RWE to reduce renewables investment by half

• 11 years ago (2013-03-07)
• Junior Isles

Europe 1061 Nuclear 640 Renewables 752

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Germany’s second-largest utility RWE AG (RWE) plans to reduce renewable-energy investment by 50 per cent next year as it attempts to offset falling earnings and reduce debt.

RWE spent €1 billion during 2013 on its Innogy renewables unit, but will only licence around €500 million ($652 million) in 2014 and 2015, Chief Executive Officer Peter Terium has said.

The move was justified as part of a company-wide effort to reduce debt, he explained in a statement at RWE’s headquarters in Essen, Germany.

“For financial reasons, we need to ease back on the pace of expansion of renewables,” Terium said. The company will also seek to sell its smaller biomass power stations, he said.

RWE intends to “stick with” offshore wind, but it will slow the pace of the projects it develops to “one park at a time,” Terium announced.

“Based on the current business environment, UK wind farms are ahead of German ones,” Terium said.

RWE had previously cautioned that its €1 billion Nordsee Ost farm in the German North Sea is to have its start-up postponed from 2012 to the middle or end of 2014, due to problems connecting its turbines to the mainland power grid.

The timing of RWE’s cut to investment runs counter to plans by Germany to replace its retiring nuclear generation with growth in renewables such as solar, wind and biomass.

Germany is aiming for at least 35 per cent of total power generation by the end of the decade from roughly 23 per cent today. The German government’s plans include adding 25 GW of offshore wind turbines by 2030.