Renewables cover 56% of Germany's electricity consumption in Q1 2024

Renewable energy facilities generated about 75.9 billion kWh of electricity in Germany in the first three months of 2024, covering about 56% of power consumption in the country, according to preliminary estimates.

The first-quarter output was about 9% higher than in the same period a year earlier, according to the calculations of the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wuerttemberg (ZSW) and the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).

Onshore wind parks alone produced 39.4 billion kWh of electricity, covering over a quarter of Germany's electricity demand. Hydropower facilities generated 5.3 billion kWh, up by 27% on the year. The produced hydropower accounted for 4% of Germany's gross electricity consumption.

According to the data, 12.8 billion kWh of the total renewable electricity came from biomass, 9.6 billion kWh from photovoltaics and 8.7 billion kWh from offshore wind.

The proportion of renewable power is rising after green energy covered 51.6% of Germany's electricity consumption in 2023.

"The steadily increasing shares of renewables in electricity consumption show that we are on a good path. The expansion of renewable energies has recently picked up significantly. This is now reflected in electricity generation," BDEW president Kerstin Andreae noted in the statement.

Germany, however, still has to step up its efforts to meet its climate targets, Andreae noted, urging for the quick implementation of recently adopted measures to speed up the expansion of photovoltaics and other renewable energies. The measures relate to commerce and trade, residential buildings and balcony photovoltaics, and ground-mounted installations among others.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!