Academic expert following fuel company heading for renewables (9)

I believe the answer is:

professor

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'academic' is the definition.
(I know that professor is a type of academic)

'expert following fuel company heading for renewables' is the wordplay.
'expert' becomes 'pro' (short for professional).
'following' becomes 'f.' (used when citing page numbers etc).
'fuel company' becomes 'esso' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'heading for' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'renewables' is 'r'.
'pro'+'f'+'esso'+'r'='PROFESSOR'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for professor that I've seen before include "Fellow" , "Senior university academic" , "chairman?" , "High-ranking academic" , "One holds a chair" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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