aream Press release

A new power station project in Morocco is attracting attention. Known as “Sila Atlantik”, the project involves the construction of a wind and solar park with a capacity of 15 gigawatts. The electricity is to be transmitted to Germany via a 4,800-kilometre-long subsea cable and is expected to cover up to five per cent of Germany’s current electricity consumption. “Politically, such a project may sound good”, says Patrick Lemcke-Braselmann, CEO of the aream Group. “But from both a technical and an economic perspective, it makes no sense.”

Everything has its price; in life, nothing comes for free. On the electricity exchanges, this rule seems to be suspended from time to time when negative electricity prices occur. At first glance, the reason for this is temporary overproduction. “In fact, however, negative-price periods are a useful market signal and present opportunities”, comments Patrick Lemcke-Braselmann, CEO of the aream Group. “They show that those who offer flexibility can turn price troughs into returns.”

Europe is experiencing an extraordinary heatwave – with economic consequences. Forests are burning, harvests are being lost and rivers are becoming impassable. This is driving up the prices of goods. “It is becoming increasingly clear that climate protection is not only ecologically necessary, but also economically unavoidable”, comments Andreas Ehrbar, Chief Operating Officer of the aream Group.

Many nuclear power stations across Europe have been shut down due to a lack of cooling water. Hungary is temporarily losing half of its electricity generation as a result of the outage at the Paks nuclear power station. This is not an operational accident. It is the consequence of an energy system that relies on a small number of large power stations, thereby creating a concentration of risk. The dry summer has laid this risk bare. And yet such hot months are set to become more common rather than less so. – A commentary by Markus W. Voigt, Executive Chairman of the aream Group.