Key points of the plans to extend the term of German nuclear power plants provide planning certainty
Karlsruhe. EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG generally welcomes the agreement reached by the federal government on the key points of the plans to extend the term of German nuclear power plants. “With this step the federal government has acknowledged that nuclear energy is of great importance for an economical and climate-friendly electricity supply combined with high supply reliability. This is generally good for Germany, both as an energy location and as an industry location,” says Hans-Peter Villis, CEO of EnBW.
The current decision to extend the term of nuclear power plants concerns EnBW’s plants to a varying degree. The terms of Unit I of Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant and of Unit 1 of Philippsburg nuclear power plant are to be extended by eight years, and those of Unit II of Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant and of Unit 2 of Philippsburg nuclear power plant by 14 years. In a next step, EnBW will examine in detail how the decisions made will affect each individual facility and what business implications will arise from the considerable financial costs associated with the planned extension of the power plants’ working life.
“Even on its own the nuclear fuel rod tax that has been fixed for six years at a total of € 2.3 billion per year constitutes a great financial burden,” says Villis. Compared to the original plans for the nuclear fuel rod tax, the federal government has once again significantly raised the burden to be imposed. On top of that, there are plans to absorb considerable surplus revenues arising from the extension of the term of the nuclear power plants and transfer them to a fund to promote renewable energies. Overall, EnBW’s contribution to the federal budget and to the promotion of renewable energies exceeds 50% of the potential future additional revenues.
These extensive measures will have an effect not only on the group’s results of operations, but also on EnBW’s investment planning. Nevertheless, EnBW will do all in its power to uphold its ambitious programme to expand renewable energies. EnBW plans to invest some € 3 billion for this purpose over the next few years. EnBW’s two offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea are an integral part of this programme. Just a few days ago EnBW finished construction work on offshore wind farm EnBW Baltic 1 with a total of 21 wind turbines. Once the remaining work has been completed and the local system operator has connected it to the grid, the wind farm in the Baltic Sea with a total output of around 50 megawatts will be the first commercial offshore wind farm to go online towards the end of 2010.
By the end of August EnBW had awarded all major contracts for its second offshore wind farm, EnBW Baltic 2. The contract volume for all major contracts for EnBW Baltic 2 is roughly € 1 billion. Construction of EnBW Baltic 2, the second offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea, is to start in 2012 and it is scheduled to go online in 2013.