The share of green electricity in Germany reached a record high in the first nine months of this year. According to industry sources, renewable energy sources from wind or sun together accounted for 42.9 percent of gross electricity consumption in Germany. That is an increase of almost five percentage points compared to the same period of the previous year.
This is the conclusion of the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and the Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry (BDEW). As a result, renewable energies even achieved a 52 percent share in March due to the very strong wind.
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In the first three quarters, a total of around 183 billion kilowatt hours of electricity was generated from the sun, wind and other renewable sources. Thus, the renewables were almost 50 percent above the power generation from lignite and hard coal, which contributed a total of about 125 billion kilowatt hours. In the same period of the previous year, the share of renewables and that of coal according to BDEW and ZSW was almost the same.
Wind energy expansion is hardly progressing
The Federal Government aims to achieve a share of 65 percent renewable energy in 2030. However, the expansion of wind power on land has just stalled. The main reasons are long approval procedures, under-reported areas and many lawsuits.
"Due to lack of space and increasingly restrictive distance regulations, we are sliding into a veritable recession, and if politics does not finally ease the brakes for expanding wind turbines, we will miss the 65 percent target," said BDEW CEO Stefan Kapferer. Frithjof Staiß, Managing Director of the ZSW, called for a faster expansion of photovoltaics.