Electricity from wind and solar power is becoming increasingly important for the German electricity supply. In the first half of the year, nature helped to achieve record levels.
Germany is increasingly supplying itself with electricity from renewable energies. In the first half of 2024, the share of electricity from wind power, solar systems, hydropower and biomass reached a record 61.5 percent of total electricity production, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Wind power had the largest share of all energy sources, accounting for 33 percent of the total. 73.4 billion kilowatt hours in the very windy half year represented an increase of 11.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
Electricity generation from photovoltaics also increased by 8.3 percent to 30.5 billion kilowatt hours thanks to additional systems installed. This corresponds to almost 14 percent of the total electricity volume.
Coal still important
However, significantly more electricity comes from coal-fired power plants, which are to be shut down in the medium term. They generated 45.9 billion kilowatt hours, a good quarter (26.4 percent) less than a year earlier. This is the lowest electricity production from coal since the evaluation began in 2018. However, coal still remains the second most important energy source with a share of 20.9 percent of the total. 32.1 billion kilowatt hours were generated from gas, which corresponded to a share of 14.6 percent of the electricity mix.
Germany also imported 23 percent more electricity and exported 15 percent less in the first half of the year. This results in an import surplus of 9.8 billion kilowatt hours, while in the first half of 2023 there was still a small export surplus of 2 billion kilowatt hours.
The total amount of electricity demanded in Germany remained almost unchanged at 229.9 billion kilowatt hours. Domestic electricity production fell by 5.3 percent to 220 billion kilowatt hours.
Destatis Communication Electricity Production 1st Half Year 2024
Source: Stern
