RWE confirms plans for gas-fired power plants and coal phase-out
The energy group RWE has reaffirmed its intention to build hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants with a capacity of at least three gigawatts in Germany by the end of 2030. "However, a regulatory framework that enables these investments is unfortunately still missing," said CEO Markus Krebber on Tuesday on the sidelines of a capital market event in London. RWE is "desperately" waiting for this. "If the framework is right, we can also imagine significantly increasing our expansion targets here once again," Krebber continued.
According to earlier information, the plants are to be built primarily at existing coal-fired power plant sites. They are intended to supply electricity when wind and solar generation are not sufficient. According to Krebber, the planning and construction of such power plants will take "five or six years".
RWE is sticking to the coal phase-out by 2030 agreed with the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, but is not ruling out a subsequent reserve operation of the coal-fired power plants at the expense of the federal government. There is a clear contract, said Krebber. "We have promised to generate electricity from coal until 2030." After that, the plants would be decommissioned.
"If the federal government comes to the conclusion that it needs them for longer, it will have to take them into reserve itself. We can continue to operate them, but then at the federal government's expense. In economic terms, these are their plants and no longer ours." There is a clear roadmap for RWE, the CEO emphasized.
In Germany, the coal phase-out is set for 2030 for the Rhenish mining area. No such agreement has been reached for the Lusatian coalfield and the Central German lignite mining area in the eastern German states.
In their coalition agreement, the coalition parties SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed to "ideally" bring forward the coal phase-out from 2038 to 2030. At the beginning of November, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner questioned the timing of the coal phase-out. "As long as it is not clear that energy is available and affordable, we should stop dreaming of phasing out coal-fired power by 2030," he told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper.
RWE's focus on alternative energies is apparent as they plan to build hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants, which will mainly rely on alternative energies like hydrogen when operational. Despite these plans, the lack of a regulatory framework that enables these investments is hindering their progress.
As part of their commitment to alternative energies, RWE is also considering significantly increasing their expansion targets if a suitable regulatory framework is implemented.
Source: www.dpa.com
