What pleases consumers is a burden for RWE: The electricity producer expects significantly lower profits this year, “due to the recent sharp fall in electricity prices on the European wholesale markets,” as CFO Michael Müller said on Thursday when presenting the business figures in Essen. In 2022, the DAX group was able to double its operating profit to 6.3 billion euros, also because energy prices rose sharply after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Last year the Essenes reached even 8.4 billion euros – a record. The bottom line was that 4.5 billion euros remained in profit.
But in 2024 this profit will probably be more than halved. RWE had already announced in November that it was only expecting between 1.9 and 2.4 billion euros. Müller now said that as a result of the low prices, profits will be at the lower end of the range. Nevertheless, the company with 19,000 employees continues to invest in wind and solar parks as well as battery storage. Last year, the people of Essen spent 11.4 billion euros on this, with more than half going to purchase a US solar company. RWE is now the second largest operator of solar systems in the United States.
The amount of green electricity produced at RWE increased by a quarter last year. It exceeded the production of gas power plants and that of lignite plants. Overall, the eco-power plants now account for a third of RWE’s electricity mix. The company wants to do it by 2030 a total of 50 billion euros Invest in wind and solar parks, battery storage and gas power plants that will burn hydrogen produced in a climate-friendly manner in the future. At the same time, the climate-damaging lignite-fired power plants in North Rhine-Westphalia are to be shut down in 2030.
The state will subsidize gas power plants
In order for the coal phase-out to be successful, the federal government wants to build promote hydrogen-capable gas power plants. They are supposed to step in during those hours when wind and solar parks do not provide enough electricity. RWE also wants to build such gas power plants. However, CEO Markus Krebber complained on Thursday that details of the funding concept were still open: “Time is really running out.”