In Germany, renewable energy sources now dominate over half of the country's overall electricity consumption.
The proportion of renewable energy sources in Germany's overall electrical consumption has seen a rise compared to the previous year. From January to September this year, renewables like solar, wind, and other eco-friendly energy types covered 56% of the electricity demand, as per data released by the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industry (BDEW) on Tuesday. This is an increase of nearly 4 percentage points from the same period last year.
From what the data suggests, renewables surpassed the 50% mark in every month of this year so far, peaking at 59% in April. "It's promising to see that over half of Germany's electrical consumption now comes from renewable sources," commented Kerstin Andreae, chair of BDEW's management board.
BDEW and ZSW noted a significant boost in solar energy production. A total of 65 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power was generated in the first three quarters of this year, a 15% increase compared to the same period last year. In June, July, and August, solar panels across the country surpassed the 10 billion kilowatt-hours mark each month.
Andreae, however, urged the federal government to clear the path for further expansion of renewable energy sources. "Apart from advancing storage solutions, it's crucial that the expansion of the grid follows suit with renewable energy expansion," she explained. The federal government needs to eliminate the existing barriers.
The approximate gross electricity generation in the first three quarters was calculated to be 366 billion kilowatt-hours, a 2% decrease compared to the same period last year (373 billion kilowatt-hours). Of this total, around 217 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was generated from renewable sources (compared to 201 billion kilowatt-hours in the same period last year).
The percentage of electricity generated from renewable sources in the total gross electricity generation for the first three quarters this year is approximately 59%. According to BDEW's chair, Kerstin Andreae, the percentage of electrical consumption coming from renewable sources in Germany has now surpassed 50% in every month this year.
