RWE, GERMANY’S second-biggest utility, may invest in photovoltaic power plants because prices for solar modules are so low.
While RWE owns a stake in the Andasol 3 solar thermal power plant in Spain, it previously shied away from investing in photovoltaic generation, citing the technology’s costs.
Prices have since dropped “dramatically, more than we have expected,” said Hans Buenting, chief financial officer of RWE’s renewable energy unit Innogy.
“Now we start to take a look into that,” Mr Buenting said during a conference call with analysts. “We are looking at more promising countries in Europe rather than in Germany for first projects.”
RWE is “discussing” a pilot project in the Desertec initiative that seeks to build renewable energy plants in north Africa and the Middle East.
RWE, based in Essen, plans to invest about €5 billion on renewables, mainly offshore wind farms, in four years as Germany shuts nuclear reactors after last year’s Fukushima disaster.
Because Germany plans to reduce solar subsidies and has fewer hours of sunshine, RWE will explore elsewhere for potential projects, said Mr Buenting, who takes over as chief executive of Innogy in July.
EON, Germany’s largest utility, plans to add 70 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity per year compared with a total of 51 megawatts it has built in Italy and France since 2008, Christian Drepper, a spokesman, said yesterday.
EON, based in Dusseldorf, may also build plants in the US at one of its wind farm locations, Mr Drepper said.
If RWE considers better solar sites than Germany and Britain such as southern Spain, the south of Italy or Morocco, where the Desertec initiative is active, “then costs come down where they are comparable or below offshore wind already now”, Mr Buenting said.
RWE would most likely take “only shares” in any Desertec projects, he also said.
Photovoltaic plants use panels that generate electricity directly from the sun while solar thermal plants use mirrors to focus sunlight and power steam turbines. – (Bloomberg)
