RWE AG
plans to sell a
stake in a coal-fired power plant valued at as much as 80 million euros ($110
million) as
Germany
’s
second-largest utility seeks to lower carbon emissions.
The utility plans to sell its 24.6 percentholdingin the
508-megawatt power station in
Rostock
,
Jana Hinz, a plant spokeswoman, said yesterday by phone. Manfred Lang, a spokesman for Essen,
Germany-based RWE’s power generation unit, declined to comment on the matter.
A stake that size in a 16-year-old coal plant such as
Rostock
may
fetch as much as 80 million euros, according to WestLB AG analyst
Peter Wirtz
. RWE,
Europe
’s largest
emitter of Carbon dioxide, may be selling the stake to cut pollution, said
Wirtz, whorecommendsinvestors add RWE shares. “They’re
trying to bring their portfolio away from coal,” he said.
RWE closed down 1.2 percent at 62.65 euros in
Frankfurt
while the 30-member German benchmarkDAX indexfell 1.6 percent today. The stock has
dropped 7.8 percent so far this year, valuing the utility at 35.17 billion
euros.
The
Rostock
plant generates about a third of the power used in the state of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in northeast
Germany
.
Vattenfall
AB
and
EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG are also co-owners of the facility, which
burns hard coal.
Hard Coal
Some 61 percent of the power RWE generated in 2008
came from plants that burn hard coal or lignite, according to the company’s
annual report. That’s more than the 42 percent share of the two fossil fuels in
Germany
’s
total net power output in the same period, data from the Berlin-based BDEW
association show. RWE is scheduled to release its report on 2009 on Feb. 25.
Dirk Ommeln
, a
spokesman for EnBW in
Karlsruhe
,
declined to comment.
Germany
’s
third-largest power supplier bought 50.4 percent of the plant as of Jan. 1 from
E.ON AG which sold it as part of an effort to end a European Union antitrust
probe.
Tuomo Hatakka
,
head of Swedish utility Vattenfall’s German unit, has said the company may sell
its25 percent stake. Vattenfall spokesman Steffen Herrmanndeclined
to comment.
RWE said in December that some coal-fired plants in
Europe may need to be shut as a renewable energy expansion calls for utilities
to operate stations that canquicklylower or raise power production to
meet swings in output from wind turbines and other generators that rely on the
weather.