Green Energy will wait: Czech oligarch invests $ 1.2 billion in European coal

Czech energy tycoon Pavel Tykach is willing to invest € 1 billion ($ 1.2 billion) of his own funds in aging coal and gas power plants across Europe. He is betting that polluting power generators will be needed for decades to complement green energy, which plays a large role in utilities from Germany to the UK.

"The media bubble around clean energy does not reflect reality," said Alan Svoboda, chief executive officer of Seven Energy, an energy company and lignite (brown coal) mining company owned by the oligarch. "Our fundamental assumption is that these traditional assets will be needed in the near future to balance the power grid."

Governments in Europe are stepping up efforts to reduce pollution by phasing out coal, which undermines the prospects for traditional generators. RWE AG, Germany's largest electricity producer, has only recently commissioned green power generation assets in addition to its existing coal-fired power plants.

But while solar and wind power is just starting to fill European power grids, Tykach and his team believe fossil-fueled power plants are still needed to make up for shortages when the sun is out or during periods of calm. This state of affairs could continue for another two decades, especially after Germany closes all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, Mr Svoboda said in an interview.