RWE

What a special visit! It was an honour to accompany the German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on his State Visit to the United Kingdom this week. After a full day of fruitful discussions, the visit concluded with a State Banquet in the magnificent St George's Hall at Windsor Castle.   The United Kingdom and Germany share so much – from friendly football rivalry and common Christmas traditions to strong economic links and a shared ambition to drive forward the energy transition, as the King and the German President pointed out in their speeches. Above all, we are connected in countless personal ways and by shared values such as freedom and democracy. It is important that we continue to strengthen the friendship between our countries and deepen our economic ties.   The UK has been an essential part of RWE for many years. As one of the UK's leading power generators, we directly employ around 3,300 people. With our diverse portfolio of renewables and flexible assets, we generate enough electricity each year to supply around 12 million homes, and we continuously invest to expand this portfolio.   This visit was also a personal reminder for me of how closely we are connected, both in shaping the energy transition and in deepening our social and economic partnership.

Nature-inclusive Reef cubes for our OranjeWind offshore wind project.   Following updates on our construction projects Sofia, Thor and NSC A, I am pleased that today’s spotlight is on our 795-MW-Dutch joint venture project together with TotalEnergies.   We are fully committed to ensuring that our reliable renewable electricity from offshore wind energy also takes biodiversity into account – from construction phase throughout the entire lifecycle of the turbines. That’s why I am particularly pleased that we have signed an agreement with our partner ARC marine® for the supply of 66 Reef cubes® at a section of OranjeWind. The cubes – which each weigh almost 6,000 kg and are 1.5 m in height – will be placed around 11 turbine foundations on top of the scour protection. This will be one of the biggest deployments of artificial reef structures at a wind farm in the North Sea to date, creating 1,440 m2 of surface habitat.   The Reef cubes® sit on the scour protection, are made from low-carbon, partly recycled materials and feature cavities and textured surfaces that encourage marine species to settle. Earlier deployments have shown how quickly biodiversity can respond, including species like cod that play a stabilising role in local ecosystems. That evidence gave us confidence to bring the approach into a commercial-scale offshore wind project.    OranjeWind will deliver clean power for the equivalent of one million Dutch households, but projects of this size inevitably interact with the marine environment. The question is how deliberately we shape that interaction. Here, the answer is to build in features that support long-term habitat formation.    My thanks to ARC marine, TotalEnergies and everyone across #TeamRWE for contributing to this. It’s encouraging to see nature-inclusive design becoming part of how we build offshore wind, not an optional extra we trial on the side.   Copyright: video material from ARC marine

✳️ Sewage Sludge to Negative Emissions: #CDR Powerhouse in Cologne Exciting stop of our CDR Experience Tour: On Knapsacker Hill near Cologne, energy company RWE is building a mono-incineration plant for municipal sewage sludge. Sewage sludge is the solid residue produced during wastewater treatment in sewage treatment plants. Mono-incineration means that no other materials are incinerated alongside the sewage sludge. Incineration destroys pollutants, generates energy and recovers valuable phosphorus, which is used in agriculture and the food industry, for example. #Highlight: This plant also has great potential for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). Around 85 per cent of the sewage sludge is biogenic, as is the CO2 released during incineration. Flue gas scrubbing could be used to separate up to 95 per cent of the CO2 produced in the plant with a scrubbing liquid and then liquefy it for transport. Negative emissions could be achieved through permanent storage of the captured CO2. The plant could capture up to 200,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 per year.

Offshore wind also has an educational mission! How can we get young people excited about renewable energies? How can we show our students career opportunities in the industry and help them get started?   The WIN(D)SCHOOL educational project run by Stiftung Offshore-Windenergie provides answers in the form of content and offerings. WIN(D)SCHOOL aims to spark and nurture interest in STEM subjects among school pupils (primarily, but not exclusively, those from Hamburg's neighbourhood schools) in morning school workshops and to highlight opportunities in the field of offshore wind energy. To ensure that curiosity sparked in the classroom can translate into action, at the end of the workshop days it offers concrete contacts to energy companies or even universities in Hamburg and northern Germany for the purpose of starting training or studying there.   By linking schools and industry, WIN(D)SCHOOL helps to inspire the talents needed to drive the energy transition. As part of our sponsorship of the Stiftung Offshore-Windenergie, a great video has been produced about the work of two of our apprentices on Heligoland and at sea. Joshua Oste and Hendrik Heumann give you an insight into their daily work at an offshore wind farm. Great pictures and great colleagues.   Copyright: A video by Stiftung OFFSHORE-WINDENERGIE

AI transformation is a journey. That's true for us at RWE, too.    For me, the goal of the journey is clear: We want to become a best-in-class company that seamlessly integrates human expertise with agentic capabilities! The areas of application are diverse, ranging for example from process improvements to site layouts for offshore wind farms or weather models for our trading business.   What vehicles are we using to embark on this journey? A very important one is the Promptathon. It brings users and technology together, in a kind of laboratory environment where employees can bring specific concerns and then experiment with them. The impact is proven: we know from past projects that we can go from an idea to a prototype within a day. I find that remarkable and I am confident and excited about the future.   Many thanks to Dr. Max Schumm and Scott-Oliver Luehrs for your commitment in preparing and running the Promptathons and for the insights into the status quo of our journey.