In 2023, the expansion of renewable energies in no other federal state has been pushed forward as strongly as in Bavaria. This emerges from data from the Federal Network Agency. In Bavaria, plants with a total output of around 3,682 megawatts were built – net, i.e. after deducting decommissioned plants. This corresponds to a good fifth of the total value for Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia (2,586 megawatts), Baden-Württemberg (1,946 MW) and Lower Saxony (1,911 MW) followed at a clear distance.
Almost 99 percent of the expansion in Bavaria came from new solar systems. However, wind power hardly played a role in the state with a net increase of 23.4 megawatts. To put it into perspective: Last year, Schleswig-Holstein was the leader in the expansion of wind energy with 1,109 megawatts net, followed by Lower Saxony (483.1 MW) and North Rhine-Westphalia (412.9 MW). Bavaria only came twelfth in a nationwide comparison of wind power expansion.
If you look at the inventory of solar, wind and biomass systems, Bavaria is once again ahead. The state has 26,853 megawatts of renewable capacity. 83 percent of this comes from the almost 940,000 solar systems in the country. Wind power contributes almost 10 percent, biomass around 7 percent. Second place in the inventory is occupied by Lower Saxony, where, according to the Federal Network Agency, there are more than 6,300 wind turbines and therefore the most in Germany. The output from sun, wind and biomass adds up to around 21,729 megawatts. More than half (58 percent) of this comes from onshore wind turbines.
Renewable energies are intended to make Germany more independent of climate-damaging fossil energies such as coal and gas. The federal government’s goal is: by 2030, 80 percent of electricity should come from renewables. Last year, according to the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, it was more than half for the first time.
Bavaria is well ahead in absolute terms in the overall installed capacity. If you look at the values in relation to the state’s area or population, the Free State only ends up in the middle of the field in a national comparison.