utILItY WeeK | 20th - 26th June 2014 |
9
Interview
I
f only there were some way of converting into energy
the cheerfulness that radiates from Volker Beckers,
it could light a thousand houses. When Utility Week
meets him at the offices of Albion Community Power,
he is on jovial form. He makes jokey conversation with
two members of the executive team and a PR adviser,
who sit in on the interview. On the gentlest of prompt-
ing, he bounds off into an explanation of his journey
from the top of a major energy company to championing
a renewable energy fund.
His smile droops only slightly at one point, when
the questions turn to his former employer's tax arrange-
ments – but we'll come back to that.
It is 18 months since Beckers stepped down as chief
executive of RWE Npower and he is clearly enjoying the
opportunity to dabble in a range of projects, inside and
outside the energy sector. These include, as chairman
of Albion Community Power (ACP), promoting exactly
the kind of small-scale, subsidised generation that has
eroded the value of traditional utilities. Indeed, RWE was
one of those businesses hardest hit by the renewables
bonanza in its home market of Germany.
He explains why he sees community power projects
as an important route for investment, albeit starting from
a much smaller scale than he was used to. In his three
years at the top of Npower, Beckers oversaw investments
of £5 billion in energy infrastructure. Today, as chairman
of ACP, he is drumming up £100 million for renewables
projects.
"Are we getting enough investment?" That is the key
question for Beckers. "I believe with this vehicle, it is
obviously only a smaller contributor [than Npower] but
