Coal replaces wind as most important energy source in Germany in H1

Coal was the most important source of energy in Germany in the first six months of 2021, accounting for 27.1% of the total electricity fed into the grid, as still days in the spring led to a significant decline in wind power generation, the Federal Statistics Office said on Monday.

The share of electricity from conventional sources increased 20.9% as compared with the first half of 2020 and accounted for 56% of the total electricity generation, which was 258.9 billion kWh or 4% more than a year earlier, according to preliminary figures.

In contrast, renewables generated 114 billion kWh of the total, which represents an 11.7% drop on an annual basis and this was largely due to the decline in wind power.

At 57.1 billion kWh, wind power generation has hit the lowest first-half level since 2018 as strong and long-lasting spring storms boosted the production in the first quarters of 2019 and 2020, which was not the case this year.

Natural gas was the third-biggest energy source in the first half of 2021 behind coal and wind power with a 14.4% share in the energy mix.

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