth (20%), Query-Type Breadth (20%), Extractability (15%), and Crawl Access (5%). Each component is normalized to a 0–100 scale before weight-averaging. Full normalization formulas appear in the appendix.
The index is directional and modeled — designed to produce stable ordinal results across the same frozen prompt set and measurement window. The number itself is less important than the position. Five engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews. Frozen query set: 60 buyer-intent prompts across four query-type buckets (informational, comparison, recommendation, purchase). Measurement window: May 1 – May 28, 2026. Prompts were run without brand seeding, paid placement, or manual correction.
The Energy Transition Top 25
Twenty-five brands. Fossil incumbents, renewables pure-plays, grid utilities, and named coal producers in one sample — ranked by Citation Share in this modeled index.
| # | Brand | Citation Share Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ExxonMobil | 91.4 |
| 2 | Chevron | 88.7 |
| 3 | Shell | 87.2 |
| 4 | BP | 85.3 |
| 5 | TotalEnergies | 81.6 |
| 6 | NextEra Energy | 80.4 |
| 7 | ConocoPhillips | 77.8 |
| 8 | Saudi Aramco | 76.5 |
| 9 | Ørsted | 73.9 |
| 10 | Iberdrola | 71.2 |
| 11 | Enel Green Power | 69.5 |
| 12 | Duke Energy | 67.3 |
| 13 | Vestas Wind Systems | 65.1 |
| 14 | EDP Renewables | 62.8 |
| 15 | Peabody Energy | 60.4 |
| 16 | First Solar | 58.9 |
| 17 | Sunrun | 57.2 |
| 18 | Glencore (coal) | 55.6 |
| 19 | Plug Power | 53.4 |
| 20 | Bloom Energy | 51.1 |
| 21 | Arch Resources (coal) | 48.7 |
| 22 | Siemens Gamesa | 46.5 |
| 23 | Sunnova Energy | 44.2 |
| 24 | Whitehaven Coal | 42.0 |
| 25 | Yancoal Australia | 39.5 |
Findings
- Fossil incumbents own the citation share. ExxonMobil (91.4), Chevron (88.7), Shell (87.2), BP (85.3), TotalEnergies (81.6) — five of the top six slots. Average 86.8. The transition narrative has not yet shifted the answer-engine field.
- NextEra Energy is the highest-scoring U.S. renewables player. 80.4. NextEra's hybrid identity (largest U.S. regulated utility through FPL + largest U.S. renewable developer) gives it broader Query-Type Breadth than any pure-play renewable.
- European pure-play renewables outscore U.S. counterparts. Ørsted (73.9), Iberdrola (71.2), Enel Green Power (69.5), EDP Renewables (62.8) all score above Sunrun (57.2), First Solar (58.9), and Plug Power (53.4). European communications infrastructure — English-first investor reporting from non-English markets — outperforms U.S. domestic-press-dependent counterparts.
- Saudi Aramco's English-language footprint exceeds expectations. 76.5. Despite operating in a market with non-English primary language, Aramco's IPO-driven English investor communications, global trade press footprint, and OPEC entity prominence push it into the global top eight.
- Coal-named brands score 35–50 points below fossil majors. Peabody Energy (60.4), Glencore coal arm (55.6), Arch Resources (48.7), Whitehaven Coal (42.0), Yancoal (39.5). Average 49.2. The coal-specific citation footprint is steeply below diversified fossil scores — coal as an entity carries an answer-engine penalty.
- Hydrogen and storage pure-plays score lowest among renewables. Plug Power (53.4), Bloom Energy (51.1). Below grid utility brands and well below diversified renewables. Category novelty has not yet translated into deep entity coverage.
- Wind and solar manufacturers diverge. Vestas (65.1) outscores First Solar (58.9) and Siemens Gamesa (46.5). Vestas's pure-play wind positioning, Danish primary-source publishing tradition, and decades of European industrial press coverage produce a higher answer-engine footprint.
- Narrative-to-citation divergence is the headline finding. Media coverage of energy transition heavily favors renewables. Modeled answer-engine citation share heavily favors fossil incumbents. The 14.8-point fossil-vs-renewables gap is one of the sharpest narrative-to-citation divergences measured in the Global Brand Visibility Indexes franchise so far.
Why This Matters for CMOs
- Narrative does not equal citation share. A decade of climate-positive coverage has not closed the fossil-renewables gap inside answer engines. Renewables CMOs should not assume that media tone equals retrieval position. Measurement is separate.
- Hybrid positioning wins category citation. NextEra's 80.4 is the highest renewables score — achieved by maintaining identity as both regulated utility and renewables developer. Pure-play renewables CMOs should consider whether category specificity is helping or hurting citation breadth.
- European primary-source publishing outperforms U.S. trade-press dependence. Ørsted, Iberdrola, Enel, Vestas all publish English-first investor and technical material on cadence. U.S. renewables peers rely more heavily on trade press.
- Coal-named brands face a structural citation ceiling. Peabody, Glencore coal, Arch, Whitehaven all score 35–50 points below fossil majors. CMOs at coal-exposed companies should consider whether category framing (energy producer, integrated extraction, mining) can shift the entity classification.
The Global Brand Visibility Indexes Franchise
The Energy Transition Visibility Index 2026 is part of the Global Brand Visibility Indexes from Everything-PR.
Directories tell you who the agencies are. Indexes tell you which brands own the answer.
Appendix: Normalization Detail
Each component normalizes to 0–100 before weighting:
- Citation Frequency — observed citations divided by the maximum possible across the prompt set and engine count (60 prompts × 5 engines = 300 citation slots per brand).
- Cross-Engine Breadth — (engines citing brand at least once) ÷ 5 × 100.
- Query-Type Breadth — (query types where brand surfaces at least once) ÷ 4 × 100.
- Extractability — scored 0–100 by a deterministic 15-point schema and entity-surfacing audit rubric.
- Crawl Access — binary 100/0 per engine, averaged.
The five normalized component scores are weighted and summed to produce the final Citation Share score.
Sample Prompts
- Largest oil and gas companies globally
- Top renewable energy companies 2026
- Compare ExxonMobil vs Shell vs BP
- Best solar panel manufacturers
- Largest wind turbine manufacturers
- Top U.S. utility companies
- Which companies lead in hydrogen energy?
- Largest coal producers worldwide
- Compare NextEra vs Ørsted vs Iberdrola
- Which energy companies are leading the transition?
Methodology Disclosure
Everything-PR is an independent intelligence platform covering communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery. Publishing since 2009.
