Renewables power nearly 60% of Germany's Q1 electricity output

RWE Neuland Solar Farm, Germany. Image creator: Klaus Gorgen. Source: RWE (www.rwe.com)

Electricity generation from renewable sources in Germany rose by 11.6% year-on-year in the first three months of 2024, reaching a share of 58.4% of total power generation in the country, the Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, said on Thursday citing preliminary data.

Wind power was the leading energy source for domestic electricity generation, accounting for 38.5% of the total. It saw the largest absolute increase in output, rising by 5 billion kWh. In total, 46.8 billion kWh of electricity were generated from wind energy in the first three months.

Overall, Germany produced and fed 121.5 billion kWh of electricity into the power grid, a 7.5% decrease compared to the same period in 2023. In the first three months of 2024, electricity exports totalled 16.7 billion kWh and imports came in at 16.8 billion kWh.

While renewable energy increased its share, electricity generation from conventional sources dropped by 25.4%, making up 41.6% of the total electricity production. The sharp decline is primarily a result of the significant decrease in power generation from coal. Electricity feed-in from coal fell by 11.0 billion kWh, or 28.2% in annual terms. However, with a 23.0% share of the total, coal remained the second most important energy source in the first quarter.

The table below provides details on electricity generation in Germany, based on preliminary figures.

Grid feed-in	Q1 2023 (in billion kWh)	Share in %	Q1 2024 (in billion kWh)	Share in %
Total power fed into the grid	131.4	100	121.5	100
Conventional energy sources	67.7	51.5	50.5	41.6
--- coal	39.0	29.7	28.0	23.0
--- nuclear	5.8	4.4	0	0
--- natural gas	19.6	14.9	19.2	15.8
Renewable energy sources	63.7	48.5	71.0	58.4
--- wind power	41.8	31.8	46.8	38.5
--- biogas	7.2	5.5	7.3	6.0
--- solar PV	6.7	5.1	8.1	6.6
--- hydropower	4.5	3.5	5.5	4.5