Belgian electricity giant sells power site to German company

Belgium's electricity giant Electrabel has sold a site of proposed power station to the German company EON Kraftwerke, VRT news reported Saturday.

The sold site is in Beringen, Limburg province in northeastern Belgium.

Electrabel was ordered last year by the federal government to sell any land that could be used to build new power stations to other companies interested in supplying power to homes and businesses in Belgium.

The idea was to break the near-monopoly that Electrabel enjoys on the Belgian electricity production market.

Electrabel currently supplies some 90 percent of all the electricity produced in Belgium.

The company will have to sell enough land to enable its competitors to build power stations capable of producing 1,500 mega-watts of electricity.

The government has threatened to fine Electrabel, if it fails to comply.

Two other sites, one in the Flemish Brabant municipality of Sint-Pieters-Leeuw and the other in the Walloon municipality of Marchienne-au-Pont, are also up for grabs.

EON Kraftwerke is Germany's biggest electricity producer, supplying 10 percent of the country's electricity needs.

Source: Xinhua