How will RWE optimize its existing power plants and the ones that are under construction?
We are exploring ways to optimize the power stations we have already competed or are currently building. We are thus planning to set up pilot facilities for CO2 washing. We hope that this technology will afford us the possibility to retrofit existing large-scale plants with CO2 separation units. Here CO2 is washed out of the flue gases following the conventional combustion process. Naturally, our maxim applies here, too: we will pursue the development of our lignite and hard coal processes in parallel. For instance, we are planning the construction of a lignite CO2 scrubbing pilot plant in the Rhenish mining region. We have earmarked up to 90 million euros for this project through 2012. Moreover, our UK generation and sales subsidiary RWE npower intends to carry out corresponding studies on hard coal.
