Electricity generation from fossil fuels rose by 10% in Germany in the first half of this year

Wind farms in Germany generated 60.2 TWh of electricity in the first half of this year and, despite an 18.1% year-on-year decline in output, remained the country’s largest source of electricity. The drop in wind power generation was offset by higher output from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. A sharp increase in solar power generation also helped. This is according to data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

Renewables accounted for 57.8% of Germany’s electricity generation in the first half of this year, almost four percentage points lower than in the same period last year. The main reason was lower wind power generation, which fell by 18% year on year.

The significant drop in wind power output was caused by unfavourable weather conditions, particularly unusually weak winds in February and March. This had a very strong impact on generation from wind turbines, both onshore and offshore, in the first quarter. Output from Germany’s onshore turbines fell by 22%, while offshore generation dropped by as much as 31%.

Solar power becomes the third-largest source

The weaker performance of wind farms in the first half of the year was partly offset by higher solar power generation, which rose by 28% year on year to 39.3 TWh. Solar power thus became the third-largest source of electricity, after wind and coal.

Output from coal-fired power plants in Germany rose by 9.3% year on year to 50.3 TWh. An even larger relative increase was recorded at natural gas-fired power plants, whose output rose by 11.6% year on year to just under 36 TWh.

The Federal Statistical Office also reported that electricity imports into Germany rose by 0.8% year on year to 37.8 TWh in the first half of the year. Exports also increased, by 6.5% year on year to 29.5 TWh.

Germany therefore remained a net importer of electricity, although net imports fell by 1.5 TWh year on year to 8.3 TWh.