RWE Plans to Expand Renewable Energies in NRW (Germany)

RWE is planning to strongly expand its generating capacities in NRW in the area of renewable energies by 2020. The geographical focus will be on the Rhenish lignite mining region. As far as technology is concerned, the company intends to concentrate on growth in the wind energy and biogas segments.

 Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, Chairman of the Board of Directors at RWE Innogy: “In NRW, RWE Innogy operates around 120 MW based on renewables. We are hoping to almost triple this figure by around 200 MW to 300 MW over the next three years. By 2020, we are expecting to reach a total of 500 MW. Our plans are greatly helped by the new wind power decree enacted by the state government of NRW. Many of our projects will be implemented in collaboration with our sister company RWE Power and shares will be offered to the local authorities in the context of Green Gecco.” Green Gecco is a joint venture of 29 municipal utilities and RWE Innogy for the development and construction of plants for the generation of energy from renewables throughout Europe. Among energy utilities in Germany, RWE is already the largest wind energy provider with 445 MW of installed capacity today.

 Dr Johannes Lambertz, CEO of RWE Power: “We are planning to use reclamation areas from opencast mining as sites for wind energy projects and, in cooperation with regional farmers, use plant cultivation areas to generate biogas.” Fritz Vahrenholt adds: “We are not wasting any time and are starting with three specific projects in the wind and biogas segments.”

Before the end of the year, RWE is planning to start the construction of a wind farm with 20 MW in the municipality of Titz. The ten wind power plants with a height of almost 150 metres are due to generate electricity in summer 2012. Another wind farm will be built in the municipality of Jüchen consisting of four 3-megawatt plants. RWE Innogy is hoping to get the go-ahead for the two farms in autumn this year. The wind farm in Jüchen will be built on a reclamation area of the Garzweiler opencast mine. Wherever possible, the company is hoping to utilise this concept for further development plans. The advantage of such fields is that wind speeds are often higher due to their location. This means that with only a few plants maximum yield can be achieved, which also reduces their impact on the landscape. The investment volume for both farms is estimated to total 60 million euros.

 Johannes Lambertz: “To make it quite clear, lignite power stations and renewable energies are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, our modern power plants are designed in such a way that they can change their output quickly and respond perfectly to the fluctuating supply of the wind farms.”

RWE is also planning to erect a 7.4 MW biogas plant in Bergheim Paffendorf.

RWE Innogy will build and operate the plant, and RWE Power will be responsible for resource management. Through its opencast mine reclamation activities, the company has developed a high level of competence in the agricultural sector. To supply the plant, a wide range of raw materials including maize and whole crop silage, sugar beet and alfalfa as well as liquid manure will be used. Some of the raw materials will come from the areas surrounding the open cast mines. The majority of the raw materials, however, will be supplied by regional farmers. The raw biogas produced in the Paffendorf plant will be upgraded to natural gas quality, fed into the natural gas network as biomethane and be supplied to CHP plants in the region. The total investment amounts to around 13 million euros.

 Value creation in NRW through investment in offshore farms

“Our investments in offshore wind energy also fill the order books for suppliers in NRW. For our offshore wind power plants currently under construction alone, RWE Innogy has awarded contracts totalling around 250 million euros to companies from NRW. This figure does not even include turbine technology. In this area in particular, companies from NRW are well ahead. 16 suppliers provide us with the key components for our offshore wind farm Nordsee Ost totalling another 50 million euros. It is fair to say that NRW is the workbench of the German wind industry”, explains Fritz Vahrenholt.

RWE Innogy will start the construction of the offshore wind farm Nordsee Ost (295 MW) in the German North Sea and Gwynt y Môr (576 MW) off the coast of Wales before the end of the year.

[mappress]

Source: rwe, September 05, 2011