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Power plant in Lower Saxony: Coal still plays an important role in electricity generation
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
In the third quarter of this year, coal power became the most important energy source in Germany.
At 26.4 percent, for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2019 it was the largest share of the total amount of electricity fed into the grid.
This was announced by the Federal Statistical Office.
The amount of electricity from coal-fired power plants declined by 9.9 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
However, the total amount of electricity produced in this country and fed into the grid was also declining: a total of 116.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were generated and fed into the electricity grid in the third quarter.
That was 2.9 percent less than in the same quarter of the previous year.
Conventional energy sources overtook renewable energy sources: 56 percent of the electricity generated and fed into the grid between July and September was produced with conventional sources.
In the first two quarters of this year, renewable energies were still ahead with 51.2 percent and 52.5 percent.
Positive development of renewables compared to the previous year
Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, the amount of electricity fed in from conventional energy sources fell by 5.8 percent.
The feed-in from renewable energies increased slightly here.
The highest increases were recorded by photovoltaics and natural gas.
As a measure to combat climate change, Germany is planning to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038. In return, billions in aid will flow into the regions affected by the phase-out.
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AFP / mic
