Renewables generated nearly half of Germany's electricity in Q2
Clean Energy Wire
Renewable energy sources in Germany generated a total of 56 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity that was fed into the grid in the second quarter of 2019 – a year-on-year increase of 6.3 percent, according to a provisional report by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The proportion of renewables in the total supply of electricity increased from 41 percent to 46 percent, a development spurred by the law-based preferential feed-in of electricity generated by renewable energy sources.
Electricity generation from natural gas rose 43.8 percent and from wind power 13.6 percent, the highest increases compared to the same quarter in 2018. The sharp increase in electricity generated by natural gas was largely attributed to its favourable price development for power plant operators. By contrast, the amount of coal-generated electricity fell by 24.3 percent. With a share of 29 percent, however, coal remained the biggest source of energy for power generation, followed by wind power (20 percent), photovoltaics (13 percent) and nuclear power (12 percent). The above-average number of hours of sunshine in June led to a 21.9 percent increase in the volume of electricity generated by photovoltaics compared to the same period in 2018.
