Status: 03/17/2022 3:51 p.m
Electricity generation in Germany from renewable energies fell by almost eight percent in 2021. The most important source of energy was coal – and thus replaced the weakening wind power.
Despite efforts to protect the climate, most of the electricity fed into the grid in Germany in 2021 came from conventional energy sources. Unfavorable weather conditions ensured that coal replaced wind power as the most important energy source, as the Federal Statistical Office announced today in Wiesbaden.
Electricity production from conventional sources such as coal, natural gas or nuclear energy increased by 11.7 percent compared to the previous year and accounted for 57.6 percent of total production. The feed-in from renewable energies, on the other hand, fell by 7.6 percent and came to a good 42 percent. Only in May was the share of wind power, photovoltaics, biogas and hydropower higher.
Share of coal power at 30 percent
With an increase of almost a quarter, the climate-damaging electricity from coal-fired power plants recorded the highest increase compared to the previous year. The share of coal-fired power in the amount of electricity fed in was a good 30 percent – after 24.8 percent previously.
Around 60 percent of coal-fired electricity in Germany comes from lignite, which is considered particularly harmful to the climate, as the statisticians reported. The demand for lignite is then “largely covered by domestic production”, the demand for hard coal by imports.
According to the coalition agreement, Germany wants to phase out electricity production with coal by 2038 at the latest and ideally by 2030. According to the plans of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, the share of coal-fired power generation should fall to nine GW of lignite and eight GW of hard coal by 2030.
Wind power expansion is faltering
Then 80 percent of the electricity should come from renewable energies and the capacity of wind energy on land alone should be doubled. But the road to get there could be long. Because the expansion falters: one SWR-According to the evaluation, 2021 was one of the worst years in Germany since the turn of the millennium.
In addition, generation from renewable energies fluctuates. The wind turbines on land and at sea contributed less electricity last year because it was less windy in spring than the year before. Electricity from wind power only had a share of 21.5 percent. In 2020, at 25.2 percent, it was still the most important energy source in electricity production for the first time. The feed-in from photovoltaics also fell slightly to a share of 8.7 percent.
Proportion of natural gas decreased
The share of natural gas in electricity generation, which is currently the focus of particular attention due to the economic consequences of the Russian attack on Ukraine, was 12.6 percent in 2021 – after 13.7 percent in the previous year. According to the statisticians, it fell mainly in the third quarter due to significantly higher prices.
The electricity feed-in from nuclear power increased compared to 2020 to a share of 12.6 percent of the total amount of electricity fed into the grid. In 2020 it was 12.1 percent. “At the end of 2021, however, three of the six nuclear power plants that had been in operation until then were shut down as part of the phase-out of nuclear energy,” emphasized the Federal Office. Therefore, the proportion will decrease significantly.
In total, almost 518 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were fed into the grid last year. That was 2.6 percent more electricity than in the previous year, but 3.1 percent less than in the pre-corona year 2019.