Playing an active role in shaping the Energiewende

For us, climate protection is not just a trend, but has been an established part of our activities for many years.

EnBW was the first major energy company to announce the gradual phasing out of its coal-fired generation back in 2013. Through the EnBW 2020 strategy, we have developed renewable energies into one of the main pillars of the company and simultaneously reduced conventional generation by more than 40%. Furthermore, we have simplified structures and processes, transformed our corporate culture and incresed our innovative strength. We are now well equipped for the challenges of the future as a result. EnBW can grow in new markets, deliver competitive services and respond proactively and flexibly in a rapidly changing business environment.

Some 118 gigawatts (GW) of output from renewable energies were installed in Germany in 2018, which covered almost 38% of the gross electricity consumption. 59 GW of this installed output was accounted for by wind energy, 45 GW by solar energy, 5.6 GW by hydropower and 8.4 GW by biomass.

Since 2000, the fixed remuneration offered by the German Renewable Energies Act (EEG) has enabled strong growth in wind power plants in Germany. However, the reform to the EEG in 2017 has put the brakes on this upward trend: The act introduced upper limits to the expansion of renewable energies, the bureaucratic burden and costs for the development of wind farms has increased and the approval times for new power plants have since lengthened dramatically – due to, amongst other things, an increase in the cases of legal action taken against already issued approvals across Germany. The expansion of wind power has collapsed as a result.

We are ardent supporters of the Energiewende and want to continue to use our expertise as an investor, developer and operator of wind and photovoltaic power plants even under these difficult conditions. Today, we are already the third-largest project developer for onshore wind power in Germany and we want to further expand this area and also our engagement in offshore wind power. This is why we are working together with selected international partners to target new growth opportunities abroad. This strategy of selective internationalisation has already shown initial success in France and Sweden.

Technical improvements and a significant reduction in prices for solar modules are opening up interesting perspectives. Under certain conditions, photovoltaic power plants can already be operated today without EEG funding. This is why we have decided to make photovoltaics another pillar of our renewable energies alongside onshore and offshore wind power.

The energy world is becoming decentralised and digital, urban and oriented towards citizens. New and agile competitors are now already entering all of the business fields covered by EnBW. The growing dynamism and increasing competition on the energy markets clearly illustrate the importance of being willing to change, having innovative strength and achieving a high pace of change. To this end, we have introduced the “Next Level EnBW” initiative to not only take our Group as an organisation but also personally every single employee at EnBW to a whole new level. The initiative aims, amongst other things, to accelerate the pace of change, promote innovative strength and increase quality with a clear focus on customer centricity, internationalisation, new business and internal cooperation.