Last year, wind power replaced coal as the most important energy source in electricity generation in Germany. Almost a third (31 percent) of the electricity generated in Germany came from wind power. The Federal Statistical Office announced this on Thursday.
Electricity feed-in from wind power reached a new high of 139.3 billion kilowatt hours in 2023. According to the Wiesbaden statisticians, 2023 was also the first year in which more electricity was fed in from renewable energies such as wind, water and sun than from conventional energy sources such as coal, natural gas and nuclear power in almost all months. The share of renewable energies reached a total of 251.8 billion kilowatt hours and a share of 56 percent of the total.
In 2023, the share of renewable energies will increase sharply
A total of 449.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were generated and fed into the grid in this country last year. In 2022, coal was still the most important energy source with a share of 33.2 percent of the amount of electricity fed in, while the share of wind power in electricity generation was significantly lower at 24 percent. However, despite its share of total generation falling to 26.1 percent last year, coal remained the second most important energy source for electricity generation in Germany.
In 2022, the share of renewable energies was 46.3 percent. The statisticians explained the fact that wind energy increased so significantly by the fact that there was plenty of wind and capacities were expanded. The quotas were also affected by the fact that the total amount of electricity generated fell – by 11.8 percent compared to the previous year. The reasons for this: demand in energy-intensive industries was lower due to the weak economy, and the amount of electricity imported from abroad rose significantly by 40.6 percent to 69.3 billion kilowatt hours.