Status: 11/15/2021 2:32 p.m.
The energy group RWE is accelerating the expansion of green electricity projects. The company plans to invest a total of 50 billion euros by 2030 to generate more electricity from renewable energies.
The energy company RWE is ready to talk about phasing out coal – but not immediately. Until then, the Essen-based electricity supplier wants to increase its share of electricity from renewable energies to 50 gigawatts per year by 2030 – twice as much as currently.
In order to achieve this goal, the pace of expansion must be increased significantly. If the company wanted to increase the total output per year by an average of 1.5 gigawatts, in the future it should be an average of 2.5 gigawatts per year. Among other things, RWE wants to increase its capacity for electricity generation at sea from the current 2.4 to eight gigawatts in 2030. An expansion from seven to 20 gigawatts is planned for onshore wind turbines and solar systems. The group also wants to grow in battery storage, where the capacity is to increase to three gigawatts. RWE is currently involved in projects with a power line of 0.6 gigawatts.
“Greener, bigger, more valuable”
A timetable is also being developed for all existing systems in order to make them more climate-friendly. RWE also wants to expand trading in green energy sources. The company announced that it would develop new business opportunities in hydrogen and ammonia imports for industry in Europe. “Greener, bigger, more valuable – that will be RWE in 2030,” said the new CEO Markus Krebber, who in May took over the management of Germany’s largest electricity producer from long-time CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz.
However, a reliable power supply cannot be guaranteed with renewable energies alone. RWE therefore continues to rely on the operation of gas-fired power plants that can produce electricity quickly if necessary. RWE currently has around 14 gigawatts of installed capacity, the second largest gas-fired power plant fleet in Europe, it said. Further systems with a total of at least two gigawatts of capacity are to be added by 2030.
Right signal
RWE is not acting out of altruism or simply for the sake of a better climate. The expansion should ensure that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization grow by nine percent annually. “In 2030 it should be five billion euros,” said RWE, probably more than twice as much as in the current financial year 2021. The shareholders should also benefit from the increase in earnings. For the 2021 financial year, RWE intends to raise the dividend to 90 cents from the last 85 cents per share. For the coming years, the management is planning a lower limit of 90 cents per share.
Shareholder representatives welcomed the announcements. “I think we’re heading in the right direction,” said the managing director of the German Association for Protection of Securities Holdings (DSW), Thomas Hechtfischer, of the dpa news agency. “RWE will go green even faster than previously planned.” Against the background of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, this is the right signal.