Germany's Energy Policy Is 'A Disaster,' Boss Of France's Top Energy Provider Says
In what has been so far a very ugly week for Berlin, Henri Proglio, the chairman of France's top energy provider, focused on the unstable status of the German energy sector in a meeting in London, The Financial Times reported.
"When it comes to energy, they are in a disaster," he said. "The two major companies, E.On and RWE are under huge pressure. One is more or less dead, the other is in a very difficult situation."
In August, RWE, a German utility company, admitted its profit plunged by 62% and announced it will take more plants offline because of the difficulties faced by conventional energy providers. Tensions in Eastern Europe, combined with the boom of shale gas in North America and the consequential decrease in the price of coal means that many gas plants in Europe have not been economically profitable for most of the year, the AFP reported.
Neither E.On or RWE were immediately available for a comment.
Germany is also at the forefront of the shift toward renewable sources. The country wrote off all its nuclear plants following the Fukushima's disaster and generated 31% of its energy from solar, wind, and hydro power in the first half of 2014, Bloomberg reported
On the contrary, EDF is one of Europe's main investors in atomic energy: In 2013, it produced three-fourths of its total energy output through nuclear power.