RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States.[2]
In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first announced in 2018, whereby the international renewable generation portfolio of E.ON and Innogy were transferred to RWE.[3]
History
Pre-World War I
The company was founded in Essen in 1898, as Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk Aktiengesellschaft (Rhenish-Westphalian Power Plant) by Elektrizitäts-Actien-Gesellschaft vorm. W. Lahmeyer & Company (EAG) and others.[4][5] The full name was used until 1990 when it was renamed to RWE AG.[6] Its first power station started operating in Essen in 1900.[5] In 1902, EAG sold its shares to a consortium formed by Ruhr industrialists Hugo Stinnes and August Thyssen.[5]
In 1906, it expanded its operations beyond Essen by acquiring Elektrizitätswerk Berggeist AG in Brühl, and Bergische Elektrizitätswerke GmbH, Solingen. During the same year, it also acquired shareholdings in the tramway companies Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahn AG and Rheinische Bahngesellschaft AG.[5]
In 1908, RWE signed demarcation contracts with Städtische Elektrizitätswerk Dortmund and Elektrizitätswerk Westfalen AG.[4] Together they created Westfälische Verbands-Elektrizitätswerk AG. RWE contributed to the newly established company by its power station in Dortmund–Kruckel and the supply grid in Witten/Dortmund. Later all these companies formed Vereinigte Elektrizitätswerke Westfalen AG (VEW).[5]
In 1909, RWE opened the Reisholz Power Plant and acquired a stake in the tram company Süddeutsche Eisenbahngesellschaft AG.[5] RWE also started to build its own gas supply network in 1909. Deliveries of coal gas to the Bergisches Land region started in 1912.[5] In 1914, RWE opened Vorgebirgszentrale power plant in Hürth. By 1920, the plant had installed capacity of 190 megawatts, which made it the largest in Europe.[5]
Before World War I, municipalities of Essen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, and Gelsenkirchen, became shareholders in RWE.[4] By the 1920s, Bonn, Cologne, Krefeld, Duisburg, and Düsseldorf also became shareholders and municipalities owned the majority of RWE's shares.[5] In 1925, the Prussian state became a shareholder in RWE. In 1929, municipalities and the Rhine Province combined their shareholdings into a holding company Kommunale Aufnahmegruppe für Aktien GmbH.
Interwar years and World War II
In 1920, RWE acquired Niedersächsische Kraftwerke AG, located in Osnabrück.[5] In 1922, it expanded its coal business by acquiring three anthracite mines in Essen and a majority stake in the lignite company Braunkohlen- und Briketwerke Roddergrube AG.[7] In 1923, it acquired its founder company EAG. Three years later, the company acquired a stake in Rheinische Elektrizitäts-Aktiengesellschaft (Rheinelektra) and became a shareholder in the newly established Ruhrgas gas company in exchange of its gas grid. In 1927, RWE and Prussia swapped their holdings in the Brunswick and Cologne coalfields and RWE became an owner of Braunkohlen-Industrie AG Zukunft.[7]
In 1932, RWE acquired a majority stake in the coal company Rheinische Aktiengesellschaft für Braunkohlenbergbau (Rheinbraun).[4] In 1936, it acquired Niederrheinische Braunkohlenwerke AG, an operator of the
Developments since World War II
During World War II, the infrastructure owned by RWE was severely damaged but mostly repaired by 1948.[4][8] In 1952, the company was excluded from the Allies' control. In 1957, RWE acquired the coal company Neurath AG.[4]
RWE and the Bavarian state-owned 'Bayernwerk' joined forces to build Germany's first industrial nuclear reactor. The Kahl experimental nuclear power plant (15 megawatts), constructed right next to RWE's Dettingen hard coal-fired power plant, supplied its first electricity in 1962. Until its closure in 1985, this plant would serve as a source of important findings which supported the design and operation of commercial nuclear reactors.
RWE's nuclear operations started in 1961, when RWE and Bayernwerk (now part of E.ON) started to build the first German industrial nuclear reactor—the Kahl Nuclear Power Plant. In 1962, they started to build the Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant.[10]
Financial data
Operations
RWE operates in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States.[31] The group is organized around four core areas:
In addition to these core areas, there is a Coal/Nuclear segment.
In the UK, RWE fully owns RWE Generation UK plc., which operates a number of natural gas and renewable energy power stations across the UK. RWE's last coal-fired power station in the UK, Aberthaw Power Station in South Wales, was closed in March 2020.[32] The company owns the gas-fired power stations Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire, Pembroke in West Wales, Little Barford in Bedfordshire, Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, and Didcot 'B' Station in Oxfordshire. It has previously closed its Didcot 'A' Power Station in Oxfordshire, Littlebrook Power Station in Kent, Fawley Power Station in Hampshire, and Tilbury Power Station in Essex.[33]
RWE jointly owns one third of the Urenco Group
Fuel mix disclosure
In 2019, RWE produced a total of 153.2 TWh of electricity from the following sources: 33.2% natural gas, 32% lignite, 13.8% nuclear power, 10.7% renewables, 9.3% hard coal and 1.2% pumped storage. In 2019, the company generated 88.1 Mt of CO2.[35] Electricity production at the German branch of RWE had the following environmental implications in 2006: 700 μg/kWh radioactive waste and 752 g/kWh emissions.[36][37][38] In 2007, the company ranked between the 28th and the 29th place of emitters by country.
Criticism and controversies
RWE has long been among the top targets of climate activists, in part as a result of a long-running, high-profile battle to preserve a forest in western Germany that is threatened by the planned expansion of one of the group's coal mines. RWE also operates some of the largest coal-fired power stations in Europe.[27]
In 2018, RWE was the largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe.[27]
Since 2012, environmentalists have protested against RWE because of the Hambach surface mine situated in the area of Hambach Forest.[40] In November 2017, in the lawsuit filed by Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), the German arm of Friends of the Earth, the Higher Administrative Court in Münster ruled to end the tree cutting. According to BUND, Hambach Forest is a habitat type 9160 of annex I of the European Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992).[41]
Sponsorship
Between 2000 and 2007, RWE was the main kit sponsor of German Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen.[46]
See also
- Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service
- Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier
- Lützerath bleibt!
Further reading
- Energy in South East Europe: Corporate Profiles on major investment firms in South East Europe (April 2004) (PDF) of the EU to the 2004 enlargement of the European Union.
External links
References
- RWE: Our energy for a sustainable life - Annual Report 2019 RWE, retrieved 19 October 2020^
- Introducing RWE AG RWE, retrieved 2020-10-20^
- RWE finalises Eon asset swap deal July 2020^