E.ON to Expand Renewables Portfolio

E.ON's CEO has called for technology to move faster to keep up with the challenges of climate change as he delivered a speech on the company's targeted future renewables agenda.

Speaking in Madrid at the Climate and Renewables event in Spain, CEO Wulf Bernotat outlined plans for E.ON's "sustainable and balanced future portfolio".

"If we want to get to grips with climate change, we have to make sure that its generation is much more climate-friendly.

Renewables are going to play a key role. This does however require current capacities to be expanded quickly and extensively as well as further technical innovations," he added.

The company, which is expanding its share of renewables to 24 percent by 2030, says to ensure Europe meets its power needs companies must generate 70-75 percent of energy from non-renewable sources.

"To ensure we keep the lights on across Europe, we are going to need a balanced energy mix for decades to come with nuclear power, coal and gas playing an important role," Bernotat explained.

E.ON subsidiary, E.ON Climate & Renewables, founded last year, has increased installed capacity with the acquisition of renewables company Dong and Airtricity in the US and Canada.

The business has also implemented new construction projects, including hydropower across Europe, increasing renewables capacity from around 500MW to the present 1,300MW.

E.ON's renewable generation capacity exceeds around 7,300MW, set to more than double to at least 16,000MW by 2015, says the company.

By Ozge Ibrahim