E.ON Plans Continued Investment in Growth Area Renewables

German utility E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) intends to continue investing heavily in renewable energies as it considers the business one of its key growth areas, Chief Financial Officer Marcus Schenck said Wednesday.

"We're not planning any substantial reduction in capital investment in renewable energies," Mr. Schenck told reporters at the company's annual earnings press conference.

Chief Executive Johannes Teyssen said earlier in the day that E.ON will be forced to invest much more "selectively" in coming years, as power generators across Europe are faced with declining earnings due to very low power prices and muted energy demand.

Despite the increased "financial discipline" the comments from E.ON's management contrast those made last week by main domestic rival, RWE AG (RWE.XE), which said it would halve investment in renewable energies in coming years.

Mr. Schenck said that E.ON plans to invest between 1.1 billion euros ($1.43 billion) and EUR1.5 billion in renewable energies in the next two years. He added, however, that renewables investment is expected to fall to just under EUR1 billion in 2015.

Over the past five years, E.ON has invested around EUR1.5 billion in renewable energies per year.