Energy supply
Forecast 2025: solar power overtakes lignite
The expansion of solar energy in Germany is progressing. The cheap solar panels for the home balcony are very popular, even if their share in total current production is low.
Germany’s over five million solar systems are expected to produce more electricity for the first time this year than the lignite power plants. The BSW Solar industry association expects the network connection to reconnect new solar systems with a total of 17.5 gigawatts.
Since the generation of electricity from lignite was only just ahead of solar energy last year, the coal current should have a lower share at the end of the year. “In 2025, clean solar power is expected to overtake the lignite in the home generation of electricity,” said Carsten Körnig, managing director of the BSW Solar.
Balcony solar particularly in demand
According to numbers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), the lignite power plants produced 72.8 terawatt hours of electricity last year, the solar systems with 72.6 terawatt hours only slightly less. As a percentage, this corresponded to a lignite share of 15.61 percent of German net electricity generation, so the solar power was 15.57 percent. A terawatt hour is a thousand gigawatt hours or one million kilowatt hours.
The Federal Association expects further rapid growth, especially in the balcony solar systems, but their share of total current production is only about one percent. According to the BSW Solar, solar systems with a total output of around 105 gigawatts are currently in operation in the Federal Republic.
dpa
Source: Stern
