Initial estimates by the Federal Association of Energy and Water (BDEW), or Bundesverbandes der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft, reveal that renewable energies covered 67.9 billion kWh, or a quarter of Germanys electricity needs in the first six months of 2012, compared to 56.4 billion kWh in 2011, or 21 percent. As such, their contribution has exceeded the 25 percent mark, for the first time.
The association goes on to say that with a share of 9.2 percent (2011: 7.7 percent), wind energy is still the most important renewable energy in Germany, followed by biomass with a share of 5.7 percent (2011: 5.3 percent). Having increased 47 percent from the first six months of 2011, photovoltaics contribution has grown from 3.6 to 5.3 percent. Meanwhile, representing no increase on last year, the share of renewable electricity from waste incineration plants and other renewable energies remained at 0.9 percent.
On July 5, Germanys photovoltaic industry association, BSW Solar reported that in the first half of the year, around 14.7 billion kWh of electricity were said to have been produced from 1.2 million photovoltaic systems. It added that the figures represent growth of 50 percent on the same period in 2011. "Thus photovoltaics develops itself as the driver of energy change in Germany," stated CEO Carsten Körnig at the time. Meanwhile, in May, it was found that photovoltaics accounted for around ten percent of Germanys energy supply, according to the BDEW.
Overall, the BDEW says Germanys power consumption has decreased in the same period. Down 1.4 percent on the previous year, power consumption stood at 261.5 billion kWh. This has been attributed to the lower production in the electricity intensive industries of iron and steel generation, base chemicals and paper.
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
Becky Beetz
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.