Share in the electricity mix rises to almost 50 percent in the first half of the year. Raw material supply important for further expansion.
The importance of renewable energies for the electricity mix in Germany is increasing: In the first half of 2022, almost half (48.5 percent) of the electricity generated in this country and fed into the grid came from renewable sources. In the same period of the previous year, the share was 43.8 percent. This was reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
Feed-in from wind power rose to a share of 25.7 percent (first half of 2021: 22.1 percent), while solar energy accounted for 11.2 percent (first half of 2021: 9.4 percent). The high increase in wind energy was mainly due to the low-wind first quarter of last year. For photovoltaics, the increase was mainly due to the unusually high number of sunshine hours in the first half of 2022.
Nearly one-third of electricity (31.4 percent) was generated by coal-fired power plants; an increase from the first half of 2021 (27.1 percent). By contrast, the share of gas-fired generation declined from 14.4 to 11.7 percent. Due to the shutdown of three nuclear power plants, the production share of nuclear energy also decreased significantly from 12.4 to six percent.
Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the German government intends to further accelerate the expansion of renewable energies in order to make itself independent of gas imports from Russia. How well this succeeds also depends on whether sufficient raw materials and components are available. Supply bottlenecks, for example, are slowing down the expansion of photovoltaic systems on German roofs, although demand is growing steadily.
Photo: iStock/Rocco-Herrmann
