Energy: 61 percent of electricity from renewables in the first half of the year
In the first half of 2024, renewable energies achieved a new record share of domestic electricity production.
Wind turbines in Ostholstein
(Image: heise online / anw)
Germany is increasingly generating its electricity from renewable energies. In the first half of 2024, the share of electricity from wind power, solar plants, hydropower and biomass reached a record 61.5 percent of total electricity production at 135.2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
At 33 percent, wind power accounted for the largest share of the total among the individual energy sources. 73.4 billion kWh meant an increase of 11.9% compared to the first half of 2023 in the exceptionally windy half-year. Electricity generation from photovoltaics increased by 8.3% to 30.5 billion kWh thanks to additional installed systems. This corresponds to just under 14% of the total electricity volume.
Coal still important
According to the Federal Statistical Office, significantly more electricity still comes from coal-fired power plants, which are to be shut down in the medium term. They generated 45.9 billion kWh, 26.4 percent less than in the previous year. This is the lowest electricity production from coal since the evaluation began in 2018, but coal still remains the second most important energy source with a share of just under 21% of the total. Gas was used to generate 32.1 billion kWh, which corresponds to a 14.6% share of the electricity mix.
Germany also imported 23% more electricity and exported 15% less in the first half of the year. This results in an import surplus of 9.8 billion kWh, while there was still a small export surplus of 2 billion kWh in the first half of 2023.
The total amount of electricity demanded in Germany thus remained almost unchanged and amounted to 229.9 billion kWh. Domestic electricity production fell by 5.3% to 220 billion kWh. The share of conventional energy sources in domestic electricity production fell by 21.8% to 38.5% compared to the first half of 2023.
(anw)