E.ON Focuses on Wind, Will Sue Over Nuclear Shift

Following Germany’s exit from nuclear power, E.ON unveiled its 5-year energy development plan focused on offshore wind. The German energy giant will invest US$9 billion in renewables over the next five years. The plan includes a new offshore wind farm every 18 months.

Three offshore farms are underway. In the German North Sea, E.ON is building Amrumbank West, a 288-megawatt deepwater wind farm using 80 Siemens turbines that will cost US$1.3 billion. It is scheduled to be commissioned in 2015.

Off the U.K. coast, E.ON is building 219-megawatt Humber Gateway wind farm, at a cost of US$1.1 billion. It too is expected to come into service in 2015. Vestas will supply the turbines for Humber.

In the Baltic Sea off Sweden’s southern coast, E.ON is building the 48-megawatt Kårehamn wind farm. The US$156 million project will use Vestas turbines and come online in 2013.

E.ON has also invested in vessels to offshore wind construction. The MPI Discovery jack-up vessel was commissioned by E.ON. and chartered for its projects for a period of six years.

Last month, E.ON. officials announced the company would sue the German government in an effort to receive compensation for the country’s nuclear shutdown. E.ON estimated that compensation was in the neighborhood of “a high one-digit billion euro sum."

Photo shows E.ON’s 207-megawatt Rødsand II Wind Park in Danish waters.