RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States.[2] The company is the world’s number two in offshore wind power and Europe’s third largest in renewable energy.[3][4] In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, RWE Group was ranked as the 297th -largest public company in the world.[5]
RWE confirmed in December 2015, that it would separate its renewable energy generation, power grid and retail operations into a separate company, Innogy SE, during 2016, and sell a 10% holding in the business through an initial public offering. The restructuring was caused by an effort to reduce the group’s exposure to nuclear decommissioning costs, required due to a German government policy of closing all nuclear power stations by 2022.[6]
In July 2019, RWE’s handling of the conflict with activists in the Hambach Forest were strongly criticized in the media.[7] The company finally agreed to refrain from clearing the forest until autumn 2020.[8]
In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first announced in 2018, whereby the international renewable generation portfolio of E.ON and Innogy were transferred to RWE.[9]