
Germany is recording record production of green energy, while electricity production from fossil fuels continues to decline. These are the conclusions of the half-yearly data on net public electricity production presented today by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.
Record production of green energy not only from wind in Germany
German wind power was once again by far the largest source of electricity, with 73.4 terawatt hours (TWh) compared to 66.8 TWh in the first half of 2023.
The share of public net electricity production from wind was 34.1%, of which 59.5 TWh was generated on land and 13.8 TWh offshore. Photovoltaic systems added 32.4 TWh to the network, an increase of 15%. compared to the first half of the previous year (28.2 TWh).
Net electricity production in the public sector in the first half of 2024 in Germany. The graph shows the net electricity production in power plants for the supply of electricity to the German population. Source: Fraunhofer ISE/Energy-Charts
Half-yearly values of electricity production from hydroelectric power plants increased from 8.9 TWh in 2023 to 11.3 TWh in 2024, while biomass decreased slightly from 21.6 TWh to 20.8 TWh. In total, a total of 140 TWh was generated from renewable sources, which is a new record.
In the first half of 2024, the share of renewable energy in the load (i.e. the sum of electricity consumption and network losses) was 60%, which means an increase from 55.7% in the first half of 2023.
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Electricity produced from fossil fuels at the lowest level in German history
Total electricity production in the first half of 2024 was 215 TWh compared to 222 TWh in the same period of 2023. The share of fossil fuels in the energy mix continued to decline, falling from 39.6% to 35.0%.
At 75 TWh, less electricity was generated from coal, natural gas, oil and non-renewable waste than ever before. Since 2015, electricity production from renewable sources has increased by 56%, while production from fossil sources has decreased by 46%.
The load in the first half of the year amounted to 233 TWh, which means an increase of 1.8% compared to the same period of the previous year (229 TWh).
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German import and export of electricity in the first half of 2024
In the first half of 2024, Germany recorded a surplus in net imports of 11.3 TWh on balance compared to a surplus in net exports of electricity of 0.8 TWh in the same period in 2023. Electricity imports came from Scandinavia (Denmark , Sweden and Norway), France, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Due to the favorable prices of electricity from wind and hydropower plants in Scandinavia, importing electricity was cheaper than electricity from German coal and gas power plants. Electricity was exported to Austria, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Poland.
Stock exchange electricity prices have fallen sharply in Germany
Exchange electricity prices dropped sharply from EUR 100.54/MWh (day-ahead auction, volume-weighted) to EUR 67.94/MWh.
The effect of falling electricity exchange prices will eventually be reflected in electricity prices for private and industrial end users, comments Dr. Bruno Burger, chief scientist for energy graphs at Fraunhofer ISE.
The price of natural gas also dropped sharply from EUR 44.99/MWh to EUR 29.71/MWh. Both prices are therefore approaching the price levels of the pre-war years in Ukraine. The cost of CO2 emission allowances also decreased from EUR 86.96 to EUR 63.60 per tonne of CO2.
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The expansion of wind energy has slowed down significantly in Germany
After record solar capacity growth of 15.3 gigawatts (GW) in 2023, growth will continue to be strong in 2024. By the end of May 2024, 6.2 GW of photovoltaic installations had been installed in Germany.
The planned total expansion for 2024 is 12.5 GW, which will increase the total installed solar PV capacity to 88.9 GW. On the other hand, wind energy development remains weak and lags significantly behind the 2024 targets.
In the first half of 2024, just 0.8 GW of new onshore wind capacity and 0.2 GW of offshore wind capacity were added compared to 2024 development targets of 7 GW onshore and 1 GW offshore.
In terms of installed wind power in watts per inhabitant (W/capita), Brandenburg is the leader with 3,408 W/capita, followed by Schleswig-Holstein (2,928 W/capita) and Saxony-Anhalt (2,487 W/capita).
Brandenburg also leads in terms of installed photovoltaic capacity with 2,669 W/capita, followed by Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (2,398 W/capita) and Saxony-Anhalt (1,988 W/capita).
Germany is expanding its network of electricity storage facilities to improve the daily balancing of renewable energy
The expansion of electricity storage facilities, important factors in balancing electricity generation from renewable sources with the load throughout the day, is progressing.
In the first half of 2024, storage systems with a capacity of 1.8 GW and a capacity of 2.5 GWh were connected to the grid.
At 9.9 GW, installed battery capacity is currently equal to pumped storage capacity. In terms of storage capacity, battery storage is 14.4 GWh and pumped storage is 40 GWh.