E.ON renewable investment storming ahead

LONDON (Reuters) - E.ON, one of Europe's largest utilities, has continued heavy investment in renewable energy, such as wind, through the global economic downturn, the head of its European Climate & Renewables arm said on Tuesday.

"We kept up our investment program throughout the downturn," Michael Lewis said in an interview with Reuters television.

"Between 2007 and 2011, we'll be investing 8 billion euros in renewables across mostly the United States and Europe."

E.ON said earlier this month it would delay an investment decision on its controversial Kingsnorth coal-fired power plant in Britain for up to three years because of lower electricity demand.

But spending on renewable energy by Germany's biggest utility has remained stable.

"Some of the other smaller independent players have been affected by the downturn. And I would expect to see a pickup in their investments over the coming months," Lewis said.

"But from E.ON's perspective, there's been no downturn. We kept our investment at full pace."

E.ON says the UK's target to source about a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020 will be hard to meet.

"We've always maintained that the targets are a huge challenge," he said.

"Nevertheless, E.ON is doing everything it can to bring forward investment to make sure we can make a strong growth toward the target."

E.ON's Chief Executive Wulf Bernotat has been quoted as saying that Britain's target was not realistic and that politicians needed to adjust expectations.

Lewis said E.ON's renewable focus was wind farms in Europe and the United States in the near term, though it was also investing in solar, biomass, biogas and marine energy.

"We are investing mostly in wind at the moment, both onshore and offshore ... with offshore being a significant growth market, looking forward," he said. "We opened our first solar PV plant in France this summer.

E.ON is currently investing in four offshore wind farms, including the 1,000 megawatt-London Array project in the Thames Estuary near London -- the world's largest offshore wind farm when it reached its full-capacity. [ID:nLC790566] Lewis said governments should provide clear, consistent and transparent rules to encourage renewable energy, while streamlining the planning system.

"Thirdly, they need to enable the grid connections, so that we can not only build the projects in the timely manner, but also to get them operated in full capacity as soon as possible, with the grid enable to take that capacity," he said.

(Writing by Nao Nakanishi, editing by Daniel Fineren and David Brough)