Renewables have met about 47% of Germany’s electricity consumption this year (from some 42% in 2021), but the use of coal has also risen due to curtailments of Russian gas deliveries in the wake of the war on Ukraine, the federation of water and energy industries (BDEW) said.
As Europe’s largest economy had to switch on some idled coal power plants to compensate for lower gas volumes, CO2 emissions in the energy sector rose again slightly for the first time in years.
“This development of course is a step backwards for the climate,” BDEW managing director said when presenting this year’s energy balance this week.
“2023 must bring new push for investments in renewable energies, hydrogen, hydrogen-ready gas power plants and energy networks.”
On the upside, the use of gas in gross power generation fell, from 15.4% in 2021 to 13.5% in 2022, while generation from all renewables rose to 44.6% this year from 40.5% last year.
Figures for power consumption and generation are somewhat different, as Germany on balance is an electricity exporter, while some of the power generated is also lost during transmission.
Within renewables, wind power widened its share to 17.3% of overall gross power generation, from 15.5% a year earlier, while offshore wind widened its share to 4.4% from 4.2% in 2021.
Solar PV reached 10.9% of German electricity generation this year, up from 8.8% last year.
Biomass widened its share to 8.2%, from 7.8% a year earlier, and for the first time surpassed nuclear, which fell to 6% from 11.8% in 2021, after Germany has switched off three of its six remaining atomic power plants in late 2021.
The last three nuclear plants were supposed to be shuttered this year in the wake of the nuclear exit, but the government has decided to let them run until mid-April, 2023, due to the Russian energy curtailment.
Hydro power had a share of 3% in German generation, and other renewables (ie. geothermal) 0.9%.
The BDEW urged for easier permitting and administrative procedures for renewables, the grid expansion and hydrogen technologies.
Andreae stressed that the US with its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are becoming more attractive for energy investments due to generous subsidies.
“We therefore need a hydrogen law (H2G) in which the central points for a rapid ramp-up of hydrogen are quickly regulated,” she demanded.
“We also need a raw materials strategy that makes Europe more industrially independent when it comes to Energiewende [energy transition] technologies.”
The economics and climate ministry is currently working on an update to Germany’s national hydrogen strategy from 2020.
