February 06, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 16, 1428

FRANKFURT, Feb 5: RWE, Germany’s second-biggest power supplier, said on 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 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 statement said.

Furthermore, RWE said it planned to invest an additional 100 million pounds in new wind farm developments in Kent and Yorkshire in England.—AFP