German utility EWE announces plan to become climate-neutral by 2035

German energy and telecommunications group EWE has said it plans to become climate-neutral by 2035. In order to achieve its target, the company is exiting coal-fired power generation and investing seven billion euros in the coming years, with more than half of that to go into the expansion of energy grids and renewable energy sources, such as onshore wind energy and hydrogen solutions for industry. The Oldenburg-based company (Lower Saxony) will also invest in energy-efficient services and products and sustainable mobility solutions for customers. Stressing that the basis for comprehensive climate neutrality of entire regions was digitalisation, EWE said it was also investing one billion euros via Glasfaser Nordwest, a joint venture with Deutsche Telekom that is establishing high-speed fibre optic Internet connections in northern Germany. "EWE will be climate-neutral by 2035,” said CEO Stefan Dohler. “In the future we will be focusing on renewable and climate-friendly energy sources. We will soon withdraw from coal-fired power generation in Bremen. In addition, we are offering our customers a steadily growing number of green products to also make it easier for them to take the step towards climate neutrality."

EWE’s energy supply is already derived primarily from renewable sources. More than 95 percent of the energy required in EWE’s grid area stems from green sources like photovoltaics and wind farms. An intelligent network control system makes this very high level of often weather-dependent power generation possible, the company says. The control system is supplemented by innovative storage solutions from the EWE subsidiary be.storaged, which already has a hybrid large-scale storage facility on the northern coast of Lower Saxony that can store wind power to compensate for short-term fluctuations and stabilise the power grid.