Renewables reach 65% of net power production in Germany for one week

Renewable energy had a 64.8% share of electricity generation, according to solar research institute Fraunhofer ISE. The achievement was mainly due to strong production from wind facilities.

From left to right: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer, First Lady Mrs. Angélica Rivera, Managing Director of ABB Germany Hans-Georg Krabbe, Managing Director of ABB Mexico Vicente Magana.

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From pv magazine Germany

From last Monday through to Sunday, renewable energy made up almost two-thirds of Germany’s net electricity production – the figure actually supplied to end users and excluding power plant losses and on-site self consumption of PV power. Wintery conditions resulted in solar contributing only 5.1%, trailing wind (48.8%) and biomass (7.6%), but PV was ahead of hydro generation (3.5%).

“These figures show that the target of 65% … renewable energy for 2030 is technically possible,” said Bruno Burger, who manages energy charts at solar research institute Fraunhofer ISE, which collated the figures. “The goal must be to keep this share for a whole calendar year.”

Bumper wind resources displaced fossil fuel and nuclear generation, with Burger adding: “Hard coal and gas power plants run at night only with minimum power, with nuclear power plants being also deactivated at night during the week.”

Lignite coal contributed an average of 24% of Germany’s electricity generation last year but supplied just 12% last week, with lignite power plants operated variably with a capacity of between 4.5 GW and 15.5 GW.

This year has seen marked gains for renewable generation in Germany, with February seeing solar power contributing 20% more than it did it February 2018 and onshore (36%) and offshore wind (26%) also recording rises.

In the first ten weeks of the year, the share of renewables in net power generation totaled 43.3%, according to Fraunhofer ISE. For the past year, the institution’s energy charts calculated a 40.4% contribution. The data compilers said solar broke the 6% net generation benchmark earlier than ever this year, achieving that milestone in mid-February.

Ralph Diermann

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