GERMANY: RWE plans billions of euros of investment in gas and wind power

RWE, Germany's second-biggest power supplier, said Monday it would invest billions of euros in major gas and wind power projects, including a brand new gas power station in Britain and a gas pipeline between the Czech Republic and Belgium.

RWE chairman Harry Roels said the German giant was planning a gas pipeline between the Czech Republic and Belgium.

"We're at the very beginning of the planning stage and are open for partnerships," Roels said told a congress in Essen.

A report in the weekly newsmagazine Focus said that project represented a total investment of one billion euros, information which Roels confirmed as being correct. Separately, RWE said in a statement that it would invest 800 million pounds (1.2 billion euros, 1.6 billion dollars) in a state-of-the-art combined cycle gas turbine power plant, either in Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire, or in Pembroke, Wales.

The 2,000-megawatt plant, to be built by French giant Alstom, would go into operation in 2009, the stastement said. Furthermore, RWE said it planned to invest an additional 100 million pounds (150 million euros) in new wind farm developments in Kent and Yorkshire in England.