In the future two new E.ON companies are to be based in Düsseldorf, one will be in charge of trading and the other of renewables and environmental protection. At the end of May E.ON announced that it would be pooling all trading activities in one location, and that it would be bringing its renewables and climate protection activities together into one new business. “Today’s decision is an important milestone on the way to implementing our strategy. Establishing these two new companies is progressing swiftly and from the beginning of 2008 we will have two more companies with which we can continue our success story,” explained E.ON CEO Wulf H. Bernotat.
Today national borders are all but insignificant in trading with coal, gas and electricity. The same applies to the budding market for emissions trading. Strong players such as the E.ON trading company will be increasing the liquidity of these markets, while at the same time acting as catalysts for the convergence of the European energy sector. By pooling trading activities the Group is tapping into the potential of this international business as the expertise of professional E.ON traders will be concentrated in one company with one trading strategy. After an extensive selection process among numerous potential cities was completed, the decision was taken in favor of Düsseldorf. The new Trading company will also be establishing a regional office in London to ensure that E.ON is also represented in this key trading location.
The new unit for Renewables and Climate Protection will be responsible for steering and developing E.ON’s renewable energy business, and for managing projects in the field of climate protection Expanding renewables internationally will be one of the key tasks of the Düsseldorf base and E.ON can already announce the first successes. At the beginning of August the Group acquired the Spanish and Portuguese renewables business from the Danish company Dong Energy, which is currently generating around 260 MW. The majority of which is supplied from state-of-the-art wind parks, with the rest coming from smaller hydroelectric plants and biomass facilities. Wind farms generating around 560 MW are already being planned for particularly suitable locations around the Iberian Peninsula and are to be operational within the coming four years. Such projects are also being planned for other locations such as offshore wind farms off the British coast and bio natural gas plants in Germany. In total E.ON is going to be investing approx. EUR 3 billion into enhancing renewable energy by 2010 and subsequently is also going to be playing a leading role in this business in Europe.
