Renewables meet nearly half of Germany's power consumption in H1

Power generation from renewable energy covered around 49% of the gross domestic electricity consumption in Germany in the first half of 2022, which is 6 percentage points more than a year earlier thanks to the strong contribution of solar and onshore wind power.

Germany produced about 139 billion kWh of green power in the first six months of 2022, compared with 122 billion kWh a year earlier, according to preliminary calculations by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wuerttemberg (ZSW) and the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).

Onshore wind turbines made the largest contribution of 59 billion kWh while solar photovoltaic (PV) plants added 33 billion kWh. Almost 24 billion kWh came from biomass and a further 12 billion kWh were generated by offshore wind turbines. Hydropower plants produced 9 billion kWh.

The robust onshore wind and solar performance was helped by the favourable weather during the period with many windy days in January and February and strong sunshine in May and June.

The declining gas deliveries from Russia have put the energy supply in Germany in an exceptional situation and the best way to avoid such situations in the future is to rapidly expand renewables, said BDEW's head Kerstin Andreae.

Andreae stressed that there is an urgent need for action, especially when it comes to the expansion of onshore wind where the biggest obstacle is the lack of areas. Therefore, the federal government should implement the 2% target by 2025 at the latest and ensure that the designated areas are indeed available for the deployment of wind turbines, according to Andreae.

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