All for one
RWE Innogy is committed to investing in and operating a wide range of renewable energy sources, as Mike Farish finds out
RWE Innogy was established in February this year as the operating arm for all of the activities in the renewables field of energy conglomerate the RWE Group. The formal headquarters of the organisation are in Essen, Germany. But, as Stephen Tindale - head of communications in the UK - confirms, it is a Europe-wide business with major operations in Germany, France, the UK and Spain, as well as further smaller scale activities elsewhere.
A primary impetus behind the formation of the operation, Tindale indicates, was that of enabling the previously separate renewables activities taking place across Europe to be better streamlined and coordinated. “We have much better networks now,” he states. “Everyone is more confident as a result.” Moreover, the reorganisation has been backed up with a commitment from the main group to invest about €1 billion in the renewables operation each year until 2012. That investment, Tindale confirms, is not allocated in any fixed proportions to different countries. “There is no specific commitment to particular countries,” he states.
But across Europe there is considerable ambition. According to Tindale, the operation currently has around 1.2GW of renewable generating capacity, but is aiming for a target of at least 4.5GW by the end of 2012. In the longer term, he adds, the target is 10GW by 2020.
Already, though, one distinct trait of the operation is evident - its commitment to investing in and operating a wide range of renewable energy sources. Nothing, it seems, is ruled out. For instance, reports Tindale, in Germany the organisation is currently operating 338MW of hydro power, 11MW of wind power and 92MW of biomass generation. In Spain, it has just made a major acquisition that has added 130MW of onshore wind power to its roster to bring its total resources up, to 320MW plus 10MW of hydro. In the UK, the company operates 65MW of hydro, 363MW of onshore wind and 60MW of offshore wind.
The UK, in fact, is an area of considerable activity. By September this year the operation had around 250 employees in the country, a figure that Tindale says was still “growing fast.” But he does concede that recruiting greater numbers of qualified engineers is proving problematical. “Getting engineers is not easy,” he says. The solution, he indicates, is probably beyond the powers of any single company.
Instead Tindale emphasises the need for a solution involving the collective efforts of companies right across the renewables sector. “There needs to be an industry-wide consensus on skills development,” he states, adding that there is work going on behind the scenes to try to make something like that come about.
Current projects in the UK provide an interesting demonstration of the range and scale of the technologies that currently come under the renewables banner. Right now the company is waiting for the go-ahead for a massive 750MW offshore wind farm in North Wales. The Gwynt y Môr project would involve up to 250 turbines and would dwarf the company’s existing UK offshore wind farm North Hoyle and its 90MW Rhyl Flats installation now under construction. Both of those, by the way, are also in North Wales.
Meanwhile the go-ahead has been received for a small, but intriguing project in one of the UK’s most picturesque settings, close to the town of Windsor out in the Berkshire countryside to the west of London. The Romney Weir hydroelectric project will involve the use of a modern version of an engineering design that can trace its root back thousands of years - the ‘Archimedes Screw’.
Romney Weir, which is located adjacent to the bank of Romney Island, between Windsor and Eton, is owned and operated by the Environment Agency. The project will generate around 1.4 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity each year, some of which may power Windsor Castle, although that possibility is still under discussion. Construction will take place in 2009.
The company is also expanding its UK biomass activities through the acquisition of Helius Energy Alpha, which owns the rights for the development and operation of the Stallingborough biomass power plant that is planned for construction in North East Lincolnshire. The investment for the project, for which consent has already been obtained, is €260 million.
In fact the project has a wider significance, since it substantiates the company’s stated intention to increase its operations in the biomass sector considerably over the next few years. The company’s target for Europe, is to give its biomass operations a fivefold boost between now and 2011, to reach a generating capacity of 600MW. The Stallingborough plant is designed for a gross capacity of 73MW and will be fuelled with wood residuals or forest biomass. Discussions are already underway with companies interested in using the thermal output.
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