E.ON Is Corporate Investor Of The Year, According To CleanTech Group
The German energy company E.ON was named as the Corporate Investor of the Year by the Cleantech Group at the recent, 6th annual Global Cleantech 100 Summit in Washington DC.
E.ON was chosen for the honor owing to its “pacesetting investments in start-ups that develop and market environmentally and climate-friendly technology.” With regard to what that exactly means, E.ON has in fact recently acquired stakes in 10 American and European cleantech start-ups. That is a pretty impressive rate of investment.
E.ON also — very recently — opened its fourth office in the US. This “Technology and Innovation” office, located in San Francisco, was built with the intention of furthering the company’s reach and influence in the US, as well as helping it to develop new, successful business partnerships.
It was the head of this new office in San Francisco, Konrad Augustin, who accepted the award on behalf of E.ON. Doing so, he stated: “We’re very excited to be named Corporate Investor of the Year, which we view as a testament to our current venture capital activities. In addition, participating in the Global Cleantech 100 expert panel has been a great opportunity to add to our knowledge about the current trends and leading companies in the cleantech sector.”
A bit of background on the company via a recent press statement:
E.ON has been developing wind energy in the United States since 2007 and currently operates 18 wind farms. Its 19th wind farm, Grandview, is under construction in Texas. In 2011, E.ON re-located its global solar energy headquarters to San Francisco. E.ON also operates an energy trading desk in Chicago.
Image Credit: E.ON Climate & Renewables
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Hmm.. this feels very strange since E.ON is one really dirty company. So is this some kind of green washing or are they actually serious in some areas of green energy?
Maybe they don’t want to end like the RWE which had to sell their headquarters.
I hope that’s the reason. And better late than never to change direction, even if I prefer way sooner.
EOn and RWE have always tried to sabotage (decentral) renewable power in their German homemarket, at the same time they have invested aggressively in British windparks. I think the reason is that at home they are trying to protect their profitable old investments, whereas in other countries they use renewable power as a means to break into new markets.