German Chancellor Angela Merkel has dismissed her Environmental Minister, Norbert Röttgen.

AFP reports that in an unusual, hastily arranged statement on national television, Merkel said she had spoken to President Joachim Gauck “to ask him to release Norbert Roettgen from his functions as environment minister to allow a change in personnel”.



She added that Germany’s “Energiewende” policy, the term used to describe both the end of nuclear power and the promotion of renewable energy sources, was a key plan for this legislative period, but that work remained to be done.

Roettgen was criticized for failure to form a consensus amongst coalition parties to enable changes on the renewable energy act pass through the Upper House last week.

More crucially Röttgen led the conservative party in the election last Sunday in North Rhine-Westphalia and thus was made responsible for the big losses the party suffered there.

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E.ON (FWB: EOAN) has announced the sale of its Open Grid Europe gas distribution network in a deal worth €3.2bn ($4.06bn).

The sale has been made to a consortium of infrastructure investors, led by Macquarie, the Australian bank.


The move brings Eon to within €3bn of its goal of generating €15bn from the sale of assets by the end of 2013, reports the FT.

The company has earmarked the proceeds for reducing debt and investing in renewable energy plants.

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Coal power generators, Drax are reaping the benefits of lower costs in producing power, while sales are on the rise.

In its trading update, the Yorkshire, England-based company announced that wholesale prices it was paying for coal were falling while it was selling energy at higher rates.

Drax said it had delivered a good operating performance while it was on track to hit forecasts for the full year, reports City AM.

Yorkshire-based Drax said its order book was also strong with the group’s sales for 2012 hitting 25.3 terawatts (TWh) and 14 TWh and 3.7 TWh for 2013 and 2014.

Drax said it was moving towards greener technology to create power, in line with the government’s push towards renewable and biomass energy.

The company said in a statement: “Drax is ready to transform itself into a predominantly biomass fuelled generator, but to do so we need an appropriate level of regulatory support, and to that end we look forward to the timely conclusion of the Government’s current review.”

Drax has six generators creating 4000 MW of energy, making it the largest coal fired power station in the UK.

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RusHydro MICEX-RTS: HYDR in partnership with Alstom has started the construction of a $159m hydro power equipment manufacturing plant in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan.

Energy Business Review reports that the two firms have set up a 51/49 joint venture (JV), JSC AlstomRusHydroEnergy.

A total of $14m will be used for construction works, purchase of equipment, recruitment and training of personnel.

The plant will manufacture main power generation equipment for small (up to 25MW), mid-sized hydro power plants (up to 100MW) and pump storage plants (up to 150MW), as well as auxiliary equipment.

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The UK government’s Electricity Market Reform will lead to a “train wreck” in the country’s power sector, according to six of the country’s leading renewable energy firms.

The companies say the EMR is “unworkable” and claim that instead of stimulating investment as intended, it will deter financial backing for low carbon technologies.



The EMR is the cornerstone of the coalition government’s plans to boost growth in low carbon energy and involves setting a carbon price floor and replacing existing subsidies with long term contracts.

But the six companies – SSE, Ecotricity, Fred.Olsen Renewables, RES, Natural Power and Good Energy – say the reforms are “extremely complicated, introducing new risks and uncertainty, as well as diverging from other well understood European support mechanisms”.

In a letter to UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey, they welcome the need to move to a secure and decarbonised electricity system”, but state that the contracts for difference that will replace existing subsidies are flawed and as such, will deter investment in renewable generation and “threaten the build up of supply chains and jobs in the UK”.

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Wärtsilä has signed three year Operations & Maintenance (O&M) agreement with Sasol New Energy Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sasol, the integrated global energy and chemical company.

The agreement covers the company's gas engine power plant project in Sasolburg, South Africa.

The Sasol New Energy plant is expected to start producing electricity towards the end of 2012. It will be the largest power plant running exclusively on gas engines to be installed on the African continent, and because of its low emissions, will be a major advance in developing Sasol's electricity business.

"The gas engine power plant employs a cleaner fossil fuel based technology than traditional coal based technology and will reduce the CO₂ emissions by approximately 1 million tons per annum. In addition, it also generates electricity at a higher efficiency," says Kribs Govender, General Manager, Low Carbon Electricity, Sasol New Energy.

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African nation, Botswana, is to issue a tender for two 300 MW coal fired plants to be built, construction beginning this year.

One of the projects will be an expansion at the existing Morupule complex where Botswana's power utility BPC operates a coal-fired plant.

The independent power producers will be chosen to build and operate the plants and later sell the electricity to BPC.

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German utility E.ON (FWB: EOAN) has turned around its heavy losses of a year ago by posting a positive first quarter performance to 2012.

The Dusseldorf-based company increased its EBITDA by 9 per cent year on year to around €3.8bn ($4.9)and its underlying net income by 27 per cent to around €1.7bn.

“As we described in March, we’re now past the worst,” said chief financial officer Marcus Schenck. “Our first-quarter results confirmed this trend. We’re making good progress. But we still need to be resolute about meeting our current challenges and implementing the changes we’ve initiated.”

E.ON’s sales rose by 28 per cent year on year to €35.7bn, owing in particular to higher sales in the Optimization & Trading segment. The renewables, German, and Russian segments also posted higher sales. Sales were significantly lower in the generation segment due to the absence of output from nuclear power stations in Germany that were shut down in 2011 after the Merkel government decision to withdraw from nuclear power.

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A new survey has found that the number of private capital investors planning to invest in Europe’s clean energy sector is set to treble.

More than 40 per cent of private capital investors will allocate over 10 per cent of their available funds to clean energy over the next 18 months according to law firm Taylor Wessing’s survey, with 80 per cent in total planning to invest in the sector.

Venture capital investment in European clean energy companies slumped to $82m last quarter, compared with $210m in the same period in 2011. The problem is acute among early stage ventures, where venture capital investment fell to its lowest quarterly level in two years, according to the survey.

“At the moment bank lending is almost non-existent and venture capital and private equity funds are either reluctant or unable to invest in early stage technologies within the clean energy sector,” said Jerry Biggs, chief executive at Narec Capital, a clean energy consultancy. “This is providing an opportunity for private investors to take up the slack and lock in early stage value.”

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Alstom (Euronext: ALO) are forecasting a gradual improvement in its operating margin and more than 5 per cent annual sales growth over the next three years as orders are expected to remain "sound".

Reuters reports that Alstom posted a 58 per cent rise in full-year net income to 732 million euros ($962.77 million), while orders rose 14 percent to $28bn.

"Developing countries continue to offer opportunities in all sectors, whilst mature markets, although still globally slow, should show positive signs in some segments, such as offshore wind and high-tech transmission businesses," Alstom said in a statement.

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