Environmental protection

The German energy industry's voluntary commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions has been a success and has made an important contribution to meeting the country's emissions target under European Union (EU) agreements and the Kyoto accords.

E.ON invested €500 million in environmental protection in 2002 and continues to have substantial operating costs associated with environmental stewardship.

Within E.ON, E.ON Energie is one of the largest privately owned European power companies, in terms of electricity sales. E.ON Energie's core business consists of the ownership and operation of power generation facilities, the transmission, distribution and supply of electric power, gas and heat and the supply of water and water-related services in Germany and continental Europe.

E.ON Energie is committed to reducing both its consumption of primary resources and its emission of pollutants. To achieve these objectives, the company implements measures and deploys technologies that optimise environmental protection, but that also make economic sense.

With an average emission rate of roughly 330 g of CO2 for every kWh of electricity produced, E.ON Energie's emissions are below the German utility average. The company is able to achieve this performance because of its balanced energy resource portfolio. E.ON Energie is Europe's largest investor-owned operator of nuclear power plants and Germany's biggest hydro-electric power generator. In 2002, 63% of E.ON Energie's proprietary generation did not produce any CO2. The company's energy mix enables it to prevent 93 million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year (equivalent to more than half of the CO2 produced by road traffic in Germany each year).

By enhancing the efficiency of its power stations, E.ON Energie is today able to produce more electricity, emit less CO2, and consume less fuel. One example is the company’s coal-fired power station in Wilhelmshaven, in northwest Germany. This 750 MW generating unit, one of the company's largest, underwent a comprehensive upgrade programme in 2002, during which it was retrofitted with additional turbines. After the upgrade, the Wilhelmshaven facility produces the same amount of electric energy but now burns 80,000 tonnes less coal each year. This reduces CO2 emissions by 210,000 tonnes.

E.ON Energie is also active in biomass generation. The company currently operates several smaller biomass facilities and plans to construct several 20 MW biomass power plants. Some of these will co-generate heat.

Nearly half of all wind-generated electricity in Germany is fed into E.ON Energie's transmission grid. This has led to higher expenditures in two areas. First, the company must extend its grid system to accommodate wind farms built in its grid control area. Second, it must increasingly supply balancing power to compensate for the continual fluctuations in the amount of power fed in from wind farms. As a supplementary energy source, wind facilities can make an important contribution to climate protection. E.ON Energie's projects in this area include the development of two offshore wind farms, one in the North Sea and one in the Baltic.