Friday, March 5th, 2021
Conventional further ahead
For the first time, wind supplies more electricity than coal
In a head-to-head race, the amount of coal electricity fed into the German grid is just below that from wind power. For the first time, the most important energy source is renewable, but overall, conventional energies are still ahead.
Last year wind power overtook coal as the most important energy source in Germany. For the first time, more electricity was generated from wind and fed into the domestic grid than from coal-fired power plants, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office. The share of wind power in the energy mix was 25.6 percent, making it the first renewable energy source.
Overall, the alternatives achieved a record share of 47 percent, after 42.3 percent in 2019. However, this means that conventional energy sources still account for more than half of the amount of electricity fed into the grid. The feed-in from coal-fired electricity fell by more than a fifth to 24.8 percent, the share of nuclear energy fell slightly to 12.1 percent, while gas-fired power plants supplied 13.6 percent more electricity. Overall, however, electricity generation declined because demand fell, especially in the first Corona lockdown in spring.
Over the year, 502.6 billion kilowatt hours of self-generated electricity were fed into the domestic grid, 5.9 percent less than in the previous year. The amount of electricity exported fell by 8.0 percent, but still exceeded imports with 67 billion kilowatt hours, which climbed by almost a fifth to 40.1 billion kilowatt hours.
The amount of electricity generated domestically and fed into the grid cannot be equated with electricity consumption, also because of imports and exports. These change the electricity mix that ultimately reaches the consumer, as do so-called network losses along the way. The electricity that is generated in industrial power plants and consumed directly in the factories is also not taken into account.
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