German power utility RWE has announced plans regarding the future development of its newly created subsidiary RWE Renewables, which will add up to 3 GW per year of new installed capacity around the world over the next three years. This expansion will be driven by annual investments of approximately €1.5bn. The utility will concentrate on three main regions, i.e. its core markets in Europe, the Americas and new potential markets in the Asia-Pacific region. As for the technologies, it will focus on both offshore and onshore wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and electricity storage.
The group's installed power generation capacity declined by nearly 1.6 GW to 41.7 GW in 2018, of which 13.5 GW for lignite and nuclear plants (-5.9%). Most of its capacity is located in Germany (23.3 GW), the United Kingdom (8.6 GW), the Netherlands and Belgium (4.6 GW) and Turkey (0.8 GW). The company's power generation fell by 12% to 176 TWh in 2018, due to the phase out of the 1,284 MW Gundremmingen B nuclear power plant in late 2017, to the sale of the Matra lignite-fired power plant in Hungary and to the decommissioning of four 300 MW lignite-fired units in Germany. Overall, lignite and nuclear generation fell by 15% in 2018. Gas-fired power generation also contracted owing to unfavourable market conditions. Renewable power generation also declined, due to low wind availability in the United Kingdom and Central Europe. RWE's electricity sales declined by 5% to 216 TWh in 2018, while gas sales rose by 5% to 67 TWh.
The company is engaged in an asset swap with E.ON, pursuant to which the two utilities will conduct an extensive exchange of shareholdings and business activities. RWE will receive Innogy and E.ON's entire renewable energy subsidiaries along with a 16.67% shareholding in E.ON, while E.ON will acquire RWE's share of 76.8% in Innogy.