Germany’s renewable electricity generation capacity rises 11%, driven by solar
Clean Energy Wire
The capacity of renewable electricity generation installations in Germany grew eleven percent or nearly 21 gigawatts (GW) last year to just under 210 GW. “Solar power once again led the way in terms of new capacity,” said the head of Germany’s grid agency BNetzA, who added that “onshore wind caught up significantly last year.”
Solar capacity stood at 117 GW at the end of the year, compared to 68.1 GW for onshore wind energy. In 2025, solar additions amounted to 16.4 GW, roughly split evenly between systems installed on buildings and ground-mounted installations.
“An annual average of 19.6 GW of solar capacity would have to be added in the coming years to achieve the expansion target for solar power of 215 GW by 2030,” BNetzA said.
The combined capacity of onshore wind energy rose to 4.6 GW, considerably surpassing 2024’s 2.6 GW. Germany’s total offshore wind capacity in the Baltic and North Seas now amounts to 9.5 GW, after 0.3 GW were put into operation in 2025.
To meet its 2030 target of 115 GW onshore wind energy, Germany needs to add an average of 9.4 GW each year. The latest onshore wind tender raised expectations of continued strong growth, as the auction was more than twice oversubscribed. Whereas the auctioned volume was around 3.5 GW, bids totalled a record 8.1 GW.
“The submitted bid volume of over 8 GW represents the highest value ever achieved in a tender. Fortunately, every tender in 2025 was oversubscribed,” BNetzA head Klaus Müller said. The average price awarded in the auction fell to 6.06 cents per kilowatt-hour from 6.57 cents in the previous round.
“The results show that strong competition within the tenders is working and leading to lower subsidy costs. This is a very positive development,” said Kerstin Andreae, head of energy industry association BDEW. She added that approved and already awarded projects indicate that the installation pace required to reach the 2030 target “is fundamentally achievable provided that the investment framework remains reliable.”
