Because less electricity was generated in Germany in the first half of the year, Germany imported significantly more. Nevertheless, the available amount of electricity decreased. The main source of energy was wind power.
After the last three nuclear power plants were shut down, the German economy recently produced significantly less electricity and therefore imported more. In the second quarter of this year, 7.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) more were imported than exported, as the Federal Statistical Office reported today. This corresponded almost exactly to the amount of electricity from the three German nuclear power plants in the second quarter of 2022 (7.3 billion kWh).
Before the nuclear power plant was switched off on April 15, 2023, however, there was still a significant export surplus. Therefore, German electricity exports (32.6 billion kWh) exceeded electricity imports (30.6 billion kWh) in total in the first half of 2023. Most of the imports came from the Netherlands and France, which have significantly ramped up their production of nuclear power again.
Decrease in the amount of electricity available in Germany
In the first half of the year, 233.9 billion kWh of electricity were generated and fed into Germany, according to the statisticians. That was 11.4 percent less than in the first half of last year. However, due to higher imports (+30.8 percent) and lower exports (-18.1 percent), the total amount of electricity available in the German grid only fell by 6.9 percent.
The Federal Statistical Office explained that the reasons for the decline were savings efforts due to high energy prices and lower demand due to the economic slowdown. This applies above all to energy-intensive branches of industry such as the chemical and metal industries, which, according to the Wiesbaden authority, require three quarters of industrial energy consumption.
Wind power is the most important energy source in power generation
Despite a year-on-year drop in production of 2.2 percent, most of the electricity in Germany was generated from renewable energy sources. After all renewables had reached a share of 48.4 percent a year ago, they now came to 53.4 percent.
Wind power was by far the most important source at 28.6 percent of total production, although the amount produced here also fell by 1.2 percent. The electricity feed-in from photovoltaics fell by 5.9 percent, but their share of the total feed-in increased slightly to 11.9 percent. According to the statisticians, the decline in feed-in from photovoltaics can be explained by the unusually large number of hours of sunshine in the first quarter of 2022.
Meanwhile, the share of climate-damaging coal electricity fell by almost a quarter and reduced its share from 31.3 percent to 27.1 percent. In the first half of last year, coal was still the most important energy source in power generation. In contrast, the importance of gas-fired power plants increased, their share growing from 11.9 to 13.9 percent.