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E.ON Says European Utilities Need Financial Partners for Wind, Solar Push
E.ON AG, Germany’s largest power company, and European competitors need financial support from investors and partners to reach their renewable energy targets, said Frank Mastiaux, who heads the company’s renewable division.
E.ON may expand cooperation with Masdar, the $22 billion clean technology venture set up by Abu Dhabi, Mastiaux said yesterday in an interview in Duesseldorf, Germany. E.ON aims to increase the power it generates from renewable sources to 36 percent in 2030 from 13 percent in 2008.
The German utility is investing 8 billion euros ($10 billion) in the five years through 2012 on wind parks and to a lesser degree on solar energy and biogas projects. Expanding at a faster pace is “technically feasible” and E.ON is assessing the price of carbon and other factors to determine how much it spends on renewable energy in the coming years, Mastiaux said.
“We’ll see more and more ventures because all the big companies’ balance sheets will not be enough to build the expected rate of construction for offshore” wind-energy installations, he said.
E.ON, Masdar and Dong Energy A/S are currently building an offshore wind project called the London Array that will have 1,000 megawatts of power capacity when completed in 2013. Duesseldorf-based E.ON yesterday completed an offshore wind farm in Denmark more than a month ahead of schedule.
Of the 8 billion euros allotted for renewable projects, E.ON has about 20 percent to 25 percent left to spend. Most of that will be invested on wind projects, Mastiaux said.
Texas, Eastern Germany
E.ON already operates about 3,000 megawatts of wind farms in regions including Texas and eastern Germany. The remainder of the company’s generating capacity is fossil fuel-based as well as hydropower and nuclear plants.
Europe has about 100,000 megawatts of offshore wind projects planned for the coming decades, according to the European Wind Energy Association. Currently 85 percent of offshore wind capacity is installed in the U.K., the Netherlands and Denmark.
E.ON is also considering installing solar panels at its wind farms in Texas and on roofs at power plant sites. The company has added panels to a generating station in Italy, Mastiaux said.
“I get a new proposal for a renewable energy project on my desk every day,” said Mastiaux.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy van Loon in Berlin at jvanloon@bloomberg.net.
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