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Wind wheel behind solar system: 139 billion kilowatt hours from sun, wind and other renewable energy sources
Photo:
Peter Kneffel / dpa
Strong winds in winter and lots of sunshine in spring have increased the proportion of green electricity in Germany.
According to preliminary calculations by the BDEW industry association and the ZSW research institute in Stuttgart, renewable energies covered 49 percent of electricity consumption in the first half of the year.
That is 6 percentage points more than in the same period of the previous year.
Total electricity consumption in Germany fell within a year by two billion kilowatt hours to an estimated 281 billion.
Sun, wind and other renewable sources generated 139 billion kilowatt hours, while conventional energy sources accounted for 159 billion kilowatt hours.
Figures on the exact shares of coal, gas and nuclear power are not yet available.
The difference between the total of 298 billion generated and the consumed 281 billion kilowatt hours was exported.
BDEW boss Kerstin Andreae called for a rapid expansion of renewable energies in view of the dependence on Russian gas.
"They are the key to a green power and heat supply, an industry that produces hydrogen and climate-neutral mobility." There is an urgent need for action, especially in the case of onshore wind energy.
In particular, there is still a lack of space.
Pass on costs »in a halfway solidarity form«
In the short and medium term, however, the industry must also find a replacement in the fossil sector.
In order to “spread the increased costs of gas procurement over as many shoulders as possible”, the BDEW boss again campaigned for a pay-as-you-go system.
Andreae said on Deutschlandfunk that this would offer the opportunity "to pass on the costs in a halfway solidarity manner".
In addition, price increases for consumers could be stretched out over time so that they didn't turn out to be »guillotine-like«.
How such a levy can be specifically designed has yet to be clarified in detail.
With a view to the "protective shield" planned by the federal government for ailing energy companies, she said that gas importers must be supported so that the entire supply chain does not run into problems.
Many municipal utilities that supplied the people in the region depended on Uniper, for example.
The surcharge is about financial compensation for gas importers like Uniper, who are heavily burdened by the throttling of Russian gas supplies.
They have to buy expensive gas on the world market, but cannot pass on the higher costs to their customers because of existing contracts.
There was a levy procedure for the EEG levy to promote green electricity.
This levy on the electricity bill was abolished last Friday in order to relieve consumers.
apr/dpa
