RWE to shrink yearly investment for renewable power sector to €1bn

Germany based RWE intends to invest around €1bn on renewable energy developments from 2015 to 2017.

RWE chief executive Peter Terium was cited by reNEWS as saying that the renewable sector is "a major technology whose high load factor helps ensure grid stability".

The announced investment is considerably low for the firm which had spent €1bn for the sector in 2014 alone.

The possible investments for 2015 were announced along with the firm’s last year fiscal results, which indicated a net profit of €1.7bn for RWE in 2014.

In spite of having met its 2014 targets, RWE intends to cut down its future investments. The cautious approach follows the firm’s previous losses in a German and a UK offshore-wind projects.

Majority of the proposed investments for 2015 will be spent for offshore wind, the firm said.

Onshore wind developments are going to be a second priority for RWE in the current year, which intends to have developments in Europe, especially in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Poland.

The German utility-developer, however, expects its profitability from conventional power generating sources to go down in 2015.

Peter Terium was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying: "The crisis in conventional electricity generation will continue to have a significant impact on RWE’s earnings…therefore we will probably not succeed in keeping the operating result at the level recorded in 2014."