The story
Foundation and development
EnBW came into existence on 1 January 1997 as a result of the merger between two energy companies from Baden-Württemberg, Badenwerk AG and Energie-Versorgung Schwaben AG (EVS). Subsequently, on 1 October 2003, EnBW further merged with Neckarwerke Stuttgart AG.
Strategic reorientation and expansion of renewable energy activities
In March 2012, Frank Mastiaux was appointed as the new CEO of EnBW. At the end of 2012, in response to the nuclear power phase-out and the energy transition, Mastiaux announced a strategic reorientation. The proportion of renewable energy sources in EnBW's energy mix was to increase from 12% to 40% by 2020. The figure of 40.1% was reached in 2021. Much of this was to be achieved by expanding wind power: with 1,016 MW onshore and 975 MW offshore, EnBW is now one of the leading wind farm developers and operators in Germany.
Between 2020 and 2025, the company plans to invest over €5 billion in the further expansion of renewable energy generation and aims to operate onshore and offshore wind farms with a total capacity of at least 4,000 MW. EnBW's first offshore wind farm – EnBW Baltic 1, comprising 21 wind turbines in the Baltic Sea – went into operation in 2011. This was followed in early summer 2015 by the 80-turbine EnBW Baltic 2 offshore wind farm, a stake in which had already been sold to Australian investment group Macquarie for €720 million in January 2015. In early 2020, the EnBW Hohe See and Albatros wind farms with a total of 87 turbines and 609 MW capacity went into operation in the North Sea. In 2017, EnBW won bidding for the right to construct its third North Sea wind farm, the 900 MW EnBW He Dreiht, which is unsubsidised and is scheduled for completion in 2025. In January 2019, EnBW acquired seven wind farms in Sweden with a total of 51 turbines and an installed capacity of 105 MW.
EnBW also plans to expand its grids business and make various divestments. An important growth market is Turkey, where EnBW's focus is on hydroelectric power stations and wind farms.
In 2017, EnBW began expanding its electric mobility, photovoltaics and distributed energy generation activities:
In electric mobility, EnBW has collaborated since March 2017 with Tank & Rast, an operator of service areas along the German autobahn network, to expand the provision of charging points for electric vehicles. EnBW provides the EnBW mobility+ app, which combines a charging point locator with payment options and covers Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy and the Netherlands. According to an independent study by P3, Cirrantic and Theon Data, EnBW has the largest charging network spanning Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2020, the company extended its market leadership in fast charging to Austria by entering into a joint venture with SMATRICS called SMATRICS EnBW. In April 2021, EnBW announced plans to open Europe's biggest public fast charging park for electric vehicles by the end of the year.
In photovoltaics and distributed energy generation, EnBW aims to expand photovoltaic generating capacity to 1,200 MWp by 2025, mainly in Germany but also in selected markets elsewhere. In this connection, EnBW is building Germany's largest unsubsidised solar farm with an area of 164 hectares in Brandenburg and in March 2018 acquired Senec, a Leipzig-based manufacturer of home solar battery storage systems.
In March 2023, EnBW announced that it intends to end coal usage by 2028.
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In August 2023, it was announced EnBW had acquired a 10% equity stake in a renewable ammonia production plant developed by Norwegian company Skipavika Green Ammonia (SkiGA).
Internationalisation of renewable energy activities
The EnBW 2025 Strategy includes selective internationalisation of the company's renewable energy activities. EnBW has a presence in Denmark through its subsidiary Connected Wind Services and in Sweden in the form of EnBW Sverige. In June 2019, EnBW completed the acquisition of Valeco, France. The company has a renewable energy joint venture in Turkey in partnership with Borusan. EnBW has also opened offices of its own in Taiwan and the United States in order to bid in offshore wind auctions. Early in 2021, EnBW and BP jointly won an auction for rights to develop offshore wind farms in two adjacent areas of the Irish Sea.
Transmission grid
In 2023, EnBW sold around a quarter of its high-voltage transmission grid TransnetBW to a savings banks-led consortium for around 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion). Also in 2023, state-owned KfW acquired a 24.95% minority stake in TransnetBW, firming up its grip on critical energy infrastructure in a bid to speed up the country's energy transition.
From Wikipedia’s article on EnBW, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5