EOA.DE
Market Cap: $141 Billion
Nine-month revenues: $73 Billion
From Environmental Finance:
E.ON to spend another €3bn on renewables
London, 15 November: E.ON is to double its investment in renewable power to €6 billion ($8.8 billion) by 2010.
The Germany-based utility made the announcement in its nine-month results this week, when it also reported a 7% sales increase from €46.3 billion to €49.4 billion, and a 12% rise in adjusted earnings before interest and tax from €6.4 billion to €7.1 billion.
In renewables, the firm acquired the Irish wind energy firm Airtricity's business in North America in October, bringing with it over 210MW of installed capacity, with a further 880MW expected to come online by the end of 2008.
Through this acquisition and other investments, E.ON said it has already invested the full €3 billion it announced in August as the firm's renewables budget up to 2010. Thereby the company said it will increase its planned investment to €6 billion.
E.ON chief executive Wulf Bernotat said: “We operate successfully in almost 30 countries, make an increasingly larger percentage of our earnings outside Germany, and have now again added high growth markets – [including] wind power in North America – to our portfolio.”
In the UK, E.ON announced last week that it had started generating power at what it claims is the largest dedicated biomass power plant in the country.
The 44MW Steven's Croft plant in Lockerbie will begin operating commercially in December. Project manager Andy Carling said: “It will benefit the local economy by using by-products from the local timber industry, as well as offering local farmers a new market in renewable fuel crops.”
The company estimates the £90 million ($185 million) plant will prevent the emission of 140,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.
From E.ON's 3rd quarter press release:
E.ON enters new markets
In less than half a year, E.ON has already achieved key strategic objectives of the initiatives and €60 billion in investments it announced in late May:
- The acquisition of Airtricity North America will enable E.ON to enter the world’s most attractive renewables market. Airtricity operates highly profitable wind farms with an aggregate installed capacity of more than 210 megawatts (MW) and will have an additional 880 MW in service by the end of 2008. Following the acquisition of wind farms in Spain and Portugal, E.ON is accelerating the expansion of its international renewables business. E.ON has already invested the €3 billion it originally earmarked for renewables and plans to double its renewables investments to €6 billion through 2010.
- By acquiring a majority ownership interest in Russia’s OGK-4, a major power producer, E.ON has entered Russia’s fast-growing electricity market. OGK-4 operates four gas-fired power plants and one coal-fired plant with an aggregate installed capacity of about 8,600 MW. E.ON’s intend to expand OGK-4’s highly efficient generation fleet by constructing technologically advanced power plants with a total capacity of 2,400 MW by 2011.
