German energy company EnBW’s Renewable Energies segment more than doubled its operating result in the first six months of 2020, mainly due to the Hohe See and Albatros offshore wind farms coming into operation.
The company’s renewables segment reported an operating result (adjusted EBITDA) of € 426 million, a 108 percent increase compared to € 204.9 million adjusted EBITDA reported for the first six months of 2019.
The French wind and solar power company Valeco and better wind conditions at offshore and onshore wind farms also contributed to the positive earnings performance.
With earnings guidance held stable, earnings between € 825 million and € 925 million are expected for the Renewable Energies segment, EnBW said.
Overall, EnBW reported a 2.9 percent dip in revenue which stood at € 9.73 billion in the first six months of 2020. The adjusted EBITDA was € 1.59 billion in the first half of 2020, an increase of 24.3 percent on the same period a year earlier.
This increase was also attributed to the positive performance of the Renewable Energies segment.
Net profit attributable to the shareholders of EnBW AG went down from € 286.2 million in the previous year’s period to € 184.2 million in the period under review, primarily due to the lower financial results, the company said.
“Our EnBW Hohe See and Albatros offshore wind farms have doubled the earnings contribution from renewable energy sources,” EnBW’s CFO Thomas Kusterer said.
”The operating businesses show positive performance across the board – and that at a time when the outbreak of the corona pandemic confronted us with major challenges, to which we as a company responded with targeted action at a very early stage. This shows the stability of our business portfolio after years of systematic transformation. However, corona will still not leave us completely unaffected.”
With a combined capacity of 609 MW, the Hohe See and the nearby Albatros became fully operational in November 2019 and January 2020 , respectively.
Located some 95 kilometres north of the Borkum island in the German North Sea, the two wind farms comprise 87 Siemens Gamesa 7 MW wind turbines.
EnBW also operates the 336 MW EnBW Baltic 1 and Baltic 2 offshore wind farms.