Green Investment May Lessen German Coal Dependence

Germany is one of my favourite places. Luckily through my work I am able to visit there at least a few times a year to meet companies and visit exhibitions. One of the things that has often confused me about the country is how its attitude to the environment has always seemed pretty contradictory. The country also seems, at first glance at least, to be very green and protective of the environment, while at the same time being heavily reliant on fossil fuels, especially the most environmentally unfriendly of them all - coal. Over a quarter of Germany’s energy is derived from coal and lignite. At the same time, the 41.4% of the country’s energy that comes from renewable sources this year puts Germany very much at the forefront of renewables. Germany is also one of the largest automobile producers in the world with lots of iconic brands, but the country is one of the few in the developed world that refuses to put a date on a changeover to electric vehicles. In fact, many of the automotive companies seem to be heading that direction themselves without the encouragement of the government.

Hopefully this situation may be changing. Germany’s largest energy producer, RWE, has just announced plans to invest euro 50bn to double its green energy capacity to 50 GW by 2030. That figure would be almost an extra 20% to Germany’s renewables mix on the figures this year, and hopefully reducing the need for the burning of the coal required for that power. That commitment to renewables follows the company’s take over of the renewables activities of Innogy and EON, which has made RWE one of the biggest generators of renewable power in Europe. The total investment would average 5 billion euros a year for the next ten years for mainly offshore and onshore wind, solar, and batteries. RWE may be the biggest energy producer, but others are sure to follow, and hopefully over the next few years Germany will mange to wean itself off of coal. Having a new government coalition that is to the left of the previous one should also provide some better initiatives to make the country's energy generation greener.

RWE is not the only major energy company that has announced investments in renewables for Europe recently. Both Italy’s ENEL and Spain’s Iberdrola will also devote a record amount of investment into renewables over the next few years. ENEL will almost triple its renewables capacity to 120GW from its current 45 GW by 2030 with an investment of euro 70bn in wind and solar energy. Iberdrola will make a gross investment of euro 75bn in renewables and to upgrade its networks up to 2025.