RWE is exploring the sale of power plants, its chief operating officer told Reuters on Tuesday, frustrated with profit erosion and lack of political support for its struggling generation units.

Europe's power sector has been hit by a sluggish economy, low wholesale prices and a surge in demand for cleaner renewable energy which is replacing gas and coal-fired power plants.

German utilities' business models have also been disrupted by domestic reforms that have incentivized the move toward cleaner energy and away from fossil and nuclear power.

In one of the most drastic responses to the sector's ongoing crisis, RWE, Germany's biggest power producer, is now mulling going as far as pulling down and shipping abroad fully functional gas-to-power plants.

"We examine, among other options, the sale of power plants into foreign countries," Rolf Martin Schmitz told Reuters in an interview. "But the market is very difficult."

RWE said last year that 20-30 percent of its power stations could not cover their operating costs, after posting its first annual net loss in more than six decades.

It is now considering selling a complete Dutch gas-fired power plant that has only been in operation for a few months, Schmitz said.

"It just doesn't make sense to have a modern, operational unit without anyone paying for it, for example through reserve payments," Schmitz said.

His comments come two months after RWE's top rival E.ON, whose stock market value has plunged by about three quarters since 2008, shell-shocked the industry by announcing it would split its business in two to focus on renewable energy.

Earlier this month, E.ON also struck an agreement to sell all its Italian coal- and gas-fired plants to Czech energy firm EPH for an undisclosed sum.

Since the start of 2013, RWE has closed 12,600 MW of capacity, nearly a quarter of its European portfolio, and Schmitz said the company was examining whether or not to mothball further plants.