Europe’s biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) polluter RWE aims to become carbon neutral within 20 years by focusing on wind and solar power production as well as on electricity storage.
RWE, also one of Europe’s largest energy generators, announced a new strategy to go carbon neutral by 2040 that would see coal plant closures in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands and massive investment in green energy.
RWE promised in a press conference to cut its emissions by 70 per cent by 2030 against 2012 levels, and cut coal-fired generation altogether by 2040.
According to British NGO Sandbag, RWE operates three of Europe’s five most CO2-intensive power plants, a role that has made the company one of the prime targets of climate activists.
It is also Europe’s largest emitter of CO2, according to Carbon Market Data.
The move will involve closing RWE’s last remaining UK coal-fired power plant Aberthaw B next year, something it announced in August, and converting two plants in the Netherlands to burn biomass, by 2030.
The firm’s six remaining coal plants operating in Germany will close down by 2038, RWE said, in line with the German government’s target to phase out the fuel from the German electricity system by the same date.
To make up the generation shortfall, RWE said it will invest €1.5 billion a year in green energy technologies, including wind and solar power, biogas, and energy storage.
“We have a very clear idea of how to achieve our goal: We will phase out fossil energy sources both consistently and responsibly,” confirmed CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz.
“We will make huge investments in wind and solar power as well as in high-capacity storage technologies.
“The new RWE is and will remain one of the major players in the electricity generation business.”
In recent years RWE moved its renewable energy business into a separate company called Innogy, which E.ON acquired last year in a complex deal that gave RWE a 17 per cent stake in E.ON.
In turn RWE acquired E.ON’s renewable energy business, giving it an extensive portfolio of green generation assets.
However, RWE is still one of Europe’s largest carbon emitters and relies heavily on lignite and hard coal in Germany, making it a target for climate protestors.
The company is now aiming to become a “global player” in the renewable energy business and source 60 per cent of its revenues from green energy, primarily by expanding its wind and solar portfolio.
“Lignite and nuclear energy have laid the foundations we are building the new RWE on,” said Mr Schmitz.
“Past, current and future employees working in conventional areas have our utmost respect, but every form of energy has its time.
“Now we are opening a new chapter of our corporate history, which looks back on over 120 years.”
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