German Electric Power Giant Loses Staggering 5.7 Billion Euros in 2016 As Renewables Wreak Havoc!

Germany’s second largest power producer, RWE, reported staggering losses of 5.7 billion euros over the fiscal 2016 year, after the company had posted a net loss of near 200 million euros for 2015.

The latest results continue the growing string of woes occurring since 2013 when RWE posted a net loss of 2.76 billion euros – its first full-year loss since the power giant was founded in 1949.

Marketwatch here also reported that the Essen, Germany-based power company recommends scrapping the pay out of any dividends to shareholders. The scrapping of dividend payments would especially be a blow to stock owners such as municipal shareholders because they often depend on them each year to fund public facilities like schools and hospitals.

RWE scrapped dividend payments in 2015 as well.

The company booked impairment charges of 4.3 billion euros for electricity generation in 2016 “amid weak wholesale power prices“, Marketwatch reported.

Earnings were curtailed significantly through impairments of €4.3 billion. CEO of RWE AG Dr. Rolf Martin Schmitz: “The difficult market environment made impairments necessary. In addition, the nuclear energy fund imposed a substantial one-off burden on us.”

German wholesale power prices have massively eroded over the past years as a flood of highly subsidized wind and solar power has been given the right away into the power grid over fossil fuels. At times so much power is fed into the grid, especially on sunny and windy days, that the wholesale price even dips into negative territory, meaning power producers such as RWE have to pay to unload the surplus power.

Meanwhile many conventional plants must be always kept on standby for the many times wind and solar do not produce. The sub-capacity operation of the conventional power plants make them inefficient and non-profitable. On the consumer side, electricity prices have reached record levels at near 30 euro-cents per kilowatt-hour.

16 responses to “German Electric Power Giant Loses Staggering 5.7 Billion Euros in 2016 As Renewables Wreak Havoc!”

  1. CO2isLife

    Though you might like this one, it plays on the same theme.
    Climate “Science” on Trial; Clear-Cutting Forests to Save the Trees
    https://co2islife.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/climate-science-on-trial-clear-cutting-forests-to-save-the-trees/

  2. Climate “Science” on Trial; Clear-Cutting Forests to Save the Trees – CO2 is Life

    […] Street isn’t blind to the inconvenient truths supporting the green economy myths,  and the short sellers have become emboldened with the election of President Trump, and the […]

  3. posa

    For traditional utilities, The answer is simple. Shut down capacity and only provide electric power from sunset to sunrise. That or disconnect solar and wind users from the grid and only service those who will purchase power 24/7.

    1. AndyG55

      It really is time they put up for themselves and found a way to fight back.

      Just close everything down for a month “for maintenance” and let the chips fall where they will, as the country tries to survive purely on wind and solar.

  4. Stephen Richards

    For the sake of their shareholders they should shutdown now. Sell off the land and pay 5% of value to shareholders.

    Do it now before the European elections.

    1. AndyG55

      Stephen , They are not going to fit too many wind turbines on that vacant land, certainly not enough to make up even a tiny fraction of the lost energy production.

      Germany.. headed for the gurgler, unless some sanity ensues at the next elections.

      1. posa

        Don’t count on sanity breaking our in Deutschland anytime soon… Merkel’s SPD opposing candidate think Merkel’s to weak and vacillating and needs to push through all her policies on a faster timeline..

        The problem in Germany aren’t the politicians… it’s the citizens… the politicians are doing what the people want

        1. AndyG55

          If twerps like sob and seb are any indication of the intelligence of the average citizen.. Germany certain does have a problem.

          Oh well, it WILL come back to bite them .. hard…

          … and probably in the not too distant future.

        2. AndyG55

          America has mostly woken up, other countries are starting to blink their eyes as well.

          Let’s just hope the far-left anti-CO2 insanity is overcome before too many civilised countries collapse.

        3. DirkH

          “The problem in Germany aren’t the politicians… it’s the citizens… the politicians are doing what the people want”

          The principle of Western democracies is that corrupt psychopathic liars gain the power on empty promises then turn around and stab voters in the back IMMEDIATELY after the election, then use tax money stolen from those same voters to buy back their favors for the next election.

          This system works well when you have millions of ppl dependent on the state.

          I can’t remember anyone but a few leftist lunatics demanding removal of all borders before the last federal election. Yet that is what the CDU is doing since 2015.

          So, no: They are NOT doing what they promised us or what we wanted. They are liars. Is that so hard to understand.

          The MSM helps the liars: *NO* MSM reports the 32 billion renewables subsidy theft of 2016. The journalists likely do not even ask themselves the question. Because JOURNALISTS DO NOT DO NUMBERS.
          WE do numbers.

  5. posa

    Come to think of it, the smart move for RWE is to start decommissioning plants around the country. Then sit back and watch the fun… demand a HUGE subsidy to keep open remaining FF plants…

  6. news of Germany, Britain, Syria, Iran, N. Korea and precious metals | im42na

    […] The latest results continue the growing string of woes occurring since 2013 when RWE posted a net loss of 2.76 billion euros–its first full-year loss since the power giant was founded in 1949.     https://notrickszone.com/2017/02/25/german-electric-power-giant-loses-staggering-5-7-billion-euros-in… […]

  7. John F. Hultquist

    When you need a subsidy to remain operating you have become a ward of the state.
    I mentioned this last year on this site, and likely I was not the first to do so.
    Energy production is being nationalized and instead of creating wealth it will become parasitic. The owners will disappear, as well might the entire company. If the operations remain, the workers may pay taxes on income, but other value that was with the company will vanish. Finally, being owned and run by politicians will result in a slow degradation of all infrastructure.
    Think potholes in the road to the future. Oh joy.

    1. DirkH

      It’s contagious communism.

  8. German Power Sector In Massive Trauma As Electricity Giant EON Set To Post Colossal €12.4 BILLION Loss!

    […] days ago NTZ wrote here that another of Germany’s major power producers, RWE, also posted staggering losses of 5.7 […]

  9. Transition énergétique : une catastrophe financière en Allemagne | Contrepoints

    […] y a juste quelques jours, NTZ écrivait qu’un autre des producteurs majeurs d’électricité en Allemagne, RWE, a […]

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. More information at our Data Privacy Policy

Close