Renewables made up almost 65% of net power production in Germany last week

“These figures show that the target of 65% … renewable energy for 2030 is technically possible,” said Bruno Burger, who manages energy charts at solar research institute Fraunhofer ISE, which collated the figures. “The goal must be to keep this share for a whole calendar year.”

Bumper wind resources displaced fossil fuel and nuclear generation, with Burger adding: “Hard coal and gas power plants run at night only with minimum power, with nuclear power plants being also deactivated at night during the week.”

Lignite coal contributed an average of 24% of Germany’s electricity generation last year but supplied just 12% last week, with lignite power plants operated variably with a capacity of between 4.5 GW and 15.5 GW.

This year has seen marked gains for renewable generation in Germany, with February seeing solar power contributing 20% more than it did it February 2018 and onshore (36%) and offshore wind (26%) also recording rises.

In the first ten weeks of the year, the share of renewables in net power generation totaled 43.3%, according to Fraunhofer ISE. For the past year, the institution’s energy charts calculated a 40.4% contribution. The data compilers said solar broke the 6% net generation benchmark earlier than ever this year, achieving that milestone in mid-February.