RWE acquires Croatian solar energy service provider

German power utility RWE has taken over Relatio ES Adria, one of the largest Croatian companies in design, supply, installation and commissioning of solar power plants, Novac.hr reported.

Relatio ES Adria, based in Varaždin, was established in 2012, and until 2019 it has designed, installed and put into operation solar power plants in Croatia, BiH, and Kosovo* with a total installed capacity of 17 MW.

Until the takeover by RWE Hrvatska, the company operated as Relatio ES Adria, according to RWE Solar’s (former Relatio ES Adria) website.
The name was then changed to RWE Solar, and the headquarters were moved from Varaždin to Zagreb.

The transaction was closed at the beginning of March, but the price was not disclosed, Novac.hr reported.

At the beginning of April, Vedran Belamarić, a former project manager at Innogy SE, became RWE Solar’s CEO.

According to its website, RWE Solar is part of German renewable energy company Innogy SE.

Innogy SE was founded in 2016 by merging RWE’s grid and infrastructure, retail, and renewables businesses into a newly incorporated entity.

RWE becomes EU’s third largest renewable energy producer

Last year, RWE took a step further and, with another German utility, E.ON, announced a transaction that included asset swap. Under the deal, which was recently approved by the EU, RWE will take over all of E.ON’s renewable generation assets, making it the third largest renewable energy provider in the EU together with Innogy SE’s renewable generation business.

The biggest producer in the EU is Italy’s Enel, with 43 GW in installed capacity, followed by Spain’s Iberdrola, with 29 GW, and RWE, with 24 GW.

The deal envisages E.ON to get RWE’s grid and infrastructure, and its retail business.

Innogy SE is one of the leading energy companies in Europe, with 42,000 employees in 16 countries and annual revenues of EUR 44 billion.

The company supplies electricity to 22 million consumers in 10 European countries and generates 3.7 GWh of green energy annually.