RWE Bets on Fair Winds for Future Energy

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- German energy giant, RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany), is pinning its future on wind and solar power as it attempts to recover from Germany's decision to ditch nuclear power last year.

The company's new incumbent chief executive, Peter Terium, this week reinforced the company's pledge to renewable energy, by launching a €100 million ($126 million) offshore wind vessel that will be used to build the company's first German offshore windfarm. The company, which has been suffering severe financial woes following the closure of Germany's nuclear power plants by the government last year, has ambitious plans for wind power and is also planning to invest in solar power projects in southern Europe and North Africa.

"With the naming of the 'Victoria Mathias', we are ringing in RWE's commercial offshore wind-age in the North Sea and close a major logistical bottleneck in the construction of wind farms on the high seas," Terium explained. "We need offshore windfarms to create energy systems in Germany and Europe. For RWE, they are therefore an integral part of the energy supply of tomorrow."

The vessel will be used to help install the 48 turbines at the company's 295-megawatt (MW) Nordsee Ost windfarm in the German North Sea, around 30 kilometres north of the island of Helgoland. The vessel is also the first of its kind to be able to transport up to four, multi-megawatt class offshore wind turbines at the same time and then install them in sea depths of more than 40 metres.

RWE is also planning additional windfarms in the North Sea, 40 kilometres north of the island of Juist on an area of around 150 square kilometres. They will have a combined generating capacity of around 1,000 MW.

The island of Helgoland will play a key role in RWE's offshore wind ambitions. In August last year, E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany), WindMW GmbH (Bremerhaven, Germany) and RWE teamed up to announce plans to construct a giant maintenance and operations base for their combined offshore windfarms at the southern port on Helgoland, 40 kilometres off the German coast. The base will serve a total of three offshore windfarms with a combined generating capacity of 871 MW. The windfarms include RWE's Nordsee Ost (295 MW), E.ON's Amrumbank West (288 MW) and the Süd and Meerwind Ost (288 MW), which is being built by WindMW. For additional information, see August 8, 2011, article - German Energy Giants Prepare For North Sea Wind.

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