RWE scales down biomass activities
February 22, 2013
By Dow Jones Newswire
February 22, 2013, Berlin, DE - The renewable energies unit of German power and gas utility RWE AG is narrowing its focus to concentrate on wind and hydro power, reducing its activities in biomass fuels like wood and straw, presently its third core area in "green" energy production, the company said.
"RWE no longer considers the business with smaller biomass facilities as core business," a spokesman for RWE Innogy told Dow Jones Newswire .
Going forward, the company doesn't plan further substantial investment in biomass facilities, the spokesman added.
The comments coincided with the announcement of the sale of majority stakes in two small German biomass facilities to Koehler Renewable Energy GmbH, a unit of Germany's Koehler Holding GmbH. No financial details of the transaction were disclosed.
Citing Hans Buenting, chief executive of RWE's renewable energies unit, German daily newspaper Handelsblatt earlier Friday reported that the company is considering disposing of other biomass businesses, including a wood pellets factory in Waycross, Georgia.
The company spokesman said that other disposals cannot be ruled out, but added that no decisions have yet been made.
However, while smaller biomass facilities are no longer part of RWE's core business, the company said it still plans to use biomass as fuel in industrial-scale power plants, like its U.K.-based biomass power station in Tilbury.
T
he former coal-fired power plant was converted in 2011 to burn wood pellets, which RWE sources from its factory in Georgia.
Click here to read the full article.
Print this page
