'Tailwind for Germany': RWE to massively boost spending, renewables and staff in home market
Utility earmarks €15bn for renewables, gas and green hydrogen expansion in Germany, creates new regional offices and hires more staff
German utility RWE has earmarked €15bn ($16.9bn) gross to expand its team and step up the expansion of what it calls its ‘green core business’ in its home market, which includes renewable energy, natural gas and green hydrogen.
The investment pledge is part of a €50bn plan announced last month to boost its world-wide renewables, battery storage, gas and green hydrogen capacities by the end of the decade.
“RWE sees particularly strong potential for growth in Germany. We thus want to step up the pace here and invest up to €15bn gross in our green core business by 2030,” said Katja Wünschel, chief operating officer wind onshore and photovoltaic Europe.
“We will very soon open seven new offices in different parts of Germany to develop the very regional onshore wind and solar business.
“And we will recruit around 200 new employees in the short term, who will work exclusively on local project development.”
The company - which so far had expanded its renewables operation faster outside than inside its home market - now plans to implement every project that is possible in Germany, she added.
As a first glimpse of its new ‘Tailwind for Germany’ campaign, RWE two announced new onshore wind projects in the country, a 29MW expansion to its Bartelsdorf wind farm in Lower Saxony and a the construction start at the 12MW Evendorf wind farm in the same state in the new year.
Wind farms in densely populated Germany are smaller in size than, for example, in the Nordic countries or the USA, where more space is available for larger projects. Nevertheless, Germany already has an onshore wind generation capacity that topped 55GW at the end of the second quarter of this year, one of the world’s largest.
“We are planning ambitious growth for electricity from wind and sun, with regional project development and increased local presence. We have a clear ambition: We will contribute to making the energy transition a success,” Wünschel said.
“Our billions of euros of investments create plenty of opportunities for qualified employees.”
RWE added that the company is opening seven regional offices for developing projects in onshore wind and PV – in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Mainz, the Heilbronn/Stuttgart and the Augsburg/Munich metropolitan areas, as well as in Leipzig and Rostock.
RWE currently operates more than 580MW of onshore wind capacity in Germany.
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