Wind Energy – RWE
RWE announced plans to invest €55 billion in ‘green’ energy infrastructure between 2024 and 2030 as it confirmed an end to interest in offshore wind markets in Taiwan and southern Europe.
The planned €55 billion spend on ‘green’ energy and associated technologies will see the company grow capacity to 65GW by 2030, from 35GW at present. RWE has added 9GW of capacity since 2021.
The funds will be put into the rollout of new wind and solar projects, plus batteries, “flexible generation” and hydrogen production, RWE chief executive Markus Krebber said.
The company’s current portfolio includes 100 projects totalling 7.8GW under construction in ten countries.
Its offshore wind portfolio is earmarked for 35% of the funds, with the aim to reach 10GW by 2030, up from 3.3GW at present.
Targets for the planned investment include RWE’s home market of Germany, which will receive €11 billion of total over the next seven years. More than half of the planned investments will go to Europe, with the UK set to receive €8 billion.
These two countries plus the United States will remain the company’s “strategic focus” for the remainder of the decade, while RWE said it hoped to grow in selected APAC countries — Australia, Japan and Korea.
However, Krebber said the plans also required a consolidation of these markets and a retreat from others it had previously expressed interest in.
Referencing previous ambitions RWE had in offshore wind markets in southern Europe (Italy) and Taiwan, the CEO said a changing risk environment had encouraged the company to reconsider its plans in both locations.
“At the moment the market potential is lower there. Our aim was also to consider Taiwan, but we are not in Taiwan anymore… We have consciously taken a step back from that,” Krebber said.
He added: “The portfolio we have now would have been overburdened if we had still considered those. We don’t want to go down the wrong path in order to achieve what we have promised in time.”
