German energy consumption jumps “surprisingly” due to weak renewables output in early 2025
Clean Energy Wire
Energy consumption in Germany has seen a “surprisingly strong” increase in the first three months of 2025, an analysis by AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB) has found. Consumption climbed 5.5 percent year-on-year between January and the end of March to 3,151 petajoules, with fossil energy sources powering the surge due to a low output of wind and hydropower output, the energy research group said.
While renewable power output shrank by 3.2 percent compared to the first three months in 2024, the use of hard coal increased by 5 percent and that of lignite by 6.7 percent. Wind power production fell by 30 percent and hydro power by 23 percent, whereas the output of solar power installations increased 24 percent. “The lower efficiency of thermal power plants compared to the use of renewable energies led to an increase in the consumption of primary energy,” AGEB said. The increased use of fossil energy sources led to an emissions increase in the energy sector of 7 percent or 11 million tonnes CO2 compared to same period in the previous year.
Colder weather in February also contributed to the rise in consumption, the energy research group found, explaining that the increase would likely have stood at 3.5 percent if weather conditions had remained unchanged. According to the researchers, weak economic output continued to have a moderating effect on energy consumption, while the range of price developments for different energy carriers had led to “differentiated impulses.”
Lower oil prices led to higher consumption in the transport sector and stockpiling for oil heating systems, while a lower import price for hard coal had made coal plants comparatively cheaper compared to the first quarter of the previous year. Higher prices for natural gas on the other hand led to higher heating- and production costs, while cold weather saw consumption rise by 11.6 percent. Gas-fired power plants also pushed up the electricity price through knock-on effects. Power imports in the first quarter of 2025 increased 15 percent to 19 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), leading to a negative power trade balance of 2.8 billion kWh.
