KfW bank to support German energy reform with EUR 100bn in next five yrs

Sep 21, 2011 - German development bank KfW will invest more than EUR 100 billion (USD 136.7bn) in the country's energy sector over the next five years.

According to the bank's estimates, Germany would need an additional investment of EUR 250 billion by 2020 to achieve the planned energy transition, which includes a phase-out of nuclear power and a switch to eco-friendly power generation.

The bank already has strong positions in that field. In 2010 alone it invested EUR 23 billion in energy projects both in Germany and overseas. In its homeland it supported financially 80% of all newly constructed wind power installations and 40% of the solar power sites last year, KfW said.

Ulrich Schroeder, the group's CEO, said that with lower interests, longer maturities of the loans and the offered risk sharing KfW creates the necessary circumstances for further investments in the energy sector.

KfW is a state-owned development bank designed to assist developing countries and the German economy. Focused on small to medium-sized enterprises both in Germany and abroad it also has a crucial role in generating stability in the commercial banking sector in Germany, a majority shareholder of 80%. The rest of the stock is being held by the German states.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.368)

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