GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn has signed its first cross-border long-term green power purchasing agreement, a 10-year deal covering 190 GWh/year of electricity generated by the Mågeli hydroelectric power plant operated by Norway’s state-owned energy provider Statkraft.
Equivalent to powering the 40 000 daily electric trains in Germany every day for a week, the deal is expected to save up to 146 000 tonnes of CO2 per year compared to burning coal.
‘Deutsche Bahn will be completely climate-neutral by 2040, 10 years earlier than previously planned’, said CEO Richard Lutz on August 4. ‘Our ambitious climate protection plans are outstripping supplies of domestically generated renewable power. That makes this a strategically important contract – for both partners as well as for climate protection.’
DB is also purchasing more than 90 GWh/year of hydroelectricity generated by RWE in the Schwarzwald. Next year it will begin taking 40 GWh of wind power from a Ane Energy windfarm in northeast Germany.
Renewable energy already accounts for more than 61% of the 10 TWh of traction power which DB requires each year, up from 42% in 2014 and higher than the 50% achieved in the public grid. DB’s target is for traction power to be 80% ‘green’ by 2030, and 100% by 2038.
